Tiananmen Square & Temple of Heaven

Strange! Strange! Strange! I was so sure that this was the Bell Tower and accordingly to my very 'convincing gut feel' I am right. Oh! Guess what! TET!!!!! I was WRONG! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong.... took me 1/2 a day to think thru (while doing 2 rounds of laundry, refilling ALL my bottles with water, cleaning the kitchen & cat's litter, sending sis to work etc etc); it then hit me! Temple of HEAVEN! Thank 'heaven' I finally remembered! Sigh..... LILY!

Before I start with Temple of Heaven, I would like to take you into a journey of THE ever so famous TIANANMAN SQUARE. I only knew ONE story pertaining to this square, I believe it happened while I was in my school days. There was this protest that took place here, I can't even remember what was the protest all about. I guess my mind was still on New Kids On the Block instead of world news back then. Hehhehe..... Anyway, whether it's good or bad, it certainly put Tiananman into the world map and memory of every living soul.

This is basically the area coverage, yup, as you can see - SUPER HUGE! How huge? Like it's the largest city square in the world... yeah! WORLD! Apparently, it was built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size. To put it in perspective, its about... hemmm...... 90 American football field. Can you imagine it now? Phew, that's scary big!

Psst : I found out that Imām Reza shrine in Iran has the biggest square in the world. Read it here.

This is the view form THIS angle...

And that is the view from THAT angle.... hahahha.....

This is the Mao Zedong memorial hall of which I didn;t enter, WHY???? QUEUE super LOOOOONG.

Then we were asked to walk toward the end to catch our tour bus.... don't ask me which direction, I just follow the pipe the piper.

I saw a Muslim HALAL restaurant, YIPPEE!!! If ever visit here, I know where I can get me food.

LOVE this building but fail to know what, I suspect it's either a post office OR train station. GUYS!!! help me out... pleaseee..... what building is this?

Next STOP! Temple of Heaven on earth *smile*

Even in heaven there's big screen TV for viewers....hemmm.... modernization on heaven & earth? Hehheheheh.... By the way, this is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing.

The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, the same emperor that construct the Forbidden City in Beijing. Apparently, the Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was 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..." as the "symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries." Obviously this is from Wikipedia.
Bottom line, I covered another UNESCO site *smile smile*.

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

I always thought the colour is strong and bright... blue, red, yellow/gold. What a combo.

Surrounding this temple area are parks for exercising, strolling, "DATING" or touristing. I saw a bunch of old uncles writing calligraphy with water on the floor, ballroom dancing, playing chess, chatting etc. I guess its a 'holy' community area. If I ever have another chance, I shall visit here super early in the morning and take nice community activity pictures.

PLEASE take note on the DON'TS DON'TS DON'TS. Don't tell China never tell you the DON'TS. Hahhahaha.....

Hyperlink credits : Wikipedia