The Acrobats and the Temple of Heaven.
So one of the things that’s “not to be missed” in China, especially Beijing, is the Acrobats. We went to a show that was recommended by our hostel and I have to say - it was very good. It was no Cirque; by which I mean the overall atmosphere was lacking, not the caliber of the performance. Instead of a unified story there was a series of vignettes.
There was a tightrope walker who did handstands and cartwheels and rode a unicycle, things which I would expect to see, but then she put a ladder on the wire, climbed it, and balanced for a while at the top - in a handstand on the top rung. After which she recapped some of the other stuff - after she got the wire swinging back and forth.
The whole performance was at that level, and there were times when I caught myself hoping they weren’t going to try and top the last trick - because certainly it couldn’t be safe and someone would get hurt - and they always had at least one more thing up their sleeves. It was an interestingly nerve-wracking experience at times. Well worth the price of the ticket and the crowded seats. No pictures though, disappointing, but here's one of the show closer done by a different troupe I found online.
At least it was after Rob got them to move us to seats where I could actually sit, the first set were so close to the row in front that I could only sit by curling up, putting my knees up on to the back of the chair in front of me, and letting my feet dangle. I like having long legs, but it’s definitely been a handicap here at times!
The Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven was an interesting place. The temple itself is really impossible to appreciate because you can’t go inside (which I totally understand), and the crowd behind the bar is so pushy you can’t get a picture of the inside either. You can glimpse it for split seconds over people’s heads as you dodge all the parasols held by women who don’t pay any attention to where the sharp pointy bits are. That would be 99.99% of them. The outside is beautiful, but not that much different from all the other temples in the city. And it’s hard to appreciate that much when the extremely loud crowd in the 95+ degree heat is making you cranky.
The park around the temple is extensive, and I got to see something that Rob has mentioned more than once - the line dancing ladies. Apparently one of the major forms of exercise for middlish aged women is choreographed line dancing to all different kinds of music, sometimes with props. It goes on most of the day in places with an ever shifting line up of dancers. It was certainly interesting to watch!
The heat drove us out (really me) earlier than we’d planned, but I did get some lovely pics.