Unaverage Joe

Temple of Heaven

Apologies for not posting in a while. Family emergency. Please pray for us. Thanks

Anyway...

The image most popular that comes to mind when thinking of China is Chung Cheng. Translation, The Great Wall. (I'm sure I butchered the spelling of it - but that's what it sounds like to me. =] ) The second most popular image is Tian Tan (probably misspelled again) i.e. the Temple of Heaven.

These pictures that I took are absolutely remarkable. See, Temple of Heaven is not just one temple but several temples. This particular one is called “Qiniandian” or “Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest” and is all the way to the north of the grounds. The Temple of Heaven spans about 675 acres. So yeah, it’s pretty vast in terms of size. And age! This place was built in 1410!! Amazing. This brings me back to why these pictures I took are such a treat. As you can imagine, after almost 600 years, the condition of anything will not be optimal. Apparently, they just renovated the north end of Temple of Heaven. I could literally smell the paint walking near these structures. I was able to see in all its glory what this building must have looked like back then. Magnificent. Another reason to enjoy this picture is due to the lack of people in the way. As you can imagine, this building was swarmed with people taking pictures of it. When I entered the Temple of Heaven, I came in through the South Gate. By the time I arrived to the north side of the grounds several hours later, the place was closing. Little by little, people diminished. Finally, it was only me and a few photographers equipped with their several-thousand-dollar cameras. I was actually locked in. I had to find someone to let me out. Ha ha! And finally, if you have ever visited Beijing, you know how thick the air is. You can’t see past a few blocks due to pollution. Well, it rained the day before, and it was as if Beijing took a shower. Now you get the rich, blue sky with the sun begining to set as a backdrop for the building to stand majestically against. Anyway, these are the reasons why these pictures are postcard quality (if I don’t say so myself), and you get to enjoy them.

posted by Unaverage Joe @ 1:19 AM