Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Park - Part 2

 

We did found some courtyard what was opened to the public at the Temple of Heaven Park. Here is one of them. It's free to enter, and compared to the temple area, it's a pretty intimate area. You just cross this beautiful marble bridge to enter.

Inside, it reminded me of those Japanese temple too. A giant bell to one side always being labeled 'National Treasure' in Japan, lol. The red lantern is pretty Japanese to me too. I gotta keep reminding myself that the OG is China and NOT Japan! Now I understand why one of my father's friend always say that Japan stole all their culture from China, lol. 

One of the temple in the courtyard.

There are also some marble path leading up to another hall.

I think this one is already a different part of the park..... After so many buildings, you kinda get confused...

Anyway, here is a nice shot of the red/gold door, wth the lovely door sign on top, and blue and green ceiling/roof decoration. They maintain everything so well here! I can't imagine things looking this new in my hometown of Penang! 

One of the worship hall that was off limit. 

More drawing and info about paddy.

And lastly, I took a photo of this guy. He is reminder to you that you have to abstinence from meat, alcohol, drugs etc for 3 days before you could perform your heavenly duty. Hmmmm. Hence the traditional of going vegetarian before a religious day so that one could go and pray to the gods. This is still practised pretty much by certain Chinese, especially in Taiwan and South East Asia.

Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Park - Part 1

 

Temple of Heaven can be completed in maybe 2 hours for the main buildings, but if you want to explore the parks as well, do cater to additional time! I think we were there for more than half a day! That is why it's always a good idea to bring food with you when you are travelling. You could just eat and drink whenever you feel like it without worrying about not finding anything, or worrying about the pricing at the place. The most amazing thing about the park was, how huge and green it was! I absolutely love it! I came to Beijing expecting to be stressed and pushed by crowds of rude people. What I found instead were spaces that exist without people if you wander just a little off from the crowd. Above is one example of greenery that is so beautiful and luxe, yet without anyone in sight.  

Walking from the temple area towards the park, the path was almost empty. It wasn't hot, and we didn't minded the walk at all. We love quiet places, and so much nature on the right, while historical structure on our left. Blue skies, and birds singing in the morning. What a lovely walk!

Looking up at the walls, I saw lovely emerald looking tiles of dragons. The back drop of the tree branches also blend into this photo, along with a perfect blue sky! Man I felt so lucky walking here!

It was a super long walk just to get to the other side. Above is actually one of the path that branches out. We didn't walk in, but I thought the pine looking trees in front looked so cool! Almost like we were hiking at some mountain area! This looked more like a country side road instead of the heavily populated capital of China!

Soon a different type of structure was in sight. Even then, it was pretty quiet here.

Although this wasn't a touristy area, the building was still beautiful, huge, and well maintained. 

Some of the area was closed off. I think this was the musical hall I wanted to visit. It was sadly closed. 

I wasn't disappointed long. How can you be sad in this beautiful surrounding? Another green path of trees at the next stretch of the park. I love it here. there are also squirrels and birds around. Most people were walking on the stone path where the lanterns are. You could walk on to the grass and into the tress areas if you want too. I just love looking at these photos to remind myself what a wonderful day I had there.

Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Circular Mount Altar - Part 2

 

Continue on about the heavenly altar, here is a view of it when you walked in via one of the heavenly gate. As you can see, it isn't really a building at all, just a kinda of stage for you to go up and talk to the heavens. 

Apart from the main inner circular altar, surround it are also some outer circles, and you can find these iron/steel basket that are used to burn offerings to heaven. If you're a Chinese, you should be pretty much familiar with how these are use.

Walking about the area, you will also see all these beautiful marble carvings on the surrounding border. Truly heavenly in nature!

Looking up, the drainage system of the altar here is same as those found in the Forbidden City, dragon heads adorn each water outlet. I read an article just a few days back about how after so many years, these drainage are still working as designed to protect the Forbidden City from flooding during a heavy rain fall. 

Here is a wider angle view from the altar looking down towards the gates.

A self of me, and behind me, a different red gate :)  I wonder where those gates lead too.....

Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Circular Mount Altar - Part 1

 

The next key area on my list to visit at the Temple of Heaven was this cool portal! I called it a portal cause it looked so alien. Surely it was a communication portal to another realm? This is the Circular Mount Altar. If you've watched Mulan the cartoon (yes all my reference of China is from a Disney cartoon), you will see how the Emperor stood on top of this altar to get his mandate from heaven. It is just so cool. This photo is also cool, cause the sun was just shinning to beautifully there in the cloudless sky. Indeed it looked like something out of this world here!

To get to the altar, we exit the Temple of Heaven via those adorable red gates.

Here is a cooler look on the gate, and it's doors, and the horizon it held when you walk through them.

It was quite some distance to walk to, and the stone road is super straight, with cool metallic lanterns on the side. I thought only the Romans build straight roads. Ah, propaganda of the west and marketing.....

The altar kinda looked like those Chinese temple altar where you could burn offerings to the Gods, or to your ancestors. Only here, it is like a 100 times larger in concept.

Entering the altar ground itself with it's cool marble white gates of it's own.

A few steps up. It looked kinda flat, yet you still have to walk a bit up to reach the top of the portal. I guess it's pretty cool to stand in the middle of that in a raging thunderstorm! Oh man! I would love to see that! 

Lastly, another reference to Mulan, a cricket for good luck! Found this random single cricket, or is it a grasshopper? Found it at the found of the altar just slightly off the main circle area. I take it that it will bring me luck in China wherever I am :)  

Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Exhibition

 

Even at this temple and park area, there are exhibition hall that is first class! Exhibition hall provides more detailed information of a place we're visiting, along with historical photos and artefacts. It's a great way to learn about a place and imagine how life was like when this place was fully functional.

Yes China, thank you for meeting me here. For someone who is Chinese yet know nothing much about China, it was just such a strange feeling to be here learning about everything..... 

Detailed information of the formation of the Temple of Heaven and the commission of it being build.

The emperor that overseas the construction.

The original map of how the design of Temple of Heaven. I don't know about you, but I love looking at things like this. It's as close to time travelling as you could get, to be in touch with history. That the same piece of paper existing in two different time line..... Isn't that cool? It is to me anyway, and that is why I always go ga-ga over dinosaur anything!

Back to the history of China..... 

Remember that post I wrote about the jade in the National Museum? Well here it was talking about the treasures of the temple that came in different colours of jade (I think), and I was so fascinated by this! People in ancient China has so much class!!! ( I wonder if they also spit everywhere at that era.... )

A stone carved dragon pillar. Indeed fitting for heaven! You could feel the heavenly strength of this pillar just by looking at it!

Some Feng-Shui diagram? Or perhaps a compass? In the middle is definitely the 4 seasons, followed by the 12 months in a year. After that I am totally lost! But I guess they use this to tell when it's time to give God a call and send him some offerings? Ah, a calendar! That's what it is called!

I also love it that there is this random painting of a ride plant in the middle of the exhibition. Since it was so random, I actually went to read more about it. So before the Temple of Heaven was built, the land it stood on was paddy fields! Hence this tribute to the plants that had to make way in order for this grand structure could be built. I think that's so somehow so respectful to a crops! Kudos to China for preserving this painting to tell that part of the story. 

Beijing 2024 - Temple of Heaven (天坛) Main Building Area

After visiting the iconic temple in this glorious day, we headed to the opposite courtyard to see the main temple hall.

The space is still mind-blowing for me.

The door sign of the main temple hall. 

Again, we weren't allowed inside certain areas, but we could peep in.

Mainly it was just altar and worship tables. Pretty standard items for a Chinese ceremony.

With nothing much noteworthy, we headed out. Love these little gate entrance and exit. 

And from a far, you could see the tall skyscraper of modern Beijing..... It does feel surreal, to be standing here where it has always existed for generations, and living over there in the new world.....

Crowd building up as we were leaving.....

Yay! Another landmarked checked off in Beijing! Cordy is on a roll!