Where in the World are Dave and Elizabeth?

 This is Dave, As Elizabeth already blogged about the Forbidden City in Beijing, I (Dave) wanted to comment about the "Temple of Heaven”. The temple complex was built at the same time as the Forbidden City, which means it dates from the early 1400s.  The only person recognized in historic China as greater than the emperor was the god of Heaven. The emperor and the royal family would go to the Temple only once per year to offer sacrifices of Cow, Sheep and Pig, specifically for that years harvest. Also, if there was some kind of calamity or natural disaster that affected the people the emperor was expected to write a letter to the God of Heaven asking for forgiveness for sins he may have committed to bring on the disaster.  Some identify the god of Heaven as the supreme God in the pantheistic view of the Taoist religion, however heaven worship and the building the temple predates Taoism. Below is the furnace where the animals were sacrificed. The trip to the temple require...

From around 1420 to 1924, the Forbidden City was the winter palace complex for the Emperor of China.  What remains today covers 7.75 million square feet.  The museum part consists of 980 buildings.  I had no idea that it was that large!  The mystical animals on the roofs have significance both for the number and in which order they are lined up. One function was to serve as guardian totems which Feng Shui masters believed would drive evil spirits away. Also, some of them had iron tongues that stuck out and were attached to wire.  This was an early version of a lightening rod. Our guide said the mystical animals also communicated information about the building and could be read like a language. The Forbidden City was constructed according to geomancy (Feng Shui), and the buildings are red and yellow or gold, which are believed to be auspicious colors.  The layout emphasizes the importance of the Emperor, who was believed to be divine. The Chinese thought of ...

 Yesterday, we awakened at 4:30 to meet for our trip to Beijing at 5:30.  Beijing is about 2 1/2 hours inland from the Tianjin port.  Our first stop was Tiananmen Square, where so much related to Chinese history and government has happened.   I don’t have a picture of the exact building, but one of the modern buildings around the square is Mao’s Mausoleum. Though Chairman Mao wanted to be cremated, his body was embalmed and is kept in a specially cooled room.  Our tour didn’t include a visit, for which I am thankful. All around the Square is modern China.  When we passed through the Tiananmen Gate (The Gate of Heaven Sent Peace), we passed into China of the 1400’s.  Since the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 destroyed a lot of China’s traditional beauty, this massive complex of buildings from the Middle Ages is a treasure. I didn’t know before going was that The Forbidden City was just part of the old Imperial City, which must have been huge for tha...