No Call Number: The Temple of Heaven and Behai Park

Today we wanted to go to the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, two more “can't miss” sights of Beijing. I think that four days is an impossibly short time to stay here, because as you can see, we didn't make it to the summer palace. I see tour groups powering through the sites; they can see the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City in one day, but they miss all the little side buildings, which are less crowded and a pleasure to visit. We didn't see everything, but I'm glad we took the time to peruse the sites we did visit.

Anyways, we went to the Temple of Heaven in the morning. It's about 5km away, so we took a cab. Beijing has terrible traffic. It took us about 20 minutes to get there. We entered through the South gate and saw the main ceremonial pavilion, which included a giant green oven where they burned shaved calves for ceremonies. All the big structures were on the central axis, just like in the Forbidden City. We walked down this axis from the pavilion to the Imperial Vault of Heaven, where we saw imperial ancestral tablets. The Emperor would walk from this shrine up this ceremonial path to the main temple, where he would perform the ceremony. We decided to let the crowds follow the Emperor, while we ducked out and headed left, towards the Palace of Abstinence. We were not sorry! There was an additional 20 rmb entrance fee (about 3 dollars) for the two of us, and apparently that kept almost everyone out. It was almost our private palace! This is where the Emperor used to fast in preparation for the ceremony. There was a “pillarless hall” that contained portraits of the later emperors and these huge structures that held the tablets. We saw a bell tower which would ring when the emperor entered and left the fasting palace.

We returned to the main axis, where we saw the awe inspiring Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, which was where the Emperor performed this ceremony to heaven. We saw an exhibit on the ceremony, which spelled out the intricate and precise progression of events required to appease the gods. We followed a covered walkway to the kitchen and butchery, where the calf was prepared for the slaughter. At this point, Bobby discovered that we had missed the music hall, which was all the way across the park. Fortified with cream filled saltines (they're actually pretty good), we headed back across the park, which was about 1.5km. It was worth the walk. The music hall was incredible and also not crowded. There were displays of several traditional Chinese instruments, all of which had a large model in the center that we could try. There were also pictures of the ceremonies and dance costumes. The entire compound, which resembles a palace, housed the musicians and dancers who spent their days rehearsing for the ceremony.

We grabbed another cab back to our hotel (cabs are like $2 here), where we ascertained that a trip to the summer palace was unfeasible. Instead, we grabbed some dumplings at a wonderful shop around the corner, where (according to the sign on the wall) the owner's family used to make dumplings for the Emperor. On the way back, we checked out some ruins that turned out to be from the East Wall of Imperial Beijing.

We decided to visit Behai and Jinshan park instead. Behai Park is where Kubla Khan set up his palace. It has a huge lake with an island in the middle made from the earth excavated for the lake. The island had a Temple of Jade Flowers and, further up, a white dagoba that was built for a Dalai Lama's visit. We had a nice view from the temple, but I wanted to see the view from Jinshan park before it got dark. We cut our visit short and walked back across the lily filled lake and out of the gate. Jinshan park was a leisure ground for the imperial family. It has a huge hill in the middle created from the earth excavated from the palace moat, with a couple of pagodas on top. We saw the spot where an emperor hung himself (there was a peasant rebellion, he killed his wife and some of his concubines and sisters, travelled to Jinshan park with a eunuch, and wrote his suicide note in blood before he hung himself). We hoofed it to the top for an unparalleled view of the Forbidden City right at dusk. On the other side of the hill, I could see the old North Gate. The old South Gate is at the bottom of Tiananmen Square. The square is all lit up at night, and we saw some of it from the hill.

We walked back to our hotel, where we had ½ hour before we left for dinner. We had made reservations at a place called Huang Ting, a fancy Cantonese restaurant that was highly recommended. The interior was constructed entirely from bricks from old hutongs. The food was incredible—we had one last taste of Peking Duck and the chef's specialty, crab over asparagus.

I was sorry to leave, but I imagine we'll visit China again in our lifetime. I hope so.