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World-famous scientist Stephen Hawking visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing accompanied by his assistants on Jun.18. Beijing was hot that day, with a temperature of 39 C (102.2 F). Out of consideration for Prof. Hawking's health condition, his visit was arranged at 5 p.m, sunset time in Beijing.
Zhao Qihui, the health assistant of Prof. Hawking, said Beijing's average temperature was 4-5℃ higher than that of London. It was difficult for Mr. Hawking to go out sightseeing in such a hot weather. But Hawking expressed his willingness to visit the Temple of Heaven. Zhao indicated it was the first time that he came here, and he would also visit the Summer Palace in the next few days.
Hawking successfully went to the top of the Circular Mount Alter (Yuanqiutan) with the help of four men carrying his wheelchair. “Fabulous!” He made such expression through an electronic speech synthesizer. He suffered from the rare Lou Gehrig's disease, causing him completely paralyzed.
The guide said, the Temple of Heaven was once a place where Chinese emperors prayed to heaven. Everyone including the emperor should enter the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) by foot. The emperor walked through the eastern road, and the officials the western road. The middle road is for god.
Hawking suddenly motioned to his assistants to stop. He made his request by blinking his eyes through his synthesizer. People wondered why he stopped here and thought he was thirsty. "Middle", Hawking's synthesizer showed this word. His assistant realized Hawking wanted to walk through the road of god, and moved him to the middle.
"You are the God now," the guide joked. Hawking smiled and made "Thank you very much" on his synthesizer.
(Chinanews.cn June 21, 2006)
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