Tiannamen Square
The pictures on the left hand side are from my excursion to Tiannamen Square.
The top pic in the Tiannamen Square row is as wide a shot as we could get of the square. This place is simply amazing. If you look in the background, all the way back there, you'll see the back entrance to the Forbidden City. If you look close enough, you ought to be able to see the hanging portrait of Chairman Mao. They just love their old, dead chairman here, even decades after the Cultural Revolution.
The second pic here is of the central government's congressional bulding. I was staring in awe of the square at the moment this pic was snapped. Then a second later, a bunch of Chinese troops came marching by. And it was kind of funny, because they were all carrying not rifles or anything like that, but rather little fold-out chairs. As they marched back from the square to the Congress, their drill seargent started barking his marching orders much louder, because some of the troops were staring at Jake and me as much as we were staring at them. Also, I've noticed this with many of the people I talked to, about how when they visit from China to the U.S., they're just totally fascinated with all the government structures in Washington, D.C. Well, the same held true for Jake and me, as we were totally intrigued by the government buildings in Beijing.
The third pic here is of Jake and me standing in front of the People's Heroes Memorial Statue, a memorial to the soldiers who gave their life in the revolution. That, too was quite awe-inspiring, much the same way our U.S. war memorials are awe-inspiring. I mean, damn, here I was standing and looking at a testament to the backbone of the People's Army's most successful moment. That's something I won't ever forget.
The Temple of Heaven
The pics on the right here are from my excursion to the Temple of Heaven. These are some of the first pics we took, almost an hour after we got off the plane in Beijing. This temple is quite an amazing piece of architecture.
The top pic, is about as complete a pic we could get of the main temple. It was used twice a year when the Emperor came to pray for a good harvest and good fortune for his people.
The middle pic is of Jake and me standing in front of an incense burner. You could fit people inside of those things, that's how big they were. Behind us is the entrance to the temple. There was a pathway cut into the stone, that only the Emperor was allowed to walk on. The whole place was designed with the concepts of yin and yang in mind, so there's balance to everything. There's three sets of eight steps leading up to the temple ... with the number eight being lucky, and three sets, representing heaven, mankind and the earth.
There's a sub-temple on each side of the main temple, to represent positive and negative, and bring balance to the place. (Many of the buildings we saw while I was there had the same concept of positive and negative balance in their design).
The final pic is of a tea ceremony that we went to after the temple. It was the first of MANY tea ceremonies I was treated to during my stay. I learned a lot about tea, I must say. I also learned that I prefer oolong to jasmine. The girl giving the ceremony was extremely cute. And she even asked us for help with pronouncing one of the teas she talks about. Turns out it was in Latin, so I could help her pronounce it properly, but I couldn't tell her what it meant. And when I tried to explain how many scientific words in English are Latin-based, and how Latin is a root language, I learned exactly how LITTLE mainland Chinese know of western culture. I couldn't talk about Latin being the primary language of the Roman Empire, because, 1) She'd never heard of the Roman Empire, 2) She'd never heard of Caesar, and 3) She didn't know where Rome was. Of course, it just made her that much cuter to me.
