China Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Acrobats

Saturday morning, we went to Temple of Heaven. I had read that the best time to visit Temple of Heaven was weekend mornings as there would be lots of people exercising. It did not disappoint!

Group of musicians playing flute-like instruments.

There was some sort of race or walk going on. We saw the start of the it and took a few pictures of them. They took a few pictures of us as well.

I expected to see a lot of Tai Chi but what we mostly saw were groups like this one dancing to music and following an instructor.

Some people were exercising off the main pathways.

Strong older man doing push ups.

The exercise equipment is well utilized.

We saw quite a few groups where couples were dancing.

This group had on military-ish looking uniforms and were bopping away.

Close up of one of the dancers. The shirts said "Junzhi lv Army".

It was fun watching this group swirl and twirl.

We thought we heard gunshots and wondered if there were a shooting range. However, it was this man with his whip--boy was it loud!

Some more people out exercising.

This group was doing hip hop.

Tai Chi! This was the one group we saw doing tai chi. It looks really cool!

Lovely bridge.

It looked like these ladies were waiting for a photo shot of some sort.

Emily, Louise and Me at the Hall of Abstinence where the emperor would go to fast before offering sacrifices to the gods.

This tree looks like it belongs in the army!

Sampling of the interesting stonework we saw.

There was a model of the sights of Beijing. This shows the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park.

Fun doorway!

Emily, Me and Louise with the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It is an amazing building, built without nails!

A couple of shots of inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The building is circular, representing the sky and heavens.

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests as seen from the south (the direction from which the emperor would approach). They had a timeline of the ceremony the emperor would perform--it was very precise, ritualistic and symbolic.

Francy and Me with the Hall.

There were three gates: one of the side gates was for the emperor, one was for the helpers and the center gate was for the gods.

Wendy, Emily, Me and Louise with the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

A few shots of the Imperial Vault of Heaven

The Round Altar. I was amazed that people can stand on it, given its historical significance as a place of sacrifice.

View from the Round Altar to try to show the circles of the altars (representing the heavens) and the square of the base (representing the earth). As seen from above, the base of the park is a square, with a semicircle at the top. There is so much symbolism in the structures and park, including many uses of nine elements (to represent the heavens and the emperor, as the one who could intercede with the heavens on behalf of others). Very interesting!

Louise coming down from the Round Altar.

Me at the bottom of the Round Altar. The white marble is very beautiful.

Kitchen for Sacrifice where animals were prepared before being sacrificed.

View from the South Gate of the main structures at the Temple of Heaven. It's amazing that the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Imperial Vault of Heaven look to be the same height even though the former is much taller!

Wendy and I raced this little boy and his dad out of the park.

Me, Wendy and Louise leaving the Temple of Heaven.

We had a yummy lunch at the Brown Door before doing some shopping at the Pearl Market next door. I'm not a fan of haggling but Emily's friends told us about a few good stores where we got some good deals without haggling (this is a good model for stores when working with expats as it gets you lots of referrals!) These are a couple of our dishes from lunch.

Louise, Emily and I raced to a see an acrobatic show. It was amazing!

What a strong, flexible girl!

These men jumped through all sorts of hoops. Literally!

Video of jumps.

What a jump! (I'm pretty proud I was able to capture it on camera!)

It's amazing the balance and strength these girls had!

Pretty sure my neck doesn't do that!

These two men were incredibly strong. And both right handed (we could tell based on how they landed).

It was fun to watch them juggling hats.

Riding a unicycle upside down on a wire. Wow!

This always makes me nervous!

These girls were amazing on their bikes. In the bottom picture, I don't think I can even see the person who was pedaling the bike.

The final act was motorcycles in a steel cage. There was one person in there initially, then two, then three, then five and finally eight! WOW! It was pretty crazy!

Curtain call at the end. We had seats in the second row--they were excellent (and much cheaper than the seats a few rows back).

We ate dinner at the same yummy restaurant close to our hotel where we had eaten after the Great Wall and the Olympic Village.

I managed to eat some of my food with chopsticks. This was quite the feat for me!