The first stop of the day is Yong He Gong(雍和宮). It was a residence place for one of the Qing Dynasty Empire before he assumed the Empire position and therefore, it kept this place and make it a temple for Budda.
I actually can smell the smock far far away because there are a lot of people praying there but it's not allowed to take pictures inside those temples. There are quite a number of temples there for different Budda and others. A very beautiful place to see the traditional Chinese buildings and I can imagine how magnificent Forbidden City would be.
After this, I went to Guozi Jian Street where, Confucius Temple and Guozi Jian (the highest education institutions back then), are. This street is famous for those traditional buildings/sites and the nice scene.
Confucius played a very important role in Chinese History and Culture. The concept and behavior they provoked are the guidelines for people even nowadays.
Interestingly, this statue was actually donated and devoted by a Taiwanese, 楊清欽, from Taichung 鹿港.
This is the very few places that I can take pictures inside the hall and from the setting and decoration, we can tell the Qing Style it has because of the Manchu style decoration.
Then, the next stop is Guozi Jian, the highest education institute, at that time. There is an interesting place for people to pray for their examination result to pass and enter the schools they want.
Along the street, there are some interesting cafe place and shops, that I found the interesting combination of Modern and Traditional at one of the oldest areas in Beijing.
It was very hot today and I had been sweating like hell. After visiting these few place, it's about noon time already and the next place I want to go is Price Gong's Mansion & Garden. Therefore, I decided to go Jiumen Beijing Snack Restaurant(九門小吃), where they gathered all the famous local snacks.
This place is full of people and the NO AIRCON. I was sweating like hell but I think since I've came all the way here, I just picked some interesting food to try. To be frank, I don't really find them very testy and it seems to be selling the "NAME" actually. Or maybe, it's just too hot that I can't enjoy the food.
After the snacks, I went to the Prince Kong's Mansion. It only opened up the garden side to public as the building side itself was campus for Beijing Musical School and there is nothing much left to see already. The garden was not so big though it's really quite beautiful but those in Southern China are much better I believe.
I was heading back to hotel after this as I have been walking non-stop from morning. However, the taxi driver was very chatting and shared with me some more history about Beijing as he is the so-called OLD BEIJING because they have at least 5 generations living in Beijing. He told me about the Royal Temple (東嶽廟) as that is the temple only for Royal and high level people until 1999.
So I just went as he suggested. The entrannce price is double as most of the places I visited and there is a guide bringing me along the way. This temple has been established 700 years ago and it was very famous for granting Wishes. They have 8 types of different wishes for oneself, parents and children. Since I'm here and convinced by the taxi driver, I decided to take the 8 wishes as well though the cost is quite high. So I'm would be getting better and better as I've just walked through the path all the previous emperors and famous people walked to go for their goals.
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