Day 6 & 7 (Last) : Temple of Heaven in Beijing & Ancient Cultural Street of Tianjin

Finally the last post of our Beijing trip.  Sorry for dragging on for so long.  With all the dramas and happenings plus the season of festive, it is really hard to find time to finish them one shot.  

Anyway, last entry of our 7d/6n trip to Beijing was spent in Beijing itself and Tianjin.  On the next morning after we got back from Chengde (crazy cold place), we visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.  From where our bus dropped us off, we have to walk thru a park to get to the temple.  It was interesting walking thru the park for we get to see lots of activities in there!  Apparently one need to pay to get into the park and the locals usually pay a minimal annual fee for usage of the park.

There are lots of activities going on around in the park.  All sort of activities in fact.  Over here, this man was practicing Chinese calligraphy using a syringe!  Believe it.  Yes, those injection's syringe.  Filled it with water and spray the words onto the ground!  In outline ok.  Better than the old man who used a giant brush at the Summer Palace.

Plenty of exercise groups too.  Some doing taichi, some qigong, martial art, kungfu, aerobics, hip hop, some kind of exercise where they balance a ball on a racket as they moving about doing some stunts... you name it, they have it!

As my skin kinda gotten used to the mad cold in Chengde, Beijing kinda don't feel as cold as we first arrived anymore.  So I get to reduce the layers a little, wear this funky jacket and look like myself for once.  Lols..  The park is pretty nice right?  With weather like that, I can sit there whole day, all wrapped up and cozy, with a good book and a thermos full of coffee, read till the sun goes down. :p

Aunty practising some kungfu moves.  Everybody kungfu fighting... lalalalala....

The wind was rather strong once arrived at the temple and on again, another layer.  Lols...The Hercules me pretending to carry the temple!  What do you call a female hercules?  A Herculina? :p

For once, the husband posed for me!  Must quickly go buy lottery!

Up close and detail.  A window panel at the temple.  The Temple of Heaven was constructed from 1406-1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.  It is a complex of Taoist buildings which was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayers to Heaven for good harvest.  

The red doorway on the left is known as the 'Seventy-year Old Door (古稀門)' which is situated right outside the Hall of Annual Prayer.  Interesting eh?  Emperor Qianlong succeeded the throne at the age of 25 and reign for 60 years.  When he was young, he certainly had no problem walking up the 360m path to the temple.  However, when he was 70, it was difficult for him to walk the stretch.  Therefore the aged emperor was carried to this doorway on a sedan chair and walked a much shorter way towards the Hall of Annual Prayer.  To avoid his descendants being lazy, Qianlong set the rule of 70.  No one was allowed to walk through this door until they are 70!  Lols...

Head back to the bus after the temple and spotted a kid from our group having fun with this feather thingy at the carpark.  The Chinese loves to play this.  You can practically see them everywhere.  A little research moments ago told me that this feather thingy is known as the "shuttlecock feather kick toy".  Lols... what a name!  Look easy but not easy to play ok...

This photo is taken thru a hole in the rock while I stood at the other side of the rock.  Lols... So cute!  We were at this fengshui place within the palace vicinity.  After listening to all the tips they offered, we wondered around the estate to look see look see.

Me and mom, at the top one of the fort that used to guard the Forbidden Palace.  From up there, we get to see the railways down below and a little part of the cosmopolitan skyline.  Get to enjoy the cold breeze, warm our cold fingers on the hot walls too...

Did you notice the different bricks used on this wall?  This is part of the wall that surrounded the Forbidden City.  Apparently once upon a time ago (not too long), after the dynasty has fallen, the people were very poor.  The government told it's people to remove bricks from the wall to build home for themselves.  Many years later, they recollected these bricks from the people by offering them cash in return so that they are able to restore it to it's original structure for me to pose for a photo! :p  hehehe...

This photo taken from the bus, show a wall that is not fully restored.

After lunch, we went for another show at this Red Theatre.  The thing is, I suddenly can't remember what show we went for!  Lols..... Next time, I shall note down.  Sigh...  Memory really cannot use already.  Not enough RAM.

That evening, we took this bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin.  A journey which usually takes about 2 hours by bus, took only 30-45minutes in CRH Bullet Train.  Nice........!  If only we have one of these here from North to South, I would be able to go home (Kluang) for dinner every week!  

The LED sign in the coach shows the speed the bullet train picks up as it goes.  Exciting!  313km/hr.  From KL-Kluang is approximately 280km.  It would probably takes only 40minutes to go home for dinner!  So, Najib, build this please and I'll vote for you come next election!

The night view in Tianjin is so pretty.  So so pretty...!  All lighted up like a theme park like that.  Tianjin's architecture are generally influenced by western culture - French, Russian, Italian....  Wish we had more time so that I could take more photos of the night view!

Next morning outside our hotel.  The flowers were blooming so beautifully!

Traffics in Tianjin is generally less hectic as compared to Beijing.  Bicycles everywhere too...

We visited Tianjin Ancient Cultural Street that morning.  It is a stretch of little businesses housed in splendid replica classic architecture of the Qing Dynasty, formerly opened in 1986, designed as a place for tourists to experience the atmosphere of walking down ancient town.  

There were a lot of bronze statues like these too all over for us to go mad camwhoring with.  Hehehe...

You can buy souvenirs, local snacks, artwork and etc here.  Of course they should be pricier as compared to other places. Come on, this is afterall, a specially designed place for tourist.  To spend money that is.  Lols...

But then again, no harm checking it out  as there is no entrance charges.  Interesting to check out all sort of oriental knicks knacks.

A beggar at the other side of the street.

Entrance to the Cultural street.

From there, we head over to Tianjin's snack market for these.  Some rope like biscuits.  Hard as wood :p  But I bought some home too.  Lols....   Apparently a famous local snacks.  

Other than biscuits, they also sells a variety of dried seafood as well as live animal like the picture above.  Tortoise for the cooking pot?  o.O

We had steamboat for lunch.  No, not with the tortoise above.  Lols... Just plain steamboat.  Super plain till tasteless.  The husband said, worst meal ever.  Lols.....

A Canon moment with our handsome tour guide of the trip at the airport before bidding farewell. :)

The view outside from the plane.  Pretty isn't it.  We had had a great 7d/6n trip to Tianjin-Beijing-Chengde and about time to go home too.  Kinda begin to miss home already.  The duration is just right.  Any longer, there will be more breakouts on my face a result of not enough sleep.  Lols...

Check out the sleepy heads! Hehehehe...

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy reading this travelogue of ours that I've put together as much as we had enjoyed our trip. Also, hope it will help you in one way or other if you plan to visit where we went!   Have fun!

p/s: thank goodness i finally finished this 7d/6n entry!  hahahaha...