The Temple of Heaven, Beijing

The Temple of Heaven Park is located in the Chongwen District, Beijing.

Originally, this was the place where emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Quing Dyansty (1644 - 1911) held the Heaven Worship Ceremony. It is China's largest and most representative existing masterpiece among China’s ancient sacrificial buildings. First built in 1420, the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), it was enlarged and rebuilt during the reigns of the Ming emperor Jiajing and the Qing emperor Qianlong. In 1988, the Temple of Heaven was opened to the public as a park, showing ancient philosophy, history and religion. Its grand architectural style and profound cultural connotation give an insight into the practices of the ancient Eastern civilization.

The Temple of Heaven is larger than the Forbidden City--even though it has many fewer buildings and many fewer tourists. As the 'Sons of Heaven’, Chinese emperors were no allowed from building a dwelling for themselves that was greater than the earthly residence dedicated to Heaven hence the difference in overall size of the two complexes. The temple is enclosed by a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of 'the heaven is round and the earth is square'.