wednesday revival: the temple of heaven in beijing
November 23, 2011
hello loyal blog readers!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything but weddings & engagement sessions. Sorry for that! Now that the busy season is winding down, I’m excited to have more time to blog some personal stuff. I’ve decided to start a weekly column of sorts. Hopefully a schedule will keep me on my toes. For right now, it’s tentatively named “Wednesday Revival”. Why revival? I’m hoping to “revive” some of my old work that’s never been published on this blog. Sometimes I’ll write about it, sometimes I’ll just post a photo.
Anyways. Onto my first Wednesday Revival. The following photos were taken at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven Park in September 2009. Or Beijing’s TianTan. Or 北京天坛. It depends on who you ask :P
The Temple of Heaven park is a pretty rad place. First, it’s a freakin’ epic taoist historical site. From Wikipedia, “The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest.” See? Pretty cool.
Even though the historical part of the park is pretty dang awesome, in typical Alex fashion, I found myself being intrigued by people & the culture all around me. I think this might have been the second day I was in China. I remember being so excited to experience this tranquil, social aspect of Chinese culture. It’s funny thinking back to it because parks like this soon became such a part of my routine in China. But at this point, it was all new. Inside the park, there were tons of people dancing, playing music, practicing taichi, playing card games and more.
Thanks for having a look! Check back next week for a new installment of Wednesday Revival! :)
