Our long awaited trip to the Republic of China...here we were in Toronto, full of anticipation, spending the pre-departure night in this no man's land of Mississauga airport hotels area. Our flight from Toronto to Chicago left at 10h10 am and then from Chicago, the long-haul flight to Beijing - 13 hours -  departed at 13h00....We were not looking forward to this long flight but then...how do you get half around the world?????????? Distance To Chicago From Beijing is: 6592 miles  or 10608.8 km! We were so excited when at 15h30 the airplane actually reached Asia! Wow! we made it!

 
The next few hours seemed to go by very fast ...

We had not slept much but, somehow and probably due to excitement, we did not feel tired! Long line-ups for passport controls at the Beijing airport: the crowd felt different. ...we were on another continent. Our visa were in order so no problem. Nihao and Xie Xie (hello and thank you)...China, here we are, finally. We found our Sinorama Tour representative and hang around until the bus departed for our Beijing Zonghle hotel. 126m tall!

 

Once in the room, we dropped the luggage and headed out onto the street...the air was mild, the trees had leaves, it was spring here!!!! We had no problem finding a grocery store close by and bought some local beer for the after the shower/we have arrived celebration! Tsing Tao beer...also available in our LCBO stores in Ontario!!!! We had a "high"... after our many many hours of travel, but were concerned, when in bed, we may not wake up in time for the early morning excursion (no time to waste!). ...So, we set our alarm clocks for 6:15 for breakfast, and had our guide waiting for us at the lobby at 8h30am for our first day of full excursions (no time for jet lag!).

Breakfast: a wonderful mix of Asiatic and western food. We began this meal with green tea, then had noodles and a lot of veggies! But we could not resist to add a fresh croissant and some scrambled eggs....Afterwards, we had enough time to go for a stroll in our neighbourhood and enjoyed seeing the morning Beijing crowd lining up for their own breakfast on the sidewalks: noodles, dumplings, pancakes...all looked delicious (but we had already our breakfast)!

 

Of to the excursion:  Temple of Heaven -  The park area leading to the Temple of Heaven is quite extensive, totaling 267 hectares (660 acres). Some of it consists of playgrounds, exercise and game areas. And some of the other open spaces and side buildings are often used, particularly in the morning, for choral shows, ethnic dances, and local presentations.  What a sight!

Our local guide Tom (strongly recommended!!!) wished to show us how Chinese stay fit... they, instead of heading for the gym, they head for the park, where they do their exercise and socialize with their peers at the same time. We found this to be a very joyful assembly...much more fun than our western gym crowds where the emphasis is on the performance and TV watching, rather than the social enjoyment of physical exercises.

 We were given some time to mix in with the crowd and do our own exercise...

















Speaking of exercising in a social setting:  Earlier that morning, we saw people practicing their Tai Chi in the park beside the hotel....or doing line dancing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way to the Temple of Heaven, we stumbled upon a old man doing Chinese Calligraphy with water on the pavement.  Tom, our guide, translated the characters which were basically a list of the 10 most wonderful sites of China!

 

 

The Temple of Heaven, literally from Chinese:  the Altar of Heaven, is a complex of religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest.

 

 

 

The Temple of Heaven now also appears to be the ideal and glamorous spot for wedding fashion photo shots.

 

 

So much for the first hours in the morning ...