April 12th, 2015
Today we visited the Temple of Heaven after the Forbidden City, and to be honest I didn't really know what to expect. I really knew nothing about the Temple of Heaven. Only when I visited did I learn how fascinating it really is. The Temple was a temple exclusively used by the emperor on four occasions each year to communicate with the sky God. It was only for the emperor-so at the times the emperor wasn't at the Temple it laid empty or only with a few servants to clean it. I found the obedience to one great force (the emperor) so interesting. Their obedience to the Emporer was so strong that they made a beautiful temple and left it just for him-to only use four times a year. I guess it could be compared to Obama in the White House, in the fact that he's "given" a house-but it's certainly not as exclusive as the Temple of Heaven was. The most moving leg of the Temple of Heaven journey was as we were leaving. We walked down a corner of this long patio near the temple and there was a mid sized crowd of old Asian people singing and dancing and clapping. They were all smiling, and singing in unison. The only lyric I could understand was "Wo I Ni" which is "I love you." It turns out they were singing cultural revolution songs. They were all singing in unison and just had such a captivating, hopeful andl happy feel. Their unity made me feel wonderful to be a human being. I inched closer to the crowd and stood on the outskirts and clapped along with them while a Chinese woman clapped and sang in the center of the circle. I started to cry I think because I was so touched by their togetherness and unity. I can't really completely place why it made me cry, but I think it was just so beautiful. Standing watching them; a teenage girl watching elderly Chinese people sing songs from their historic past, the wind blowing slightly-made everything seem so surreal and raw. I thought about how quick life goes by and how quick this trip went. It was astonishing how some of these elders singing lived through the cultural revolution and now, here they are, singing songs from the past and being watched by a young Westener who would soon be their age. It was a really thought provoking,amazing thing to witness. I'm excited but very sad for our last days in China; it feels like it's the first day we landed. Time really does fly.
Breana Del Gatto