Temple of Heaven

According to UNESCO, who made the complex a World Heritage Site in 1998, The Temple of Heaven was described as "a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations..." as the "symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries."
Built between 1402-1406 the Temple served as the main place of worship for the Emperor, who was considered "The Son of Heaven" and as such administered on behalf of the Divine all worldly things.
Built for the purpose of praying for good harvests, twice a year the Emperor and his entourage would decamp from the Forbidden City to set up household within the complex. On pain of death no ordinary Chinese were allowed to witness either the procession or the hocus pocus afterwards.
In the time spent within the Temple, the royal household were required to abstain from eating meat or fish.
Why?
I have no idea.

Impressive as the Temple itself is, much of the fun of visiting takes place in the gardens surrounding it.

Its a gathering place for the good people of Beijing, and even though it was freezing on the Sunday we visited, they were out in force (ish).

The touching sight of the day came within earshot of the little device below.

A combination of Chinese/ pop/ballroom/classical music boomed (surprisingly loud) from the speakers.

Scattered, here and there were singles/couples/ groups dancing up a storm.

Some were in time with the music.

Some were in time with their own music in their heads.

All appeared to be enjoying themselves.

No one hawking anything or performing for money: just laughter and exercise.

No hint of self- consciousness or embarrassment.

All smiles.

Innocent and lovely.

That's it for China.

Next stop Jakarta in the wee hours of the morning.

Its cold in HK and about 25 degrees warmer in Indonesia.

Given my $3000/month flat has no heat that's a good thing.

I'll post pictures if I get a decent Internet connection or (more importantly) the time to get off a few pictures.

Love to all and stay warm wherever you are.

T

Great Wall of China with my folks

The two people below are the reason for the little respite I enjoyed last week. I really love my parents and my job is such that I don't see them as often as I'd like.
When we get together we have real fun.
Really good belly laughs.
The kind you delight in because they're an expression of sheer happiness and the wonder of being with people you feel a part of.
We visited the Mutianyu section of the Wall.
It takes about an hour and a half to drive from Beijing and we did it in the delightful indulgence of the hotel Audi A6.
Not the most economical of methods but what the hell, they ARE my parents and I didn't need much more than that for an excuse to splurge.

The wall was built, maintained and rebuilt between the 5th and 16th centuries. Archaeological surveys put its length north of 8,000 kms.
To be precise: 6200 kms of actual wall and the rest mounds, rivers, fortifications and trenches. Pretty amazing given Europeans were just mastering the art of mud hut construction and working their way up to stockades made of sharpened sticks.
There are arguments back and forth regarding which section is the most beautiful but the mountains at Mutianyu to me are pretty dramatic.

All the western comforts have been deployed to part sweaty foreigners from their money. In our case we were shivering foreigners as the temperature was hovering around freezing. Whereas the last time I went to the wall I used a creaky wooden ladder, here you get a very Nordic mode of transport.

As you can see the weather had taken a turn for the better and the sky was clear and blue.

Walking along the wall can be a pretty energetic endeavour.
Some of the climbs are almost vertical.

I think tough as it is going up, going down is scarier.

That's it for the Great Wall.

I got some great pictures at the Temple of Heaven on our last afternoon.

I'll post them as and when.

My holidays are over and I go to Jakarta on Wednesday.

I have a pretty tight itinerary but I'll do my best to get some pictures of that sprawling, chaotic city.

That's all for today, so go about your business.

T