Keeping Up With the Gerkes: Being a Tourist Part III: Tiananmen Square and Temple of Heaven

While in Beijing we also visited Tiananmen Square. I won't write too much about it, but if you are interested here is a link to some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square

We only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures as it was windy and the Chairmen Mao mausoleum, where you can view his body, had closed for the day. For all those who follow us, it closes at noon...don't be late.

To be honest, there wasn't much in English and I didn't do any studying ahead of time, so I don't know much of anything about the monuments.


So close to seeing a preserved human being.

Later in the afternoon we strolled through The Temple of Heaven. This was the site where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties held ceremonies and offerings for good harvests. Once again, no tour guide so we didn't know much about what we saw, so here is a sample of the sights!

I think they just about covered all their bases.

With some 40,000 characters in the Chinese language I suppose it is easy to fall out of practice!

Pots for burning the offerings.

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Near catastrophe when I decided to touch this only to find out it wasn't attached. Luckily, I caught it before it dropped to the ground and broke into a million little pieces. Phew! That would have been embarrassing!

The following are a couple of the structures where ceremonies would take place.