For the first time since arriving in Beijing we had a more leisurely start and decided to head to the local market for breakfast.

The neighbourhood in Dongsi had a small market, where we managed to pick up some fruit, as well as a few savoury snacks from a bakery that proved to be good choices.

As on other days, we were the only non-Chinese faces in the shopping area. Pleasingly we were greeted with friendly smiling faces, and a little English speaking, that helped with our purchases.

After loading up with some additional coffee and cake we picked up a cab downtown to our first destination of the day, Temple of Heaven Park.

The complex originated as a series of imperial religious buildings that were visited by the Ming & Qing Emperors for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a good harvest.

The temple complex was constructed in 1406 and was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven during the reign of the Jianjing Emperor in the 16th century (thanks to Wikipedia!).

The Temple of Heaven is a World Heritage site and has been described as “a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations…!”

It has a very symbolic layout and design, with the Temple of Heaven having a profound influence on subsequent architecture and planning in the Far East.

The Temple grounds cover 2.73 km of parkland and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 36 m in diameter and 38 m tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests.

Oddly the building is completely wooden, with no nails!

The next was the Circular Mound Altar, located south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, each decorated by lavishly carved dragons.

The Imperial Vault of Heaven is a single-gabled circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base. It is located south of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and resembles it, but is smaller. It is surrounded by a smooth circular wall, the Echo Wall, that can transmit sounds over large distances.

Several features of the temple complex symbolize the connection of Heaven and Earth, of a circle and a square. The whole temple complex is surrounded by two cordons of walls; the outer wall has a taller, semi-circular northern end, representing Heaven, and a shorter, rectangular southern end, representing the Earth.

The surrounding park is extensive, covering 267 hectares. It’s well used by locals offering playgrounds for kids as well as exercise and game areas for adults.

Fortunately we had time to fully explore the park and also visited the Fasting/Abstinence Palace, the Danbi Bridge, the Long Corridor and the Seven Star Stones, that are all situated on the outer sections of the park and were equally beautiful.

The main structure in the outer part is the Divine Music Administration, where the musicians and dancers rehearsed ritual music during the Qing and Ming dynasties.

Having taken in the gardens of Beijing we caught the subway to Wangfujing Street, the famous shopping district.

The majority of the main area is pedestrianised and reminded us of KL in Malaysia, very modern with high end brands but very few people shopping!

In truth we were in search of a place to eat and found a great restaurant with Michelin Stars dating back over the last 5yrs.

It was a great experience and the food was really delicious.

After a late lunch we went for a wander around the shopping centre and were in awe of the stores like Chanel & LVMH, suggesting there must be a decent number of wealthy shoppers!

After an enjoyable day exploring, we met up with our China tour party in readiness for our 19 day trip down to Hong Kong.

There are 12 in the group, including our guide Kris, a Chinese lady from X’ian and includes a League of Nations with people from Iran, Russia, USA, Finland, France and of course 4 from England.

After our initial meeting, we headed out for dinner at a local restaurant where we were treated to a Chinese buffet feast chosen by our guide – it goes without saying this included Peking Duck amongst other local delicacies.

It’s been good to meet some new faces and we are looking forward to sharing our China adventure with them.

Tomorrow we are heading off at 7am to the Great Wall of China to tick off one from our bucket list!