Our weekend trip last week was to the
Temple of Heaven. Have you ever step foot in a place that leaves you totally in awe and you end up leaving the place feeling like a changed person? That's how I felt in the Temple of Heaven. That is by far, my most favorite place in Beijing that I've been to. In old China, the Temple of Heaven was the place that the emperor went to to pray to the Gods for a good harvest of crops for the whole of China. I loved the whole architecture of the place, and the symbolization of the architecture.. it made me feel like I was walking into a completely new world. Obviously, China now no longer has an emperor, and the temple is no longer used for prayer purposes... Instead, it is now opened up for tourist purposes and every weekend, many old people frequent the place for socialization purposes.
This is what the grounds outside the temple looked like. There were all these old people having their weekend socialization activities. It was so interesting to watch them. There were big groups of men and women ballroom dancing in one part. All along the walkway, there were Chinese calligraphy words on the ground because of the men practicing their calligraphy skills, with wet brushes. Then there were those who were showing of various other random skills like their hackeysack skills, ribbon dancing, opera singing, belly dancing... there was even a choir class going on amidst it all. Of course, there were small groups of men playing cards and women knitting or beading. My grandfather would have loved this place!
Some of the trees in the temple grounds were really old.
This is the Heavenly Stone that the Emperor used to stand on to pray for rain/good harvest. There were all these Chinese people taking turns to stand on this stone and shouting out something that they want in life.. like
"A lot of Money!",
"A happy family!".. it was hilarious.
There are different parts of the Temple of Heaven grounds, and each part has three gates like these leading into and out of it. The middle gate is for the Gods, the side gates are for the Emperor and his family and ministers. Our tour guide was like,
"Let's be Gods and walk in the middle entrance"
The Temple of Heaven. Did you now that it is only constructed of wood and only wood. No nails, no cement... only wood. The architecture was amazing. There was a 'bridge' leading to the Temple of Heaven.. and it was a bridge that symbolized the route from earth to heaven.
That evening.. my friends and I decided to go on one of our adventures to Nu Ren Jie.. Lady's Street. To shop a little.
And I had my first experience bargaining. I wasn't as bad a beginner bargainer as I thought I would be. The prices were really ridiculously high! and so we had no choice but to bargain. I should have started bargaining at a lower price though. Everyone knows that I'm basically the biggest push-over ever... but I did not budge from the price that I wanted.. *clap clap* So I basically kept repeating 80kuai ten billion times, while fingering the sweater that I wanted.. and kept wanting to walk away... and complaining in the sweetest voice possible how it was too expensive... until I SUCCEEDED! ;D This was my 收获 (benefit/acquisition/harvest) for the week that I talked about in my Speaking class. 我学了这么降价.
This sign for one of the stalls cracked me up. The power of Engrish in China. As Joliana always says,
"Wah, Engrish so Powderful!" 
This is what the grounds outside the temple looked like. There were all these old people having their weekend socialization activities. It was so interesting to watch them. There were big groups of men and women ballroom dancing in one part. All along the walkway, there were Chinese calligraphy words on the ground because of the men practicing their calligraphy skills, with wet brushes. Then there were those who were showing of various other random skills like their hackeysack skills, ribbon dancing, opera singing, belly dancing... there was even a choir class going on amidst it all. Of course, there were small groups of men playing cards and women knitting or beading. My grandfather would have loved this place!
Some of the trees in the temple grounds were really old.
This is the Heavenly Stone that the Emperor used to stand on to pray for rain/good harvest. There were all these Chinese people taking turns to stand on this stone and shouting out something that they want in life.. like "A lot of Money!", "A happy family!".. it was hilarious.
There are different parts of the Temple of Heaven grounds, and each part has three gates like these leading into and out of it. The middle gate is for the Gods, the side gates are for the Emperor and his family and ministers. Our tour guide was like, "Let's be Gods and walk in the middle entrance"
The Temple of Heaven. Did you now that it is only constructed of wood and only wood. No nails, no cement... only wood. The architecture was amazing. There was a 'bridge' leading to the Temple of Heaven.. and it was a bridge that symbolized the route from earth to heaven.
That evening.. my friends and I decided to go on one of our adventures to Nu Ren Jie.. Lady's Street. To shop a little.
And I had my first experience bargaining. I wasn't as bad a beginner bargainer as I thought I would be. The prices were really ridiculously high! and so we had no choice but to bargain. I should have started bargaining at a lower price though. Everyone knows that I'm basically the biggest push-over ever... but I did not budge from the price that I wanted.. *clap clap* So I basically kept repeating 80kuai ten billion times, while fingering the sweater that I wanted.. and kept wanting to walk away... and complaining in the sweetest voice possible how it was too expensive... until I SUCCEEDED! ;D This was my 收获 (benefit/acquisition/harvest) for the week that I talked about in my Speaking class. 我学了这么降价.
This sign for one of the stalls cracked me up. The power of Engrish in China. As Joliana always says, "Wah, Engrish so Powderful!" 
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