Day 4 - The Temple of Heaven

We finished up the tourist portion of our China adventures with a morning at the Temple of Heaven. The temple itself is the place where, twice yearly, the Emperor would communicate with the heavens, so it's a pretty central place in Chinese history and belief. The temple was constructed without nails or screws and is considered a capstone piece of Chinese architecture.

We really enjoyed visiting the Temple of Heaven and surrounding park. The park was the perfect kind of urban setting - open with lots of greenspace and everybody interacting, in this case playing cards and doing some sort of hackysack where you catch the ball on the back of your hand, and practicing a badminton/tai chi amalgam (I'm sure these things all have names, but darned if I know what they are).

We also got to stand in the Center of the Universe, which isn't something that you do every day. It's at the center of the park and where the Emperor (the center of China) worshipped, so it's a pretty important spot.

Our trip to the Temple of Heaven was cut a little short when our guide, Forrest, found out that our flight left at 3:30, not 5:30, so we hustled out to catch the plane to Nanchang. Don't worry, we were well stocked with Pocky sticks to sustain us.

And now it's Monday morning at 9 am and in just 2 hours (9 pm to you on the East Coast, 7 pm if you're in Utah) we meet our new little one! Adventure awaits.