Temple of Heaven and a bridge too far

At the time of writing this we are on a bus going to The Great Wall but thanks to the Kindle we can update yesterdays activities.

Singing in Longtan Zhiu Park

Breakfast in the hotel was good, very Chinese - egg rice with vegetables and sausage. Then we headed off on foot to the Temple of Heaven Park. 20 minutes of walking in 35+ degrees left us moist and drinking plenty of bottled water. We went via a small park with an ornate pond, Longtan Zhiu, that had elderly ladies singing traditional songs as if to welcome the day.

Thankfully the ticket queue for the Temple of Heaven Park was short and we found ourselves inside a massive walled park - really seriously huge. Everything is on such a large scale in Beijing.

By the time we had seen the parks main features - Hall of Prayers for Good Harvest, Imperial Vault of Heaven and the marble Round Altar - all very impressive, we had consumed 4 bottles water each.





The park was full of groups of Chinese people exercising, ballroom dancing, singing and even a few old guys practising a martial art with a lethal looking spear.

After all of this, we were all dripping wet and it as time for another shower and lunch.

After a good lunch of fried beef and mushroom dumplings and more liquid refreshment (£3 for all of us) we headed off to see what else was in our local area. We found the main Longtan Park, a big landscaped park with a large boating lake dotted with bridge linked islands.

Following Dominics suggestion we hired an electric boat with canopy and set off across the lake with him at the helm. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. We toured the islands and navigated the bridges expertly. On approaching one ornately dragon decorated bridge a small Chinese boy had dropped his ball in the water and one of the women in his party asked us, in broken English, to help.

Captain Dominic skillfully guided our boat slowly towards the ball while I prepared myself at the bow to grab the ball. Eva was videoing the whole thing. I grabbed the ball, stood up to throw it to the gathering crowd, bumped my head on the canopy,reached for the wall of the bridge and performed a head-first entry into the water!!!

The little boy had his ball back and I'd lost my glasses and drowned my phone. His mother called me a hero but that was little compensation as I squelched back to the hotel from a lake surrounded by no swimming signs.

It reminded me of a Mastercard advert - Park entrance fee - 20p, boat hire - £8, falling head first off a boat into a lake in Beijing - priceless!


What will happen today on The Great Wall is anybodys guess.