In the morning, we spent two hours at the Temple of Heaven.
The main complexes within the Temple of Heaven are the various temples and sites where the Emperors would come annually to offer sacrifices on behalf of their subjects for a good harvest.
This building is the main temple which was built without using a single nail. The roof is supported by something like 30 free-standing pillars.
Everything is incredibly symbolic in Chinese architecture including the color of the tiles used on the roofs. The blue was used because it represents heaven.
So this picture was taken only two weeks ago but I already feel like my belly has doubled in girth in that amount of time. I should really take some more photos.
Anyway, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests includes other buildings and a few beautiful carvings. Of course, there's never a dragon far away when you're in China.
And here are the many fire pits where the sacrifices were burnt. As David says, the Chinese are really Jewish....they just don't know it. There are a remarkable number of similarities between traditional Chinese beliefs and the laws and ordinances practiced under the Law of Moses.
More dragons. This was near the altar, where the animals were sacrificed.
The Temple of Heaven has three main components: the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the circular mound altar. We only entered the first complex because you have to pay to get into each of them. After visiting the first complex with our tour group, we were allowed to wander through the rest of the place, which is just a really large park where many (mostly retired) Chinese come to exercise, play cards, or hang out.
We even passed this large group of singers which had congregated in the middle of the park and were having a great time singing Chinese songs. They even had a keyboard player and several conductors to lead them all.
The park also had a lovely rose garden which fortunately still had many roses in bloom.
This is really just hundreds of individual potted plants set up along the stairs.After the Temple of Heaven, we were taken to a Silk Quilt Factory where we learned all about how silkworms are raised and how the silk (from their cocoons) is used to make clothing and quilts. A single thread of silk used to produce cloth and clothing is taken from about 10 cocoons woven together. But, when two silkworms build a cocoon together (which happens more frequently than I imagined), the threads become so intertwined that they cannot be separated to form a single strand. Instead, the cocoon is opened and stretched out in layers to form a soft batting. (Silk is amazingly stretchy.)
David and I were both big fans of this silk bed set. Of course, we weren't big enough fans to spend the hundreds of dollars to purchase it. We did, however, buy an adorable set of red silk pajamas for our baby.
After the Silk Quilt Factory and lunch (at an unimpressive Mongolian restaurant), we drove further out of Beijing to visit the Summer Palace. On our way, we drove past the Olympic stadium. This was the best photo I was able to snap from the bus as we drove by. The water cube is right next to it.
The Summer Palace was, as its name suggests, the summer residence of the emperors and includes this rather large man-made lake and has lots of trees and shade, which David greatly appreciated.
There's even a marble boat......which just seems a little counter-productive if you ask me.
After walking halfway around the lake, under a mile-long corridor, we rode one of the boats back to the entrance of the palace.
It was a beautiful area, but three days under the hot China sun and six months of pregnancy finally caught up with me and I was simply exhausted. I was ready for a break.The tour bus then took us to a market complex full of designer knock-offs and Chinese products where we were given some time to shop around. While most people high-tailed it to the basement to buy knock-off Coach bags and Nikes, David and I spent most of our time on the top floor bartering for Chinese items. We've really wanted to buy a huge fan and we had scoured most of Korea and Taiwan looking for one with no success. We found one woman who had several big fans for sale and we were able to talk her into cutting the price in half. (Of course, they start the prices extremely high anyway.) But she also gave me a little stuffed tiger because our baby will be born in the year of the tiger which I didn't even realize but which is really awesome because I love cats. David also bought a traditional calligraphy set with brushes, ink, and paper in order to practice writing his Chinese characters. Then, to kill time, we ate some delicious ice cream at Coldstone.
After shopping, we were taken back to our hotel and given free time. By this time, it was nearly 7pm and David and I were so beat that we just decided to stay in our hotel, pack, and watch a little TV. It's so lovely to just lay in bed.
The next morning, we ate breakfast, checked out of our hotel and were driven back to the airport. It took us nearly an hour to get through immigration (apparently, it's harder to leave the country than to enter it) and then boarded our plane which then promptly sat on the tarmac for an hour for no apparent reason.
Before we left, however, David and I took a photo with our tour guide, Bibo. She was a fantastic guide and had some very fascinating things to say which I'd like to talk about in another post. (And I'd especially like David to talk about his impressions of China and his interactions with the Chinese since he, you know, actually talked to them.)If I haven't said it already, China was amazing and I kinda fell in love with the place. Which is a very good thing, I suppose, since David likes to tell me that there's a very good chance we'll live there someday. And from what I've seen of Beijing, at least, I don't think I'd mind living there at all. I guess I'd better go learn a little more Chinese than just "I love you," "I'm tired" and "good." Thankfully, I've got a good teacher.
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