Beijing, the first day part one

When we walked out of our hotel the first morning we were greeted by salespeople. These salesmen were soon known to our group as the "One Dolla" guys. The prices for various souveniers started at $10 for hats and shirts, $5 for postcards. As we walked to the bus the prices dropped. By the time we reached the bus everything was $1. We encountered these people EVERYWHERE!

After boarding the bus we started on our way to our first tour stop of the day: Temple of Heaven. I don't think there was a single person on our bus that wasn't staring out the window or taking pictures! The streets of Beijing are a mixture of old and new. The cars and people are everwhere, and traffic rules are mere suggestions. I am so glad I didn't have to drive anywhere!

Once we got to Temple of Heaven, we had to walk through Ti'an Tan park, also known as Temple of Heaven park. This is the gathering place for old and new every morning for daily exercise. The Chinese seem to feel that exercise and games go hand in hand, so there were many different activities going on: Card games, ring toss, Tai Chi, kite flying and a strange, almost Beany bag type game using a badminton birdie type toy.

We made it to the the gate for the Temple of Heaven. This huge complex has more temple buildings than we could visit in the short time we were there. But we hit the big ones, The Temple of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for good harvest looked very much like the architecture we see here on Okinawa. The Chinese influence was amazing.

Lili, our guide, explained the gates for us. There are three doors in each gate. The left and the right were for imperial staff,cabinet members and for the emperor (I dont remember which got right and which got left) But the center door was only for Spirits.

We learned about the Heavenly Center Stone. If you stood upon this stone, your normal voice was supposed to be louder, therefore the spirits can hear your wishes better. All the kids wanted was for the bus to appear and a chance to rest!

We also visited the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The wall surrounding this temple has a special quality, giving it it's name, Echo Wall. If it is quiet, you can talk to the wall and your voice will echo around the entire wall, allowing the spirits to hear you. It didn't work for us.... too many people saying too many different things.

We left the Temple of Heaven area and were greeted by a throng of peddlars. They even hit up our tour guides! We passed on the parasols, but did buy a couple of folding straw hats for the kids.

Next stop, the Hutong district and Lunch! Are you tired yet?