Beijing – Day 2
6th June 2014 31-18’C 0km
Beijing – Temple of Heaven – Tiananmen Square
The morning was spent exploring the magnificent Temple of Heaven, an absolutely beautiful collection of buildings, dedicated to the emperors communications with heaven and requests for a good harvest.
I then headed over to Tiananmen Square. It had started to rain heavily, which was a good thing as it had been hot, humid and with nasty pollution in the morning. PM2.5 >200 and I could feel it in my throat.
The most disturbing thing at Tiananmen Square was the number of fire extinguishers in the stone square. In a place where there is nothing naturally combustible, there were fire extinguishers placed every few metres, along with military police nearby. The reason for the extinguishers, is that there have been so many cases of protesters self-immolating in the square. So now there are extinguishers for the police to attempt to put out any such fires. This was despite the tight security checks just to even enter the square.
Great photos, pollution looks terrible 🙁
Yeah, it was nasty. I should have worn my mask, but it was packed in the bottom of the bag and I was too lazy to get it out. I’m still coughing up black crap.