Ed and Nancy Visit the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City

The four of us visited the Temple of Heaven on the weekend. It was pretty busy since it was the last day of the Qing Ming holiday.

Here some links to previous blog postings on the Temple of Heaven.

Tom and Misheil at the Temple of Heaven
Mike and Amanda at the Temple of Heaven
Tom at the Temple of Heaven
Work Colleagues at the Temple of Heaven

I've mentioned before that the park is a popular spot for wedding photographs. They were back again this day, also.

Click to enlarge.

A few days later Margot, Ed and Nancy visited the Forbidden City. It was a weekday and not very busy.

Here they are standing in front of one of the halls.

The place was practically empty.

This is one of the huge stone carvings. It was transported as a single piece on an iced road during the winter.

Margot took some nice architecture pictures.

This is a very minor hall as evidenced by only 3 figures on the eve.

This one is more important -  7 figures in total.

Click to enlarge.

Here Ed and Nancy pose in front of the intertwined branches of the cypress that is said to symbolize love. Allegedly, the last Qing emperor and empress, Puyi and Wanrong had their picture taken here on their wedding day.