Temple of Heaven

Had only my 2nd day off since we arrived on July 24th and Jim Cole and I decided to head to the Temple of Heaven. We took the subway down there since there was a stop right beside it on the same line that goes by the media housing.

The subway ride down and back was entertaining. Trains were packed, but we were clearly the "zoo animals", especially Jim, who stands 6'5". There was definitely some staring going on and Jim even spotted a girl sneaking a cameraphone picture of him/us. Both on the way down and the way back, there was a single little boy (different boys) with their mothers right beside us on the crowded train and they kept staring up at us with this "whoa!" look on their faces. I gave the one on the return trip an Olympic pin from our company and he proudly put it on with mom's help. Funny stuff!

The Temple of Heaven was cool. It dates back to the 15th century and was full of symbolism and sacred spaces, as you'd expect from something like this. Click the Wikipedia link at the beginning of this post for detail if you're interested. There's a cool map that identifies some of the more "interesting" spaces in the compound here. You know, places like Kitchen for Sacrifice, Slaughter Pavillion, etc. There was an oven where they said they sacrificed "young shaved calfs" and lots of cast iron cauldrons in which they built fires, which must've figured large in the ceremonies.

After that, we stopped by the Wangfujing Shopping area, mostly to check out their official Beijing 2008 flagship souvenir store. It was a mad-house as expected.

We headed back to the housing so Jim could grab his 'puter and head into work and I could pick up my laundry (yep, broke down and had it done for me this time) then relax for a bit and head over to the Olympic Green for a gymnastics event I scored tickets to.