Day 20

I wanted a day by myself so headed down to the Temple of Heaven. Meanwhile Malin and Steve went off on bikes around Beijing (crazy idea) and Kasja went off with the Welsh guys to a boating lake. The Temple of Heaven is another huge complex with many buildings and thousands of ancient cypress trees. Going North from the South entrance the first main sight is the mound of heavenly worship. Apparently since China is the centre of the world, and Beijing the centre of China, this temple's creators believed that this spot is where heaven meets earth. All rituals here are driven upwards by the acoustics allowing emporers to commune with God. Now, the same spot holds about 6 tourists at a time whispering prayers of their own. Again the National holiday means more people than usual - mostly out of town Chinese tourists. These people aren't used to seeing westerners, so I was attracting attention again. All was good though, sometimes people want photos with you, other times they try and take photos without you spotting them, funny when you see the lengths they will go to to get their shot. One guy lined his friends up next to me and at the last minute angled the camera at me rather than his friends!

1 Olympics Floral Tribute

The evening was the Welsh guys last night in Beijing so we met up at their hostel and downed drinks until returning back to my hostel at 4am! They're off to Ping Yao on the way to Xi'an in central China.

2 In front of the Mound of Heavenly Worship

3 The Mound of Heavenly Worship

4 Where Earth meets Heaven

5 View of the rest of the temple complex

6 An Ancient Cypress Tree

7 The Echo Wall

8 The Earth Worship Temple