Enjoy a little piece of heaven in Beijing without having to leave this world

A while back, I visited one of my top 10 favorite places in the capital. OK, I'll go out on a limb and say top three. Hotheaded hyperbole in the opening sentence tends to make even-keeled readers make a beeline for the business or sports pages.

I am referring to the Temple of Heaven. It's among my three favorite places to visit in Beijing, sharing the upper stories of the totem pole in my mind with Houhai and Wangfujing.

Houhai is a perennial favorite for the many summertime rented electric boat trips I would take with friends and colleagues — two relationships that are sometimes not always the same thing, as in, with the latter, sometimes you get to hear: "Hey! I heard that. Wait till I tell HR on Monday!"

The lake-centric park is one of three similar bodies of water within sight of the Forbidden City, and during the hot months it's the perfect place to unwind aboard a nearly silent motorized boat with lots of "heart attack in a bag" deep-fried midnight snacks piled up on the poop deck along with stuff to wash down all the saturated fats and trans fats — if we're still allowed to say, much less consume, the latter, despite the intentions here purely being of a culinary definition.

Another top three favorite of mine in the capital is the dedicated downtown pedestrian and shopping street of Wangfujing. You can get everything to tide you over while strolling back and forth — from KFC to more expensive and fair fowl in the form of Peking roast duck thanks to a flagship location of famed franchise Quanjude. If you're looking for something with more of a sting — scorpions on a stick should do the trick, which can be found on a side street.

Interesting historical tidbit: adjacent Beijing Hotel once was the temporary home of English soccer great David Beckham, whose hotel bath towels were reportedly sold to adoring fans for prices that would mop up most savings accounts. Verification pending on this "terry-ble "towel tidbit, but interesting to ponder nevertheless.

Let's return to the hero of this story — the Temple of Heaven.

I last visited before the pandemic, so I am due for a redo.

Here's a cliffs-notes history of the place. First of all, it might look familiar to first-time visitors because it's modeled after an even more ancient structure in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

History has it that when the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Yongle (Zhu Di), shifted the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in 1420, the structure was built in homage to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in the East China city. Part of the reason for the migration north was that with the Ming Dynasty replacing the Mongol-dominated Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) a few decades prior, things were a lot more stable on China's northern frontier.

What struck me most about the "new" Temple of Heaven in Beijing was its silent symmetry and dignity. It probably helped that I visited early on a weekday, but I had pretty much free rein to leisurely walk about the sprawling grounds without being jostled by crowds. Also, unlike Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills) in the city's western suburbs, which is akin to four hours on a StairMaster machine, the temple grounds are completely flat. And there are far fewer wooden hurdles before entranceways than those that grace much of both the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, albeit I recognize these cypress slats as having historical and ceremonial significance, and perhaps are where famed hurdler Liu Xiang practiced as a boy.

Also, there are so many different routes one can take, so crowds are seldom an issue as they sometimes can be at Houhai in peak season with the single lakeside path often shared by rickshaws jostling past with dog-tired tourists.

So if you're looking for a contemplative getaway, head to Temple of Heaven for a few leisurely rounds of strolling around magnificent consistently round-friendly architecture that was up and running far before Christopher Columbus' parents even went on their first date.