Family field trips (part 2)…

Internet access being what it is, I have to post when I can. I’m also determined to keep this blog reasonably “in order”…

And so… while we’ve just returned from a great adsventure to Shanghai, with lots to share, before I do that, I need to post this “part 2” from our previous weekend in Beijing. These are pix from the Azure Clouds Temple and Fragrant Hills Park…

The Azure Cloud Temple was built on a hillside, with temple buildings at six different levels. You walk up steps like these, then through the first temple building and out the other side... then up another similar flight of steps and into the next building... and on and on. By the 4th or 5th building (all massive stone undertakings) it really begins to feel amazing and endless...

At the entrance to just one of the many temple buildings...

Temple roofline...

Gorgeous stone carvings everywhere...

At one level were these drum towers that reminded us of clubhouses... open to the public, we climbed high skinny ladders to the top where we found elephant statues bearing the drums...

Here's my gang as they tie red prayer ribbons on a tree outside of one of the temple buildings...

The girls and me... at the final (highest) temple area, the Vajra Throne Tower. (note: I am not getting fat, just still cold and wearing many layers under my large grey parka. Honest.)

Vajra Throne Tower...

Another carving...

Temple girls...

Bright spot in an otherwise grey day...

This soaring glazed pagoda is the "symbol of Fragrant Hills Park"... it is under reconstruction...

Near the glazed pagoda is this massive glazed archway: one of the few architectural treasures in the park not destroyed in the Opium War of 1860 or the Boxer Rebellion...

Closer view of top of glazed archway...

Elle on the old stone steps...

Three Svensons braved the park's "sausage on a stick"...

As mentioned in the previous post, we rode the cable car to the highest point of Fragrant Hills... something I'm not sure I will ever do again. At the top (granted it was an overcast day) were views in every direction with dozens of different hiking trails and paths to take down. We'll return later in the spring for a day of hiking...