A Whirlwind Tour of Beijing - Part 1

Oct 7

Oct 7 A Whirlwind Tour of Beijing - Part 1

In September, we had the opportunity to travel to China. With only three weeks to get a visa (thank you traveldocuments.com!) and make plans, everything felt pretty last minute. I normally prefer to plan much further in advance. It turned out that we had about 2 1/2 days to spend in Beijing at the end of a 10 day trip. After reading through the guidebook, it was apparent that at least 4 days minimum was ideal. So I had to make some choices and pick my priorities.

We arrived at Beijing West Train Station and took a taxi to our hotel. The hotel was pretty convenient to the train station and since it was mid-day, there wasn't too much traffic and the taxi fortunately did not take too long. Although not in the center of the city, the hotel was in a pretty good location, it was just inside the East Third Ring Road and had easy access to the subway. I would highly recommend using the subway, it is the easiest way to get around the city, and goes nearly everywhere.

It was the middle of the afternoon before we ventured out, so we didn't have a lot of time before attractions would start to close. We weren't too far from Temple of Heaven Park, in the south of the city, so we headed in that direction.

Temple of Heaven Park is completely surrounded by a wall, so you have to find one of the four entrances. It is a large park, that many people use for exercise in the mornings and evenings, and hanging out and playing cards during the day. One of the first things we saw, was a group of people standing in a hackey-sack style circle, kicking around a large shuttle-cock. There is a rose garden and something called A Hundred-Flower Garden, but it was completely walled off and under construction, so I'm not sure what was there. And there are lots of evenly spaced trees throughout the park. The Temple of Heaven complex is the main draw. Originally constructed in the 1400's and reconstructed at least once, the temple complex was used by emperors to pray for good harvests. Entering from the west, we started at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and then walked south to the Imperial Vault of Heaven which is surrounded by the echo wall. The echo wall had many people standing around it, talking and shouting at each other to experience the echo. The last main structure to the south is the Circular Mound Altar. To the west is the fasting palace, which is completely surrounded by a moat, it wasn't open when we were there.

We probably spent about two hours in the park, it was a pleasant place to wander around. A bonus, was that it was the least crowded attraction that we visited in Beijing. Since it was the first place we visited, I didn't realize how nice it was to not be in huge crowds.