The Temple of Heaven is the largest existing ancient sacrificial building complex in China. It covers an area of 273 hectares which is bigger than the Forbidden City, but smaller than the Summer Palace. The Temple of Heaven was built in the year 1420 during the region of Emperor Yongle for the emperors worshiping to the God of Heaven.
Its semi-circular northern wall symbolizes the heaven, then the square-shaped southern wall symbolizes the Earth. Within the enclosed long wall, there are three main sections inside the Temple of Heaven, they are the Altar of Circular Mound, the Hall of Imperial Vault and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest from south to north.
The Altar of Circular Mound is a three layered terrace. The terrace is an unbelievable example of using the number nine. Each layer is connected by nine steps; the diameters of each layer are the multiple of nine; the stones and the balustrades of the terrace are also the multiple of nine. The great using of nine is showing the emperor’s highest respect to the God of Heaven.
The Echo Wall and the Echo Stone are located within the courtyard of the Hall of the Imperial Vault. The Echo Wall is the one enclosing the Hall of the Imperial Vault, which is 193 meters in length. If two persons stand on each side of the wall and whisper when facing the Echo Wall, they may hear each other clearly. The Echo Stone is with special features as well. It is consisting with three pieces of stones, just outside the Hall of the Imperial Vault. When people facing the hall, standing on the first stone, and clapping, he may hear one echo, on the second stone, two echoes, and on the third stone, three echoes respectively.
Continue to north, is the Hall of Prayer for the Good Harvest. This hall is covered by the blue-tile roof, representing the heaven. Inside the building, 28 huge pillars are supporting the roof. The 4 pillars in the middle, symbolizing the four seasons of a year; 12 ones on the second ring, representing 12 months and another 12 on the third ring, representing 12 Shichen (the ancient way of counting time) in one day.
Not only being a tourists’ park, the Temple of Heaven is also the paradise for locals. Everyday, there are many local people doing morning exercise, singing, playing cards there.
The Temple of Heaven is a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations.
