The Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City are all located close to each other in central Beijing so it made sense to visit all these sights on the same day.
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| Temple of Heaven |
(Unfortunately, my digital camera had major battery issues in the middle of our trip. This was many years ago when digital camera technology was still not very advanced and a fully charged battery didn't last very long, especially when it was very cold. While I did bring my charger, I didn't have a plug adapter so I had to borrow someone else's. If they were using it, I couldn't charge my camera. And I think that's what happened on my third and fourth days. While our third day was mostly a free day so I didn't miss out on too many photo ops, our fourth day was quite packed and it kinda sucked that I didn't have a working camera. I ended up buying a disposable camera and I later converted the negatives into digital copies which are what you see in this post. As such, the quality of these photos isn't good.)
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| Entrance of the Temple of Heaven |
Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. According to wikipedia, "the complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a good harvest." As such, the largest building at the temple is aptly called the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.
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| Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests |
Some other interesting structures include the Circular Mound Altar...
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| Circular Mound Altar |
...and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. China Highlights provides a lot of very interesting information about these altars and structures so you might want to give this link a quick read.
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| Imperial Vault of Heaven |
There's also a walkway at the center of the temple from the main gate to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. I remember our tour guide telling us that walking within that lane would bring good fortune. I think I stepped out of bounds at some point but I don't think I jinxed myself haha.
Another point of interest are the Seven Star Stones. I've read online that these stones are meant to symbolize the seven peaks of Mount Tai. There are actually eight stones there now; one was added after the first seven but its original name was not changed.
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| Seven Star Stones |
After our visit to the Temple of Heaven, we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Many people know about Tiananmen Square because of the infamous massacre that happened in 1989. The square sits right in front of the main gate of the Forbidden City. I didn't take any photos of the square itself but I do remember it was terribly cold that day. I think it was "only" zero degrees Celsius but it was extremely windy. Since the square was a wide open space, we could definitely feel the full effects of the wind chill factor and that made the cold even more biting.
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| Forbidden City |
The Forbidden City is said to be the best-preserved imperial palace in China. It supposedly got its name because ordinary people were not allowed to enter. However, according to wikipedia, there seems to have been some confusion in the translation; in English, it's supposed to mean "the place where Celestial Emperor lives" instead of Forbidden.
There's a huge and interesting rock formation in the Imperial Gardens in the Forbidden City. Practically every visitor was having their photo taken here so I did too haha.
In the late afternoon, we boarded an overnight train that would take us from Beijing to Xi'an.
Next post: Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors
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