Chinese New Year

A couple of days after we arrived in Beijing was the Chinese New Year celebration. This lasts an entire week long and practically the whole town closes down. This is a major celebration for the Chinese people. It is a time to visit with family much like we do for Christmas but for an entire week. Every night they set of fireworks. Some are just regular firecrackers and other are the actual fire works. It sounded like a war zone some times with so many firecrackers going off every night.

Monday, January 23 was the actual New Years Day. Mike and I decided to visit a local festival that one of the waiters suggested to us. We went to Ditan Park, which is where the Temple of the Earth is located. This must be a really beautiful place in the spring and summer, because it was very nice in winter.

We decided to try the subway system to get to the park. Since we do not intend to get a car we wanted to try available options for public transpotation. The subway is really cheap. Only about 30 cents for a one way trip anywhere. We have been told that it gets very crowded during rush hour on regular work days. But this day wasn't too bad. This is Mike waiting for the train to come.After we reached our stop we got tickets and entered the grounds. This is a picture of the entrance to the park. This was out first time to really encounter crowd.
The entire place was decorated for the holiday. This is a picture of the sidewalk after we entered. Because it was so crowded you went with the flow of the people. There really was not much choice on where to go at first. You simply went where everyone else went.
We finally got out of the main crowd and entered the actual temple area. The Temple of Earth was constructed in 1530 during the Ming Dynasty. "Emperors of the Ming, and then later the Qing dynasties used the Temple for sacrifices which were used to appease the gods, who in turn would help the nation. These sacrifices took place at the Temple of Earth during the summer solstice. Some of the things that sacrifices were done for include good harvest, a strong stqable nation, and good weather. This is the central altar today. During the festival people enter to burn incense and offer prayers.
As we continued through the park you can see how beautifully it was decorated everywhere. This is the approach to the booths selling souvenirs and also to get to the street food areas.
I stopped here to get this picture of the row of street food. I have not idea what I was seeing, but I knew there were some very unusual food there.
We ended up stopping at this booth. Mike had to try this squid on a stick.
He really enjoyed it while it was hot. As it was a very cold day it cooled down fairly quickly.
After a fun day and we took the subway back to the hotel. It was a couple blocks walk from the subway stop to the hotel. So we stopped at FatBurger for dinner. Since I didn't eat at the festival, I was quite hungry. The food was great and it was a great ending to a very fun day.