Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is less a single temple than a walled ceremonial landscape in the south of central Beijing, laid out so that architecture itself would read as a statement about the cosmos. It was begun under the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty, the same ruler who built the Forbidden City, with construction dated to 1406–1420. For more than four centuries the emperor, as the Son of Heaven, came here in procession to offer sacrifices and to pray for good harvests and favourable weather; ordinary people were barred from watching. The complex took its present name in 1534 under the Jiajing Emperor, and its layout was largely settled by the mid-18th century after rebuilding under the Qing.

The plan works through a simple opposition: heaven is round, earth is square. The outer wall is curved at its northern end and squared off at the southern one, and the chief buildings are circular structures set in square courts. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the image everyone knows, a triple-roofed timber rotunda about 36 metres across and 38 metres high on three marble terraces, built without nails. Its columns are counted out symbolically: four inner ones for the seasons, and two rings of twelve for the months and the traditional divisions of the day. The present hall is a reconstruction; the original was destroyed when lightning set it alight in 1889. To the south, a raised walkway some 360 metres long, the Vermilion Steps Bridge, leads to the smaller Imperial Vault of Heaven, ringed by the Echo Wall, whose curved surface carries a voice around the enclosure. Beyond it lies the Circular Mound Altar of 1530, rebuilt in 1740: three open tiers of white stone in which the paving, steps and balustrades are all arranged in nines and multiples of nine, the number reserved for the emperor. The deep blue glazed tiles on every roof stand for the sky.

The site's modern history has been rougher than its serene surfaces suggest. Foreign troops occupied it during the Second Opium War, and in 1900 the Eight-Nation Alliance used it as a headquarters during the Boxer Rebellion. After the fall of the Qing it was neglected, and it opened to the public as a park in 1918. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1998. Today the grounds cover about 267 hectares, much of it shaded by old trees, and the park belongs as much to Beijing's residents as to visitors: mornings bring tai chi, dancing, choirs and exercise groups to the open spaces and side buildings. Arriving early, before the tour groups, is the best way to see both the buildings and that daily life.

Within Beijing, the temple lies in the south of Dongcheng district, south-east of Tiananmen Square and Qianmen, in an area of hutongs and low-rise streets that still has a neighbourhood feel.

Getting there

The temple lies about 3 km from the centre of Beijing. Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) is about 27 km away in a straight line. The park has four gates: Tiantan Dongmen station on Metro Line 5 is at the East Gate, and Tianqiao station on Line 8 is near the West Gate; numerous city bus routes stop at all four entrances.