Longtan

We had a leisurely start to the day and set off just after midday to the Temple of Heaven - a complex of religious buildings visited by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. We started in the park and took a route carefully curated by Jonny, passing sweet black squirrels, neat rows of trees and couples dancing amongst them.

The buildings were all beautiful and intricate, and quite dramatic because they’re so set back. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is especially striking so it’s no wonder it was busy here, with lots of people having photoshoots dressed in traditional clothing. Some kind young Chinese men took our photo for us, capturing many angles for the perfect shot and even telling passers by to wait. On our way out we spotted many children who had clearly had enough of photos!

Afterwards we walked to Qianmen Street - a historical street full of shops and food. We ate at Mending Meat Pie, and later found out that Mending means doornail because of the pie’s similarity to the large ornamental doornails that decorate imperial buildings in Beijing. The mending roubing we ate was delicious - flakey and doughy on the outside and filled with meat, onion and gravy inside, a bit like a British pie combined with a paratha!

We walked through the side streets and each one seemed to be lined with more food stalls selling all sorts - meat skewers, Peking duck, noodles etc. We instantly regretted filling up on meat pies earlier but said we’d come back another evening. We were successfully persuaded to buy some freshly baked “eggs” at one of the stalls - dough encasing chocolate and served in an egg box - but were disappointed to find that the ratio of plain dough to chocolate was around 1000:1 - a purchase we regretted. Early night tonight as we have to be up at 5.45 to go to the Great Wall tomorrow!Read more