Temple of Heaven Park + Hongqiao (Pearl) Market – Beijing

Beijing China is a fascinating city with numerous attractions. We had three days to explore the city during our 2010 trip and that was not nearly enough time. One evening we decided to head down to one of the cities most iconic structures: The Temple of Heaven. This large round temple, beautifully designed and decorated in the traditional Chinese style, sits right in the middle of a huge park of the same name (Temple of Heaven park). We rode the subway down to this area of the city and were immediately impressed with the size of the park. We wandered around for probably 20 minutes before we finally found the temple. Unfortunately the temple was closed by the time we got there but you could still see it well from outside the gates. In addition, the outer landscaping surrounding the temple was incredible. There were hundreds of colorful flowers laid out in a beautiful design and placed right in the middle of a large stairway. We sat around on these stairs just taking in the surrounding scene for probably an hour. We then continued to wonder through the park and found a beautiful rose garden to kill some time in. As the evening came to a close we decided to hit up the nearby Hongqioa (Pearl) Market as we had read so much about it. Although the name says Pearl Market this is actually a huge 5-7 floor building that houses thousands of vendors selling everything from Iphone knockoffs to little jade souvenirs. To get to the Pearl Market you walk across a pedestrian sky bridge which has numerous vendors selling small kites. The way these vendors show off their kites is fantastic. Although these kites are small once they take flight they turn into 30-40 smaller kits all held together with one string. The vendors would tie these to the sky bridge and they looked so cool flying in the haze of Beijing. Once we made it to the market we wandered level after level just taking in all of the amazing items to buy. This place is a major tourist attraction and it was actually very fun to see some tourists bargaining with the vendors for the best price. Eventually we found ourselves on the top floor of the building and I noticed a doorway which led out to the roof. We wandered out there and were immediately greeted by a friendly security guard and a beautiful view of the Temple of Heaven, adjacent park and surrounding city. The sun was just starting to go down and the haze/dust of Beijing glowed in the evening light. In the forefront was the magnificent temple and lush park and in the distance were large skyscrapers that you could barely see through the haze/dust. Needless to say it was a beautiful scene. We enjoyed this view for as long as we could before making our way back to our guesthouse to rest up for another amazing day exploring Beijing.