Music: Greenday - Nimrod
I woke up earlier than I really needed to today, but set about finishing the work around for the connectivity issues and posting yesterday's blog.
After an amount of unnessesary farting about I realised I'd no time left for breakfast so headed out to meet Stephen to start the tour for today. The first destination on our trip was Tianaman square. The square is huge. It is longer than Red Square in Moscow and at least twice as wide. The square was built in the 1960s apparently and the building on it that most people recognise (with the portrait of Mao on the front) is called Tian' Anman, after which the square is now known.
From the square we walked through Tian' Anman and into the Forbidden City. So called because it was the home of the Emporor for the last two Chinese dynasties and as such only the very highest members of society were ever allowed to set foot inside.
The Forbidden City comprises of a series of coutyards with gates and large buildings with set purposes between each section. The last three are a banquet hall, followed by the Emporer's office and sleeping quarters and then the Empresses living and sleeping quarters. At the far end is a garden used by the royal family to relax and entertain themselves. Feng shui of the palace is obtained by a stream that connects the mote, through the inner courtyard and the artificial hill behind, created from the earth excavated to form the moat.
On exiting the North Gate of the Forbidden City we walked a short distance to where our driver was waiting to pick us up and take us to the restaurant next to the Temple of Heaven. After a rather tasty lunch we entered the park surrounding the temple. Local people have free access to the park and a number were in an area next to the main walkway where a large stereo was playing slow music. In ones and twos they were waltzing around in the park in the middle of the day. I was rather nice to watch but I decided not to take any photographs, lest I make anyone self concious and thus less enjoy dancing their day away.
The main building of the Temple for good Harvest was renovated in time for the Olympics and the marathon's blue line still passes the outer walls of the building. It is an impressive three story circular building (the ancient chinese believed that the heavens were circular and the earth square) with a blue roof glaze, symbolizing the heavens.
From here it is a short walk along a long raised terrace that divides the park in two even halves, up to the alter of the heavens. It was here that the Emporor performed an annual ceremony asking for good fortune from the various heavenly deities.
Following this I was dropped back at my hotel. As I had yet managed to get a photo of a national flag I decided to set out on foot back to Tiananman square to photo the large flag there. There are surprisingly few state flags flying in the city. The only fly outside the main government buildings.
After this I headed back to my room and managed to get the hotel to bring some food to my room for dinner.
Tomorrow I start at 8:30am and head out to some little garden rockery thing... it looks a bit more like a wall maybe, I guess...
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