Beijing - Temple of Heaven

Dave and I have been diligently working our “bucket lists” of things to do and places to go before we leave Asia. This past year we’d begun feeling a greater sense of urgency to tackle one item - a trip to Beijing.  Dave and I visited Beijing in 2005, but Lydia’s never been – we couldn’t fathom living in this part of the world for almost four years and her miss seeing places like the Great Wall.

The perfect opportunity came along when our good friends, the Staley family, decided to make a trip to China and Hong Kong.  Lydia’s a good sport with visiting cultural/historical places, but we thought it would be a lot more fun for her with friends.  After having done the trip, there’s no doubt in my mind that she not only enjoyed the more, but she may actually remember the experience better.

First on our itinerary was the Temple of Heaven – a complex of buildings constructed in the 1400s where emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties visited to pray for a good harvest.  The Temple grounds (a massive one square mile area) are a gathering place for local Beijing people to do their morning exercise, to play games, dance in groups, and even sing.  What is more remarkable than the people doing these activities in public is that none of them seemed the least bit self-conscious about it.

Lydia and Mia jumped (literally) into the dancing:

We all took a stab at a kick-the-feather-thingy game (not sure what it’s called – it’s a bit like hacky sack, but with a “birdie” made of feathers): 

The girls did some ribbon dancing:

…and some cartwheels (Lydia was thrilled to see some grass – I think our friends may have thought she was a little crazy at the time):

In between all of these fun activities, we visited various buildings and courtyards.  Our fabulous guide, Vivie, did a great job sharing the history and symbolism of the Temple – we felt informed without being overwhelmed (which could happen easily since it seems that everything in China has some symbolic significance).  Here's our group with the main Temple of Heaven structure behind us and another part of the complex:

Just to demonstrate that I was listening to our guide, I’ll tell you that round shapes symbolize heaven; squares and rectangles represent the Earth.

After that, we headed to the Panjianyuan Market, which is only open on weekends.  All kinds of "treasures" were being sold.  This was definitely a place where haggling – and haggling dramatically – was expected. When our friend Tim was negotiating for something, the woman selling the item kept making throat slitting gestures.  Our guide later told us that the woman was saying that she’d have to slit her throat if she took his offer (which she eventually did - take the offer, that is, not slit her throat).

We wrapped up the day with the activity the kids probably enjoyed most – swimming in the hotel pool (though they weren’t particularly fond of the hotel’s requirement that they wear swimming caps).   A great first day!