Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is the largest intact altar temple of China. Located in the south of the city of Beijing, the Temple of Heaven was built in 1420, the 18th year of Emperor Yongle's reign in the Ming Dynasty. Surrounded by two rings of walls the Temple of heaven covers an area totaling 2,730,000 square meters, an equivalent to approximately 273 hectares, being three times larger than that of the Imperial Palace. With the wall from north to south stretching as long as 1,657 meters and that from east to west 1,703 meters, the outer wall is 6,553 meters in circumference while the inner wall measures 4,152 meters in perimeter.

The Temple of Heaven used to be a place where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties went twice (and sometimes thrice) a year to do worshipping and offering sacrifices to heaven to pray for good harvests and fine rain. In the past, sacrifices were offered to heaven and earth in one place only. But when the Temple of Earth was built in the north of the city in 1530, the Temple of Heaven was ever since used specially for offering sacrifices to heaven alone.

Tours with Summer Palace included:

B‍eijing airport to Tiananmen Square Forbidden city Summer Palace tour