Temple of Heaven Park

May 11

Today we have decided to go to the “Temple of Heaven” park so we head out mid-morning and find the metro stops that deliver us outside the east entrance to the park.  The weather has taken a turn for cooler temps and we end up finding ourselves underdressed.   We pay our tickets and walk leisurely through the grounds all the while marveling that this place is so steeped in a history that we knew nothing about.  The site was initially created in the 1500’s as a place for the Ming emperors to worship to the gods and make sacrifices for, among other things, a good harvest and atonement for the people.  As the emperor was seen as a divine agent on earth, when he made his way from the Forbidden City to the Temple of Heaven, the entire population of the city had to remain cloistered indoors in silence while the emperor and his entourage passed the many kilometers to that holy site.  This park is an oasis inside the vast city and provides a wonderful sense of quiet and peaceful tranquility among its 267 acre park. Once there, he would have prayed in the Imperial Vault of Heaven which is surrounded by an Echo Wall which enabled a whisper to travel the 65 meters to cross the courtyard and be heard on the other side.  We check out the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and walk to the “Seventy Year Old Door” which essentially a short-cut entrance and exit that was created by the aged emperor Jiajing who declared that only a ruler of seventy years or more could use this entrance/exit….coincidentally, he was the only emperor who attained that age.  Afterward viewing the architecture, we make our way through the cedar garden and out the entrance where we entered.  We have a desire to check out the nearby Pearl Market where we understand we can buy lots of great stuff at bargain prices.  We warm up with a cup of hot joe and the kids enjoy a hamburger before we begin the challenge of shopping. We enter the market and Whoa Nelly…..it is a bit like a pressure cooker where the vendors are worked into a frenzy and bring you along on the frenetic ride of buying and negotiating until you are amazed and dizzy at what you have agreed to buy and at what price.  The salespeople will often start at Y850 for a Polo jacket which, of course, is a fake….you counter with Y60 and they counter with (and this is only the price for us….their best customers)Y350….at which point you start to walk away having decide that you really don’t need or want the item in the first place and then they begin chasing you down the aisle and get the price to some ridiculous amount that you cannot refuse….this is how you end up with stuff you had no intention of buying, but….oh well, c’est la vie! Paulie is completely disgusted with the whole process and vows to not buy anything here at which point we all kind of need to regroup and assess what our goals are.  It is decided that Paulie and Sam will go home and Annie, Hudson and I will press on to see what happens.  Turns out that our best intentions are thwarted as the market closes at 7:00 and we are cut off from all of the potential excitement by a default of time.  Oh well, we return home to have dinner with the others and enjoy quite a few games of pool before retiring for the eveing.