Day 7: Temple of Heaven 天坛

After the hearty meal at Hai Wan Ju, we asked Xiao Yang to drive us to Temple of Heaven. It was a favour by then as I was fully aware that RMB 600 was only inclusive of an 8-hour drive, not exactly a 'full-day drive' as promised by the lady we met that morning. But I acted blur anyway and requested to be driven to Temple of Heaven.

We reached our destination at 3.45pm. It was kinda late as the three major attractions at the place close at 5.30pm, but we would not have anything constructive to do either if we had gone back to the hotel.

We started walking from the North Gate (北门) as it was the nearest to the Hall of Prayer (祈年殿).

 Dance of Spring

 For some reason, the ang mohs seem to be fascinated by locals dancing in the park. Whenever I come across a page on books or the internet that highly recommends visitors to go watch the locals doing their stuff at the park, I can be almost always sure that it must be an ang moh who writes that. Locals practising their taiji or some healthy dance are not uncommon in Singapore or Malaysia so I wasn't too impressed.

 Hall of Prayer

We were only too glad to find a spot that was absent of crowds. We were so excited we quickly snapped pictures of us and the Hall of Prayer.

A local tourist group walked past and the tourists also wanted to take pictures at this spot. They were stopped by their tourguide who kept repeating that this was the sideview. The actual view was on the other side.

Some info I rip off the net:

The Hall of Prayer for a Good Harvest was first built in 1420. It was determined that this was the exact point where heaven and earth met. The hall was the focus of prayers for fruitful spring harvests.

It was rebuilt in 1545 into a triple-eaved structure that glistened with blue, yellow, and green glazed tiles. This chromatic scheme symbolized, in turn, heaven, earth, and the mortal world. Qing Emperor Qianlong replaced the tiles with the present azure roofing, to symbolize sky.

The Hall of Prayer is a very beautiful structure. It was through the Hall of Prayer that I realised The Forbidden City would have been magnificent and awe-inspiring had it been as vibrantly coloured as the Hall of Prayer. And it must have been. What we had seen were the unreinstated, decolourised version of the Palace. The emperors, empresses and concubines would not have lived in such a rundown dingy-looking palace.

 Ticketing info: RMB 20 per pax (inclusive of the three major attractions)

In abundance were the greens and beautiful assortment of flora. Would you believe that the above area was totally covered with carpet grass? Very very green and very very beautiful.

 Purple lavender is not limited to just Korea.

In the Imperial Garden at The Forbidden City, we have the Couple Tree (夫妻树). In the Temple of Heaven, there is the Brothers Tree (兄弟树).

The elder brother refers to Bo (柏), a thousand-year-old tree, while the younger brother, Huai (槐), a hundred-year-old tree. Huai grows from the centre of Bo and consequently, it forms an intriguing picture of a tree hugging another (柏抱槐）.

It was the result of a bird sowing the seed of Huai into a tree hole of Bo.

At 5pm, we were resting after the visit to the Hall of Prayer. While happily sitting, I overheard a tourguide telling her group of local tourists that the three attractions closed at 5.30pm!

We immediately rushed to the Echo Wall (回音壁) where Hall of the Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇) was at.

We were not impressed. Some people were trying to get their voice echoed by speaking while facing one end of the Wall, but perhaps due to the presence of too many people, echo was not evident.

It was at this place where we enquired the whereabout of a toilet, and amidst the fluster, the ticket-checker took our tickets without returning them to us!

Fortunately, I decided to ask for the same ticket-checker. Although she was not around by the time I asked, the other checkers communicated with the checker at the Round Altar and allowed us in without the tickets.

We could have left the place without entering the Round Altar should we decided to suffer in silence as we were not entirely sure if our tickets were taken by the checker by mistake. But the mindset of 'no harm asking' helped, even if Chinese Mainlanders are known for their brusque manners.

 The Round Altar 圆丘

Info from the net:

The Round Altar (Yuanqiu Tan or Yuanqiu), also known as the Circular Mound, was added to the temple complex in 1530. It’s an open altar erected on three round marble terraces, surrounded by two sets of walls. The outer square wall represents earth, while the inner circular wall represents heaven.

 View from the Round Altar as we exited from the other side

‘龙’

‘百善孝为先’

They wrote with a giant brush. Their 'ink' is just water.

Beautiful calligraphy!

We ended our tour by 5.45pm. Lots of sellers touting their ware ie. books with beautiful photographs of Beijing attractions, wooden structure of Temple of Heaven. My father bought a book from a guy who pestered him all the way from the Round Altar to almost the exit after he reduced his price to a ridiculously low figure.

After that, we took a cab back to the hotel. By then, we were bushed.