now, but of that bothers you that is just too bad because I am all the way over in China and you will just need to enjoy whatever information comes to you. (Though we do take requests.)Last Friday Laura and I headed down to the Southern section of the city to check out the Temple of Heaven. The park officially opens at 6am which is when all the locals show up for exercise and hanging out. At 8am the temple areas open. We got there are 7:40ish so we were able to go through the temple areas with minimal crowd interference. We did manage to find a very nice Irish man to take our picture in front of the main temple building though.
And here is Laura in a very Chinese sort of pose in front of another of the temple. This visit was the first time I was able to look into the temple buildings without being pushed aside by some very tiny Chinese tourist with surprising strength. I really enjoy visiting tourist sights early in the day!
As for the locals exercising and hanging out in the park, their activities range from ballroom dancing, to tai chi, to (slowed down) hip hop, to hacky sack - Chinese style. I believe this particular group was learning to cha cha.
This last picture is actually from our way out at the much later time of about 9:45am. The walkway area has people packed onto the banister playing cards, knitting, singing Beijing opera, and just hanging out. We tried walking under the covered area at first, but it was just so crowded and loud (especially the karaoke machine with the Beijing opera) that we moved to the outside sidewalk to enjoy the view and (smoggy) air.
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