I’m not sure why but despite visiting Beijing on a number of occasions I’ve never got round to visiting the Temple of Heaven (or TianTan as it’s known in Chinese). I took my mum and her fella there yesterday as a time filler and we ended up spending most of the day there, it’s my new favourite place in Beijing, even more impressive than the Forbidden City (which is basically buildings I’ve seen before, but on a larger scale).

The Temple of Heaven is housed in a huge park, a massive 2 inches and an 1/8th on my map and it was virtually empty, every now and again we’d come across crowds of people singing opera songs, dancing and at one point a woman singing on a portable karaoke machine while her mother danced. But, despite this the whole place retained its’ tranquility.

Anyway, the Temple of Heaven, it’s now joint-top of my list (along with the Great Wall) of places I must take visitors when I take them to Beijing!

EDIT:

Oh, I forgot to mention, Beijing was COLD yesterday, and when I say cold I mean we had to go out and buy Hua a coat the moment we left the hotel.

Fake North Face windstopper jacket – 2 sizes too big but a snip at 60rmb (five quid), oh and my mum picked up the fancy red bag for 15rmb (a quid)