Temple of Heaven

We headed off to the Temple of Heaven after we completed most of our school work. We wanted an early start so we could be back to meet our new friends in the park at 4:00.


The Temple of Heaven was used to ask God for a good harvest. The emperor would come here and read the special tablets at certain times of the year.

This temple had a handful of main buildings, but the grounds surrounding the double walled temple were very large. In fact the area of the Temple of Heaven is four times that of the Forbidden City, or so my automatic guide told me.

The grounds surrounding the main buiding were full of very old juniper and cypress trees. Some were over five hundred years old! There were also a lot of people on the grounds just out enjoying the day. It was a picnic atmosphere. Some people were grouped together and dancing. Others were using a long outdoor corridor for singing in. And others seemed to be just out for a stroll.

We saw the main buildings of the temple, which of course were very ornately decorated. There were a lot of people out so it was difficult to get a good view of the inside of them. By this time we kind of feel like one building is similar to the others, and we actually enjoyed strolling through the grounds better.


We stopped and let the kids play with a tai chi racquet and ball that we got conned into buying. We listened to some music and singing. The weather was warm so it was perfect to just enjoy the day.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the subway and make our way to our nearby park where we were to meet our new friends. We were a bit late, but they were still there waiting for us. We played a lot of tag, and we taught them how to play SPUD. The kids loved tag, but always wanted me to join in the game, so between the walking and the game of tag, I really got my exercise today!

We headed home and finished our school work and then we went out for dinner. After looking through the menu, we decided to skip the beef hoof, toad, and grilled donkey meat. We were tempted by the frog, but the server thought it would be too spicy for us. We settled on a peanut chicken dish, shrimp and asparagus, deep fried pumpkin coated with egg yolk, and sechuan chicken. It was all very tasty and we walked home with full bellies and some left-overs. I thought I might have been losing some weight with all this walking, but perhaps I gained back what I might have lost during supper tonight!

CM