| My new life, so far... |
FROM BEIJING, CHINA
Lunch, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace
...CONTINUED FROM A.M., Oct 15, 2006...
Vincent took me to lunch to a delightful Chinese restaurant at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Beijing. On our way out, I could not resist the temptation to record the beauty of the hotel lobby and its gorgeous orchids.
On our way out, a man entering the hotel through the revolving doors was someone I know from the fitness club in Phoenix, Arizona. How's that for a small world? :-)
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, some 45 minutes away from downtown Beijing, was the place where the emperors prayed for bountiful crops and harvests. The area on which it lies, including a lovely park, is even larger than the 178 acres the Forbidden City occupies. But the temple's architecture is quite different...
Instead of the square art forms of the imperial palace one finds here more rotundas and circular structures, as you can see from the above shot taken from the entrance.
That is even more apparent from this angle.
Doesn't the roof of the building to the left look like a hat? :-)
Once again we had to go through many gates and courtyards before reaching the Temple of Heaven, the main building at this site, a "three-hatted" rotunda.
And a close up of it...
...along with a peak into its ornate interior.
Just outside the Temple of Heaven, one finds this pretty flower arrangement. Two things may not be apparent from this shot. First, these flowers are not planted. They are actually flower pots placed on the steps so as to create this pretty image. Second, step back about 100 yards, and you will see that the green form in the design is actually a giant dragon - a symbol of the imperial power.
Summer Palace
After another hour's drive through the congested Beijing freeways and streets, we arrived at the last destination on our tour of Beijing - the Summer Palace. It is also evidently the most popular site, as throngs of visitors crowded its walkways and paths.
Built on a steep slope of a mountain, the Summer Palace is probably the most magnificent single structure I have seen today. The green corridor in front of it (above) is one of the longest in the world, some 750 meters long (more than 800 yards). Its entire ceiling and the sides contain beautiful paintings.
But the real shocker at the Summer Palace was this big man-made lake in front of it, replete with an island and a bridge. It is a replica of a natural lake in the vicinity of Shanghai.
Can you imagine the extravagance, opulence and power of the rulers who had something like this built for them in the virtual desert in circa 1420? And this was only a mere vacation home! As I said to my friend Vincent, these Chinese emperors put their Russian brethren to shame. The Czars' Tsarskoye Selo appears downright modest by comparison. As for the European kings and queens, their residences and estates now seem fairly Spartan. Take a closer look...
The Summer Palace...
...and the entrance to it.
And another view of the lake. Notice the haze on a "clear" day in all these lake pictures? I'm afraid that's about as good as air quality gets around here. It was late afternoon and the best visibility we had had all day.
And that's all she wrote from Beijing...
THE END
