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The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is
much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace
with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in
1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese
emperors called themselves "The Son of Heaven" ,they dared not
to build their own dwelling,"Forbidden City" bigger than a dwelling
for Heaven.
The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with 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".
The Temple is divided by two enclosed walls into inner part and outer
part. The main buildings of the Temple lie at the south and north ends
of the middle axis line of the inner part. The most magnificent buildings
are The Circular Mound Altar (Yuanqiutan), Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu)
and Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) from south to north.
Also, there are some additional buildings like Three Echo Stones and Echo
Wall.Almost all of the buildings are connected by a wide bridge called
Vermilion Steps Bridge (Danbiqiao) or called Sacred Way.
The Circular Altar has three layered terraces with white marble. During
the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 A.D. - 1911 A.D.), the emperors would
offer sacrifice to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year.
This ceremony was to thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in
the future.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is a big palace with round roof and
three layers of eaves. Inside the Hall are 28 huge posts. The four posts
along the inner circle represent four seasons-spring, summer, autumn and
winter; the 12 posts along the middle circle represent the 12 months;
and 12 posts along the outer circle represent 12 Shichen (Shichen is a
means of counting time in ancient China. One Shichen in the past equaled
two hours and a whole day was divided into 12 Shichens). The roof is covered
with black, yellow and green colored glaze representing the heavens, the
earth and everything on earth. The Hall has a base named Altar for Grain
Prayers which is made of three layers of white marble and has a height
of six meters.
Another important building in Temple of Heaven is Imperial Vault of Heaven.
If you look at it from far away, you will find that the Vault is like
a blue umbrella with gold head. The structure of it is like that of Hall
of Prayer for Good Harvest, but smaller in size. The structure was made
of bricks and timber. The Vault was used to place memorial tablets of
Gods. White marble railings surround the vault.
The Vermilion Steps Bridge connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest
and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The south end of the Bridge is lower
than its north end. The emperors in the past believed that they could
go to heaven through this Bridge, which is why this bridge is also called
Sacred Way. A Yu Route and a Wang Route are on two sides of the Sacred
Way. The former one is only for the emperors to walk on and the later
one is for the princes and the high officials to pass.
Three Echo Stones is outside of the gate of the Imperial Vault of Heaven.
If you speak facing the Vault while standing on the first stone, you will
hear one echo; standing on the second and then the third stone, you will
hear two and three echoes respectively.
Another interesting and famous place for you to visit is called Echo Wall
owning special feature. The wall encloses the Imperial Vault of Heaven.
Its perimeter is 193 meters.
If you and your friend stand at the east and the west roots of the wall
respectively and you whisper a word, then your friend will hear clearly
what you say. Isn't it interesting? The phenomenon utilizes the theory
of sound wave.
Besides carefully designed buildings, there are also some other scenes
that you can enjoy like Nine-Dragon Cypress. It got its name from branches
which look like nine dragons wind with each other. It was said that the
cypress was planted more than 500 years ago. Really, a grandfather tree!
| Admission
Fee: |
RMB
35 |
| Opening Hours: |
06:00 to 19:50 |
Recommended
Time for a Visit: |
One and a half
hour |
| Bus Route: |
34,6,35 |
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