Temple of Heaven. No it's not Starbucks

When you adopt a child from Beijing, you have to stay two weeks in Beijing and one in Guangzhou.  So it was that our second child came from this province.  During the two week stay, you have paperwork and meetings to attend with officials.  In between, you have sightseeing.  It was usually one event per day, but some days were listed as down time. 

As far as we were concerned, we did not travel 18 hours to sit in a hotel.  We were going to see all that we could see.  After discovering the subway system, it gave us the freedom to visit sites in Beijing.  We took out the map and looked for things.  The Temple of Heaven caught our eye.  The stop was right in front of the historical site. 

We loaded up the children and went down to catch our ride.  The subway train was mildly crowded, but it was not that bad.  When you go from station to station, they have announcements in Mandarin and English.  Getting around was not the difficult.  Also, they had a tracker above the windows that showed the stops. 

At our stop, we filed up the stairs to find out that the Temple is in a park.  You have to pay to get in the park, then you pay again to see the Temple.  They cost was minimal. 

In the park, people are doing their daily exercises.  Some were doing Tai Chi, some were playing with a hacky sack, some were doing crafts and some were playing music.  A women doing crafts attracted our attention.  She was making items out of beads and string.  They looked like or could be used as ornaments. 

We approached her and tried to ask if she were selling the items.  At this point Angie got into bargaining mode.  She went easy on the women.  If it were in one of the stores, she would have shown no mercy.  With our purchases in hand, we proceeded to look for the Temple. 

The park is like most in China.  It seems that no matter where you go, each province has a park or multiple parks.  These parks are the size of Central Park in the US.  They use these parks for exercise, meditation, lunch, etc.  Some have eateries, some have amusement parks.  This park had historical buildings and items.   

At the gates of the Temple, we had to pay our admission.  You go in through a gate.  Once inside, there is a round building in the center.  It is highly decorated inside and out.  To the left and right are some rectangular buildings.  All around the area are decorative stonework.

As we left the area, we did so through an opposite end.  We probably should have walked back in the direction we came from, but we did not want to miss things.  The exit was lined with flowers.  We found some more areas of interest.  There were more buildings that were similar to the Temple of Heaven, only smaller with some stone posts that look like field goals.

At this point, we had had enough.  It was time to leave.  We headed for the nearest exit.  This was a mistake.  I thought it was right around a corner.  That turned out to be incorrect.  We ended up walking about a mile or two.  The park was a lot bigger than I thought.  The kids started complaining and our feet hurt.  When we finally made it, we were happy to get back on the subway back to the hotel.