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 Qing Dynasty (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.
Covering an area of 2,700,000 square meters (3,529,412 square yards), the Temple of Heaven is larger than the Forbidden City. As the 'Sons of Heaven’, Chinese emperors were precluded 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'.
The Temple is divided by two encircling walls into an inner part and outer part. The main buildings lie at the south and north ends of the middle axis of the inner part. The most magnificent buildings are the Circular Mound Altar (Huanqiutan), the Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu) and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) from south to north.
Today’s Temple of Heaven There
are over 60,000 varieties of tree. The most famous tree is the
grandfather tree - a 500-year-old Nine-Dragon Cypress with branches like
nine dragons winding with each other. These trees create a quiet
environment and an ideal resort for the locals to do their morning
exercise. Residents living near the Temple of Heaven enjoy many
activities here, such as running, cycling, singing, dancing, playing
chess, flying kites, etc. You can become involved personally in these
activities and experience the leisure pursuits of local people.
