Back to Beijing Sightseeing - Tiantan

Today I visited the Altar of of Heaven - Tiantan.

Tiantan is located in a big park area and - guess what? - of course being Saturday it was crowded with Chinese people doing sports, dancing, singing, playing cards etc.

I want to describe one kind of sport which is not known in Germany:

The thing they play with looks like a mixture of indiaca and badminton with feathers. But unlike badminton you do not play it with a racket and unlike indiaca you do not play it with your hands, but the Chinese play this game with their feet. Maybe somebody knows it and knows the name?

After having passed all the sporty people, I entered the altar area which until 1913 had only been open to participants of the yearly ceremony. Which ceremony? Well, the Son of Heavon, i.e. the respective king, had to bring animal sacrifices to Heaven. It seems that the ceremony was quite long (not a nice ceremony for vegetarians); in the end the sacrifices were burnt and the king had to sign an offical announcement that the ceremony had been held.

One curiosity: there was a door called the "Seventy year old door". One emperor was so old that the usual ritual way he had to walk by foot was too long for him. So they build a back door in order to shorten the way he had to walk before the ceremony. However, the emperor feared that his successors might become lazy and always use the short way. That's why he issued a decree saying that only kings older than 70 years were allowed to use this door.

Chinese food - yummy!

It is amazing how manifold chinese food is. I am not talking about dogs and ants, but about vegetables, fruit and tofu combinations. Just to give you some impression what this kind of food is like some examples:

- sweet corn and apple soup

- tofu fish (looks like fish, but is an imitation)

- rice porridge with spinach in it

- Chinese dumplings (a little bit similar to ravioli) filled with mushrooms and egg

Some vegetables and fruits I eat I do not even know the names of. But all in all I quite like the variety and taste of Chinese food.

For those who visit me you can really look forward to the food - I can show you some of the best Vegetarian Chinese food.