Seeing the Sights in Beijing

Temple of Heaven was our first stop and is 267 hectares.  

Before entering the site, there is a large park where seniors go each morning to visit, exercise, play cards, dance, play musical instruments and do crafts.  

It served as a stage for solemn rites performed by the emperor of the time, known as the Son of Heaven, who prayed here for good harvests and rain.  The temple is surrounded by a long wall.  The temple halls are round and the bases are square.  Heaven is round, Earth is square.  This is an alter rather than a palace.

Within the park, we saw the icon of Beijing - The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven, which is wrapped around by the Echo Wall (a whisper can travel from one end to the other), the Round Alter - made of marble and arranged in 3 tiers, geometrically with the number 9.  Odd numbers possess heavenly significance, with 9 as the largest single - digit odd number.

Tian'anmen Square is the world's largest public square (440,000 sq. m) surrounded by Soviet - style buildings and a white fence.  This flatland of paving stones lies in he heart of Beijing.  Each morning at sunrise there is a flag raising ceremony where the People's Liberation Army soldiers March to precisely 108 paces per minute.

This square is not a place for people to sit and visit. It is a public square but is heavily monitored by the government.  This is where he riot during the Cultural Revolution took place and the death of Premier Zhou Enlai happened.  Hundreds died but none were killed in the square.

The Forbidden City is now known as the Palace Museum today.  It is the largest palace complex, 720,000 sq. m. , in the world and the best preserved ancient buildings.  The Forbidden City is ringed by a 52 m wide moat in the heart of Beijing, extending 750 m east to west and 960 m north to south.  The Forbidden City is so called because for 500 years it was forbidden for the common people to enter.

Entering the Forbidden City

The Hall of Supreme Harmony

Our walk through the Forbidden City began at the Hall of Martial Valour, the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important and largest structure in the Forbidden City.  We walked for 3 hrs. and saw many complexes and walked through the Three Great Halls: Hall of Supreme  Harmony, Hall of Middle Harmony, and Hall of Preserving Harmony.  We walked our way to the Imperial  Garden with the ancient cypress trees and pretty pavilions exiting via the garden's West Gate.

The Peking Opera - painted faces and acrobatics.

The Great Wall and The Ming Tombs

On the way to the wall.

The Great Wall is one of the wonders of the ancient world.  The original wall was begun 2000 years ago, by thousands of workers many of them political prisoners, to keep out the nomads.  The wall occasionally served its purpose but failed as an impenetrable line of defence.

The wall runs from east to west and is almost 6430 kms long.  Not all of the wall is in walking condition.

We began at the Badling section which is the easiest part of the wall to get to from Beijing.  Here the wall is very photogenic and you are able to get some very nice pictures.  There were 7 towers to the end of this part of the Wall and I made it to the end.  Looking back at the wall was amazing.  It was a beautiful view from the top.

The wall nearing the last tower.  Very few people finish.

The end of the wall.  The rest is under construction.  I made it.

The Ming Tombs are a Unesco Site.  They are the final resting place for the 13 of the 16 Ming - dynasty Emperors.

Looking into the heavens.

The Hall of Eminent Flavours.

Chang Ling is the resting place for the first of the 13 emperors to be buried there.  The tomb contains the body of Emperor Yongle, his wife and 16 concubines.  It's the largest most impressive and most important of the tombs.  In the Hall of Eminent Flavours is a recent statue of Yongle.

Family Weekend on the Shuswap

We arrived in Sicamous, Thursday, August 6, about 9:00pm.  We checked in, got our boat, Alpen Rose, and began to load the boat so we could spend the night on it.  We were loaded and unpacked quickly so that we could get Cash in for the night.  

Friday morning breakfast on the Alpen Rose.  We are waiting to get our orientation to operate the houseboat so that we can begin.

Shaun & Daelyn

Cash

We're off and on our way!

Captain Fred on duty!

Map of Provincial Parks of the Shuswap.  Where should we go?  We decided to head out past the floating storer to the Seymour Arm.

Beautiful and peaceful!

Papa gets help from a young skipper.

Enjoying the scenery from the top of the boat.

Stopped to enjoy a cool down in the water.

Some hottub time.

Watching Uncle Shaun on the JetSki.

Cash with Auntie & Papa!  He didn't really enjoy it all that much this time!

Docked and tied up for the night at Encounter Point Provincal Park!

Shane & Cash out for a spin!

Supper was BBQ steak, baked potatoes, veggie kebabs, salad & garlic toast.  Mmmmm...so good!  We spent the night at Encounter Point.  Beautiful evening and restful night.

Early morning call, Cash had us up at 6:00am.  Had to wait till 7:00 to start the generator so we could get the coffee on.  Once everyone was up and had breakfast, we left heading back towards the floating store.  We stopped in there to check it out and Shaun treated everyone to an ice cream.

Cash enjoying his lifesaver Popsicle!

Cash and Papa with their new hats that Sacha bought them!  

More fun all day cruising along Anstey Arm, stopping and jumping in for a refreshing dip as it was a very beautiful day.

Docked and tied up for the night at Twin Bays.  Beautiful little cove.  Went for a little walk before supper.

Another huge supper of grilled salmon, potatoes, salad and garlic toast.  How come everything tastes so much better when you eat outdoors?

Glad we were protected as a wind and storm blew up quite quickly after supper.  The water was very rough and even though our boat was well anchored and tied, it seemed to be moving around.  The storm and wind didn't last long and had quietened down before we went to bed.

Sunday, we had an early morning start again, thanks to our little man.  We didn't have any neighbours so we were able to start the generator and get the coffee on.

This was our last day, we had a big brunch...bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and fruit.  We got thinks cleaned up and began to make our way back to the main dock in Sicamous as we had to be back by 3:00pm.  It took us about 4 hours to get back there so didn't really have time to stop along the way.

Someone's tired but just doesn't want to miss out on anything.  Can't blame him it was an awesome time.

Heading back to the main dock in Sicamous to Blue Water Houseboat Rentals.  An awesome weekend!