Day 5
Some of us got sick and couldn't go to the Temple of Heaven, and professor Eng. stayed behind with them. Only five of us and professor Shelley made it to the Temple of heaven. Before we left I got to stop by the coffee shop named Pacific Coffee Company, unfortunately Penny doesn’t work at this location. We meet the community college.The coffee shop is near our hotel, the way they set it up is very similar to Starbucks, even their menu and price looked similar. I wanted an iced caramel coffee, but they didn't have it. People in China love Americano ice coffee which is a strong black coffee, I didn’t like it, but the workers were very nice and friendly. Pacific coffee company originated from Hong Kong and now they've branched out to China, Singapore and Malaysia, Penny told me the night befor, when we had the hot pot. i also notice.
The Temple of Heaven was used to hold a memorial ceremony for a god in the winter solstice festival and to pray for harvest in the first month. The temple of heaven was built in 1420, Ming dynasty, and it is four times bigger than the Forbidden City. The whole design is based on the relationship between sky and stone. It is a whole series of round structures representing heaven built in square foundation representing earth. The first circle of the stone is 9 and the second 18 and the third is 27 if you were to divide it, it all ends up in 9. Number 9 is symbolic as the power number, only the emperor can use number 9.The temple of good harvest is where the emperor would pray to the god. The emperor comes here once or twice a year and before he comes he has to go on fasting. The temple was restricted only for the emperor. We had tried the ECO wall but there too many people, and it didn't work. The trees at the temple were very old, if there is a green tag that means it is more than 100 years old, and the gold tag means more than 500 years. The temple of good harvest is always on the postcards. There were many people and young children, Dousen said small children could go in for free today because today is children day.
We stop at a pearl market and I bought a pearl necklace for my mom.
At the Panjang a flea market, I got two old pins of Chairman Mao but I doubt they are real.