Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

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During our stay in Beijing, we visited three landmarks.  Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

Temple of Heaven

Wikipedia says "The Temple of Heaven is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a good harvest."












For every location we went to in China, the street hawkers and beggars were ever present.



Tiananmen Square

For those of us old enough to remember, Tiananmen Square will forever be known as the site of the massacre of protesters in 1989.  This famous photo shocked the world when on June 5th, a lone protester stood down the tanks.



The short version of what happened is that the Communist Party was divided between those urging more rapid change and hardliners wanting to maintain strict state control.  After the death of one of the politicians leading the change, protesters began to gather in Tiananmen Square, with estimates of up to a million protesters at one point.

In the massacre, the Chinese government said 200 civilians and several dozen security personnel had died.  But in 2017, UK documents revealed that a diplomatic cable from then British Ambassador had said 10,000 had died.

Needless to say, we were instructed to not mention any of this when we were there.

As we approached the square, the size of it really stood out.  It was much, much larger than I had mentally pictured.





You'll notice in these pictures the smog in the air.  This was really an issue.  I had to wear sunglasses because my eyes were watering from the air.





And the street hawkers were everywhere.



And, of course, Sonja got her 'go to' picture!



Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was built in the 15th century and was the former Chinese imperial palace.  The first question I asked when we got there was "why is it forbidden?"  After getting one of the best "dumb American" look from our tour guide, she told me that there used to be imperial guards stationed outside the gates of the palace to keep out the "ordinary" people.  Duh, it's forbidden.

But, all in all, it was pretty darn impressive!








The impressive part of the palace was in the details.  When you looked closely at the buildings and the designs and the artwork...  it was beautiful.

















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