Exploring Beijing

In view of an extended May Day break and with the in-laws in town, we took the opportunity to see alittle more of Beijing. This meant battling our way through a crowded Temple of Heaven (天坛) and roaming our favourite 798 Art District.

Visited by Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for their annual ceremonies to pray for good harvest, the Temple of Heaven is supposedly one of the must-sees for first timers in Beijing. According to one friend, it was better than visiting Summer Palace! As such, I was looking forward to uncovering more of Chinese history even though the thought of the crowds post Forbidden Palace experience made me a tad apprehensive. Thankfully, it wasn't as crowded as I feared and we actually enjoyed the slow stroll towards the main temple. Once again, am always amazed by the scale of the various attractions in China. It took us at least 45 minutes to walk past 3 gateways, at least 2 gardens in addition to large open spaces before we could see what we came to see.

Plodding our way towards the Temple of Heaven (天坛):

Journey towards the Heavenly Temple: at one of the large open spaces (bottom-left picture), it is so well designed that one could stand in the centre, whisper and still  be heard. Alas, I never got to validate this as it was packed with people AND so noisy, I wouldn't be able to tell.

IntroducingTHE highlight...

Adding a few more photos to the memory bank...

As we were walking, realised the Chinese (especially the older folks) relish simple pleasures be it gathering to play games or just chilling in the park. And yes, they like dancing in open spaces too as seen in the following video. Watch out for the little toddler joining in very enthusiastically:


Source: Uploaded by icewolf1911

After our first hurried visit to 798 Art District, we were happy to return for a more languid stroll this time round:

Love the free standing sculptures that litter the sidewalk...

More quirky art...

With chill out side alleys and a disused railway track...think 798 makes a great pre-wedding shoot location...

Stumbled upon a gallery where we loved the artist's quirky humour: pandas engaging in martial arts

Nourishment at one of my preferred 茶餐厅, Tai Hing (太兴):

Value for money dining [top-left, clockwise]: roasted meats platter which was not too bad, stir fried vermicelli with crab roe, ice cream with buttered toast (my current obsession) and 3-egg veggie.

As you can tell, it was an activity packed weekend just the way Ee likes it. =)