Temple of Heaven

In my high school art class, I painted a picture of this beautiful blue building.  It had three tiers, and each tier had intricate designs of red and green and gold.  I had first seen this building when I visited Disney World with my family.  It was part of the Chinese pavilion in the "world showcase" at Epcot Center.  I remember hating the inside of the building - they played what I had then considered to be an extremely boring movie of China - but I loved the facade, with its bright colors and unique shape.  I snapped a photo with tiny camera.  Several years later, when looking for inspiration for my painting class, I flipped through my photos and thought, yes, this is it.  My painting, copied from my earlier photograph, turned out quite nicely and hung in the display case of my school's library for a couple months. 

Then I went to China . . .

And visited the building.

You may think that I'm silly, but I was so thrilled to finally see it in person.  To see the actual building that was the inspiration, albeit twice removed, for a painting of which I was really proud. 

It's not actually the "temple of heaven" but one of the important buildings on the temple's grounds, but to me, it was heavenly.

(The Temple of Heaven, Beijing China, photographed May 2008) 

The Forbidden City

As some of you may know, I traveled to China a lot for work a couple years ago. I went there five times in that many months. It was an exciting and very interesting time to be traveling to China, in the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when China was getting ready to show herself to the world.

Although my workload was demanding, I made sure on one of my last trips to build in a weekend just for me to see the sites in Beijing that I hadn't yet gotten around to see.  And I lucked out on my chosen weekend.  It was a gorgeous day when I walked around the Forbidden City by myself.  Of course, it didn't feel quite so forbidden any more as it was crawling with mobs of tourists clustered around and clamoring to see the various buildings.  But I happened to find some quiet corners of this massive former palace to take some photos and reflect on just how lucky I was to be there.

(Forbidden City in Beijing, China, photographed May 2008)