Up early again with the first stop being Temple of Heaven. We approached the area from the southern entrance and therefore arrived at the Circular Mound Altar.
If you stand in the dead center of it and you whisper you'd be able to hear your own whisper three times louder but no one else would be able to hear it at the Mound.
Afterwards we went through a gate into the Imperial Vault surrounded by the Echo Wall. In the vault they kept all the tools for the ceremonies that used to be held there. The circular wall made it possible for one person to talk to another person halfway around the wall at a normal voice level. The sound would travel easily to the other person's ear. The diameter of the wall was 65 meters.
We then went to the most significant structure in Temple of Heaven, namely the Hall of Prayers of Good Harvest. Next to that was The Long Corridor (it's not that long) through which they would carry all the sacrifices to keep them clean and out of bad weather.
In the corridor we met an old man who had a very interesting animal on his hand. It was some sort of small bird. But it was no ordinary bird. This one would sit on your hand on the order of the owner (see picture of bird).
Next stop was the old city wall of Kublai Khan. Believe it or not -it was still there after 735 years, although very few people really know this. I even managed to walk on top of this old defense wall of the Beijing.
Last stop of the day (other than a quick bite at McDonald's) was an amusement park, Crab Island.
After crawling over various "dangerous" bridges, I also rolled over the pond inside a barrel, which was great fun but very exhausting and painful. It was however a good challenge.
Finally, I had a chance to go fishing. First catch was made by Dad who used a normal fishing rod. But I was clever enough to devise a better scheme to catch the devilish fish; it was quite simple actually, I just scooped them up in a net! In total we caught five fish, not counting the little ones that I let back into the water as they were too small.
Dinner was what we caught. We took them to a restaurant on the premises who cleaned and cooked them for us.
To top off the day we were lucky enough to have a brilliant performance with many acts such as balancing spinning plates, acrobatics, dancing and juggling.
Now it's late and time for a movie and then bed!!