Well we have had a great time in Beijing over the last 12 days. We have seen some interesting sites and visited the Great Wall twice in two different places.
Today we visited the Temple of Heaven, it is a very lovely place South East of the Forbidden City. Like the Forbidden city it is a walled complex and inside the walls are around 4000 cypress trees, some of them 800 years old. It was another hot day so the shade provided by the trees was good. We bought a through ticket which entitled us to visit 3 of the sites within the larger site. Our first stop was the recently restored Hall of prayer for good harvest with the triple eaved umbrella roof. It sits atop a 3 tiered marble terrace.
We then walked through the rose garden and the flower garden where there were many small groups of people singing, dancing or playing cards.
We walked on through the Sough Zhasheng gate to the 5m high round altar constructed in 1530. There was a line up to stand on the central Heavenly marble stone, which is where your voice is closer to talking with heaven.
Our last stop was the Imperial Vault of Heaven which is located inside the Echo Wall. Back at the hotel David updated his diary while Catriona went to have a massage for 98 Yuan (less than $20).
We met everyone for dinner at 6.30pm and set off for our first train of this trip at 7.30pm headed to Xi'an. A hard sleeper that has 6 bunks and no door.
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