Asian Adventures: Dongcheng, History and Spirituality
Dongcheng, History and Spirituality The gorgeous Temple of Heaven Too many people! Literally you cannot walk through the historic centre without touching at least fifty people in the space of a minute. We did however see some fantastic places and eat gorgeous food (as usual). The Black Bamboo Park Our first stop in Dongcheng was the Temple of Heaven which is a massive park like complex filled with impressive blue and green temples and many flowers and birds enriched with beautiful scenery and symbolism. The park is in an odd mushroom shape as it represents the heavens (the circle/semi circle) meeting the earth (the square) this is repeated as a motif throughout the park as the temples are often circular but on a square base, once again signifying heaven meeting earth. The Forbidden City We also ate lots of food and had some delicious dumplings, but the greatest triumph was finding a restaurant where we had tomato and egg rice, and thick spicy beef nood...