Early Morning at Tiantan Park

After watching the Chinese do their flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, Nicole and I grabbed more food and got on the subway for 潘家园, otherwise known as Pānjiāyuán, Beijing's famous flea market. By this point, it's about 6:45 AM. We finally get off the subway and take a 15 minute walk to the gate of the flea market, only to find out that it doesn't open for another hour.

So what do we do? We consult this bus schedule below...

...and choose the one that says 天坛北门. Can you spot it?

天坛, pronounced Tiāntán, is known to English-speakers as the Temple of Heaven. Nicole and I weren't so interested in the Temple as much as the equally-famous park surrounding it. It's within the open areas of this park that Beijing's elderly come to enjoy their many hobbies with other like-minded people. And it's actually a lot of fun going and trying to learn their different activities.

Here, in no particular order, are some glimpses into the morning social life of Tiantan Park:

Graceful Exercise

Aerobic Exercise

Badminton

Taijiquan

Poker and dominos!

Tibetan dancing

Marriage advertisements

Fan dancing

 Temple of Heaven (from afar)

 Now on to Panjiayuan!