After a month in Yangshuo, we headed to Beijing for a few days of vacation. I will admit that I was going to skip visiting Beijing and The Great Wall. However, my family informed me that we were going. And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Beijing felt less chaotic and had more parks and trees than I had imagined.
Our first stop was the Forbidden City (15th century, Ming Dynasty).
The emperor was carried in a sedan-chair over the marble ramp above. The 123 ton stone was pulled over 70 km on an ice road constructed during winter.
Above is Tiananmen Square. Our guide, who was too young to remember 1989, said that he knew of the protests but that they never speak of it. So we watched videos to fill the kids in on the details that he didn’t cover (all of them).
When Matthew sent the above photo my way, he remarked that he was sad it was our last photo with a random Asian tourist. Now that we are in Romania, no one wants our picture.
The Temple of Heaven (1420) was visited by Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for a good harvest.
Just like every other park we visited in China, the one surrounding the Temple of Heaven was full of elderly playing games, exercising, dancing and singing. From what we witnessed, China is the best country to be elderly, at least if you live near a park.
Above is a short clip of a group singing in the park surrounding the Temple of Heaven.
