The Temple of Heaven.

Sorry readers, but the motivation to write at length about my experiences and visits to tourist attractions around Beijing is waning towards not wanting to do it at all. I’m just so overwhelmed with the backlog of yet-to-write entries I have accumulated that, at this point, I just want to ‘catch-up’, finish up with December’s highlights, and post the pictures. It takes a considerable amount of my time and energy in writing these entries, so much so that it’s taking time away for more rewarding ventures such as reading and learning.

I went out and bought ‘JACK: Straight from the Gut’ for insights into how Jack Welch successfully managed and operated one of America’s biggest corporations, General Electric, and ‘The Divine Comedy of Dante’s Inferno’ to find out what Auguste Rodin found so inspiring that he based many of his sculptures on. I didn’t buy these books to place them on my bookshelf and admire them from afar.

For those of you who never write comments on my blog entries (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), perhaps now is a good time to start commenting. Here I am writing away like a monkey at a typewriter for the benefit of all of you, a way to inform you all of my new life in this strange, foreign city, but I get nothing much back from it. Please lift a finger and type even a few keystrokes to let me know that you’re still reading, otherwise, I just may stop writing entirely to pursue something that actually generates more satisfaction. For those of you who ARE reading AND leaving comments, THANK YOU! VIELEN DANK! ARIGATO! XIEXIE! I shall reward you by adding a link to your blog on my blog.


Without further ado, here is what I have to say about The Temple of Heaven:


It’s the symbol of China. You see these stylised concentric rings of the temple’s roof-lines everywhere on brochures, tourist maps, and integrated in corporate logos of businesses in China. The admission to get into the Temple of Heaven, or Tian Tan as it is called in Pin Yin, was only about 10 RMB or so (if my memory serves me right). It was a cold day when Kim and I set out to visit this place, but the sun was out to give the illusion that it wasn’t as cold as it seemed. There were groups of musicians along the walkway playing traditional Chinese instruments which I’ve never seen or heard the sounds of before.


The illusion of the warmth of the day was accentuated with the bright orange colours painted on the walls of the archway leading to Tian Tan. Walking through the archway revealed what is perhaps the Ming and Qing dynasty’s most admired works of architecture. It was simply breath-takingly astounding! To think that a structure like this could be constructed without the aid of computers to do the mathematical calculations and 3D rendering is amazing.

Manicured lawns and gardens surrounded the Temple of Heaven, along with the Animal Sacrifice platform and an ‘Echo Wall’ which surrounded the ‘House of Heavenly Lord’.

Sadly, the glory years of the dynastic periods are over, replaced by something obtrude and stifling to the people of the nation for years following.