After lunch, we headed for the Temple of Heaven. This tour is pretty progressive - all the important points of interest being covered right at the beginning of the trip. I was looking forward to see the Echo Wall instead as there weren't any pictures of it in the travel brochures.

Before arriving at the Echo Wall, we first encountered the Circular Mound. It is like a circular pavilion of marble terraces. At the top, there is a center circle called the Heavenly Centre Stone where one can stand on it and make a wish. For better 'enforcement' of your wish, it is recommended that you clapped your hands after making your wish.

If you look down, you may notice that the number of rings of stone slabs towards the center is 9. The Heavenly Centre Stone is surrounded by 9 stones in the first ring, 18 in the second, up to 81 in the 9th ring, symbolizing the nine heavens.

Next, we move on to the Echo Wall. It is a circular wall with an entrance. It is said to carry the smallest whisper from one end to the other. You can see people experimenting this statement. They seem like kissing the wall!

Again, we ended the day's trip beautifully by visiting the Temple of Heaven. We had to walk a wide path leading to the temple. The middle path is made of marble meant to be walked on by the royal family whereas there is one path where it is only meant for the "tai kam" - (I don't know the English word for it - those men who have been circumsized to serve the king). Needless to say, you know which path we all tried to stay on!

The temple was also built by Emperor Yongle back in 1421. It is the Hall of Prayer for good harvests. This is where emperors, as sons of heaven would communicate with the gods. The main hall consists of 28 carved wooden pillars supporting a 125-feet high tower of three conical roofs, all covered with the blue glazed tiles to reflect the color of the sky. It stands in a square courtyard on a podium encircled by three tiers of decorative stone balustrades. Yes, you might have guessed I'm just writing out from a travel brochure!

When we were walking out from the temple, we passed by a garden with the beautiful "thau hua" (cherry blossom?) trees. Mom and I have been eyeing on these flowery trees ever since we saw the abundance of them planted by the side of the roads. It is really, really beautiful. The branches are thickly covered with these lovely pink reddish heavy petaled flowers. The flowers only bloom for 10 days and boy, we were just lucky to be here at the right time.

Here's some pictorial explanations:

At the Circular Mound.

That's the Echo Wall behind me!

The area around Echo Wall.

A very old tree outside Echo Wall - I call her "Graceful Grandma".

The path to the temple. Notice the white center path - that's the emperor's path.

The beautiful "thau hua" trees behind me.