Ndsquirrel's travel blogs:
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Knocking on Heaven's Door/Temple of Heaven
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On Saturday after visiting the Forbidden City and a quick lunch, we went to the Temple of Heaven Park. It is a lovely park with enough room to spread all the visitors out so you do not get the feeling of being crowded. This is probably why it is very popular with the Beijing elderly. Throughout the park you can see young people playing a
form of hacky sack with something like a badminton shuttlecock, elderly men playing MahJong and elderly women singing and dancing. There was one dance group lead by an elderly guy dressed in traditional woman clothing. I thought the Chinese Cultural Revolution re-educated all those type of people.
One section contained a rock garden called Seven Star Stones with eight huge stones. I counted and re-counted
before I asked my guide about this inconsistency. The story goes like this...during the Ming dynasty the rocks were place here to represent the seven peaks of the Taishan mountains. After the Manchu took over China and started the Qing dynasty the emperor ordered an eighth stone to be placed in the Northeast corner of the garden to represent that China is now one country. Coincidently the Manchu came from that part of the country. I guess they kept the name Seven Star Stones place it sings in Chinese as it does in English?
Now I entered the main attraction of the park, the section containing the Hall of Good Harvest. Here the emperor would preside over ceremonies asking the gods for a good harvest. There is a door people traditional knock as they entered. The hall is on top of the hill and would provide a good view of the surrounding Beijing area if it wasn't for the smog. The good news is that the renovations were complete on the buildings, so they have fresh coats of vibrant colors. Unfortunately the inside of the main hall, which contained the altar, is still being worked on and closed to the public. To the sides are annex halls with mini-museums on the hall and the harvest ceremony. Unfortunately the information placard is sparse on information in English, so unless you are accompanied by a beautiful guide you are out of luck.
The one good thing about the crappy hotel was its location to Wangfeng Road. Located on this road is a catholic church, Saint Joseph. I attended Sunday Mass, which was done in Latin. It has been awhile (1986) since I attended an all Latin Mass but I think I kept up with the program. The interesting thing besides the language was
the Mass was conducted in the Pre-Vatican 2 method with the priest facing away from the congregation and leading the prayer service. Also the chanting of the different creeds and prayers was done in an Asian cadence not Gregorian. This was a good start to my Sunday.
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