Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven, or “Tiantan”, “the Altar of Heaven” in Chinese, was built in 1420, same time as the Forbidden City. It was opened to public in 1918, after 1945, during the civil war of China, the wall at the south part of the park was destroyed to setup a small airport.
Temple of Heaven is not a single temple actually. There are many buildings, basically there are three parts inside, and there is an local axis going along with the most important buildings.
Large space in the park is just occupied by trees, most of them cypress. This design was based on the ancient thought, that the worship done in the forest wasthe most sacred and also the cleanest. Today if you visit here early in morning, like 6 am, you can see many people are here, not for praying…but for morning exercise.
Temple of Heaven was placed on the list of the World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1998, as the “largest building complex for worshipping heaven in the world”.
South Part: the Circular Mound Altar and the Imperial Vault of Heaven.
The Emperor would visit the Circular Mound Altar every year on the day of winter solstice, this ceremony was called the “Worshipping to Heaven”. To the north, in the little round courtyard, there are three buildings, the middle one is the Vault of Heaven, it was the place for storing the tablets of God of Heaven and the ancestors of the royal family. There are two flank buildings, in the east is for the tablets of the Gods of Brightness and Stars, in the west is for the tablets of Gods of Wind, Thunder, Cloud and Rain.
Though it was not likely for the Emperor to go through all the buildings in one time, there is a bridge to connect the south part to the north part. The Red Stariway Bridge is about 3 meters above the ground.
North Part: the Altar for Praying for Grain and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.
If we keep the south part in mind, it is easy to recoginzed the buildings in the north part, you can say that the same story repeated again, but note this time, the temple and the altar were built together, that is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was built on the Altar for Praying Grain. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the Emperor would visit here on the 8th day after the Chinese New Year. In the sense of architecture, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the crown of the whole complex, very likely you have seen it in some other places, in photos or maybe even in brand logos.
West Part: the Palace of Abstinence
Before any of the ceremony, the Emperor would have to go fast for 3 days, first 2 days in the Hall of Abstinence inside Forbidden City, and the last day here, therefore the palace is walled and moated like the Forbidden City, during the occupation of the Eight Allied Force in 1901, the British headquaters was here.
Interesting acoustics phenomenon can be found at the round shaped buildings. First spot locates at the Circular Mound Altar, there is a piece of stone in the center, on that piece of stone, your voice can be echoed loudly, I tried and it works most of the cases, even when there were many visitors around. The second spot (the Echo Wall) and third sport (the Triple Sound Stones) are both inside the courtyard of the Imperial Vault of Heaven, and both of them don’t work in the daytime.
View Tourist Attraction Spots in Beijing in a larger map
[...] balance to the Temple of Heaven, Temple of Earth was built in 1530 in the Ming Dynasty, it was subsequently renovated in compliance [...]