The Temple of Heaven

[Temple of Heaven]

The Temple of Heaven, located in Beijing south of Tiananmen Square, is where the emperors of China went for annual prayers for a good harvest for the nation. They may have gone there on other occasions, but I don't know all that much about it, to be honest. Nowadays, the temple is a typical over-crowded tourist attraction, but it is well worth a visit despite that. Actually, the temple is an over-crowded tourist attraction when the weather is good. As I recall, I took the picture above in the late fall, and it was very cold, so not many people were out and about.

In some ways, because the lousy weather keeps the crowds down somewhat, winter is a good time to visit Beijing, as long as one doesn't mind freezing one's ass off. When I visited the Temple of Heaven, I stood outside in the cold (and a stiff wind) so long that my right arm, which was to windward, as it happened, went numb. When I finally went into a nearby restaurant to eat, I found to my chagrin that I could barely move the fingers of my right hand, and I was utterly unable to use chopsticks, despite that fact that I had been living in China for nearly six months and had become adept with them. The nadir of my mortification came when the young Chinese lady who was with me at the time asked the waitress to get a fork for me! Argh!

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