A visit to the Temple of Heaven, Beijing Opera, and kinda Tiananmen Square

Today started off with a trip across town to pick up my tickets for a Beijing Opera show in the evening. After sorting the tickets I decided to go all the back to the other side of town to visit Tiananmen Square.

Unbeknownst to me visiting Tiananmen requires booking at least a day ahead, after going through all of the stages of grief in quick succession I decided I would try to book for the flag raising ceremony tomorrow morning (~4am). Adding insult to injury I realized after I had gone through most of the booking process that a Chinese phone number was required 🙁 so alas I will not get to see Tiananmen. I briefly considered crying and throwing up in front of one of the PLA guards in case they took pity on me but I decided against.

After my tragic time outside the walls of Tiananmen square I went all the way back across town to visit the Temple of Heaven. The temple is in the middle of an absolutely massive park, it ended up taking me about 30 minutes to get between the main ticket gate and the temple.

After the Temple of Heaven I made the fascinating decision to walk to the Theater. I was in so much pain by the end of this mission, but it was made up for by the Beijing Opera.