First stop was the huge palace with its unnumerous people passing one gate and one hall after the other. But this place is really worth to see! I tried a panorama with the in-built function of my X100. You just have to turn the camera either by 120 or 180 degrees from left to right and the camera records a set of images and combines them automatically in just a second. I sometimes noticed vertical stripes in the pictures but this one turned out quite good.

We noticed a simple kept restaurant stuffed with people so we stept in and were blendet by a wall of chinese latters. It was the first time that we really had no chance to order anything as the stuff did not speak a foreign word. After we asked some people in the line a girl spoke english and she helped us to get noodles with a red brown sauce. It turned out that the noodles were cold and the sauce seemed to taste slightly fermented – but we were hungry. People at our table asked us to try fermented soup too but this would have brought our culinary adventures to a new level.

After our first attempt to buy tickets for the Express Train to Shanghai (here only cash, try 2nd floor – here no credit card try counter #36 or #41 – #36 sent us to #41 too and #41 sent us to #36, who finally sent us to the cash machine, where cash withdrawal was not possible) we continued our tourist tour at the Temple of Heaven Park. This huge park was visited by many old people who flew kites, played cards or board games or just sat there with their birds in cages.

I am not gonna tell the story about waiting, patience and the right moment when taking pictures again but we kept to it. This time I wanted to take a “perfect” picture of the harvest altar within the temple of heaven complex but everywhere you go in Beijing there are always people and so we waited short before closing (it is the moment when rude men in uniforms enter the place to kick people out). For me this beautiful place is one of the symbols of Beijing but sadly symbols are no places for people who love to enjoy them in silence. This time I could feel how the mood changed when people vanished so that the place became a peaceful sight and inviting for a longer stay. The picture will be added to the gallery shortly. This one is a picture taken from the south-east side almost half an hour before closing.


The following pictures are from the atmospheric “Ghost Street” in the north-eastern part of Beijing’s central district.