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TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
The Taoist Temple began to be built in 1420, and was visited thereafter by all Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It uses 2.73 square km of parkland, and includes three main groups of constructions: The Earthly Mount, where the Emperor - The Son of Heaven - prayed for favourable weather; The House of Heavenly Lord, and The Hall of Annual Prayer, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. It was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.
"TEMPLE OF HEAVEN - Northern Heavenly Gate - early morning rush hour"
"TEMPLE OF HEAVEN - Hall of Annual Prayer - The heaven is round, the earth is square"
"TEMPLE OF HEAVEN - Perfect!"
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FORBIDDEN CITY
The Forbidden City - The «Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties», is located at the exact center of the ancient city of Beijing. It covers 720,000 square meters, and includes 800 buildings, which have more than 8,000 rooms. It was also listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987, being the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
"FORBIDDEN CITY - Entering the Hall of Supreme Harmony, in the afternoon"
"FORBIDDEN CITY - The Male Lion - Holding the pomegranate symbol of power"
"FORBIDDEN CITY - The Female Lion - Holding a lion cub"
"FORBIDDEN CITY - Hall of Central Harmony: everything should be accomplished impartially and properly. It makes sense"
"FORBIDDEN CITY - Imperial Garden"
"FORBIDDEN CITY - Roofs"
Posts
8 comments:
I really enjoyed seeing your photo because I can see the contrast in yours and mine. The air quality in Beijing now is really bad so a lot of my photos have a blurry look in the background. Your photos have very clear skies so I assume the air quality then was much better.
Ming, I didn't notice the air quality then... so the pollution must have increased these days. No wonder; with all those cars! But the monuments are always impressive!
Nice photos trotter. Bring back a lot of nice memories of my china trip. Yes, I did a lot of walking and hurt my walking shoes...hahaha...I hope the scanner can do a good job of bringing back all my old photos. Thanks for sharing. :)
Alice,
no wonder you hurt your walking shoes... ;))
I'm glad that my post brought back nice memories to you; but the Olympic Games will be next year...
Ni Hao... a country my husband and I are visiting next year (we are adopting from China)... I have always wanted to go to an Asian country but never thought I would be going for this reason and so we will tour a little bit there too...
Fliss & Mike,
Adopting from China, what a lovely way to get to know the country... Surely after the Olympic Games much has changed, but not the incredible old monuments, I presume... ;))
Wonderful, wonderful pics. Another place I want to visit, but just didn't make it to that part of the country.
Ron,
As you see you were not the only one adopting from China... But Beijing has to be visited... ;)
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