Check out some fascinating facts about the temple of Beijing, China:
Temple of heaven in Beijing China, is a place that you can’t afford to miss when you visit the country. It is located in Southern Beijing and is touted as one of China’s best tourist site. Built from 1406 to 1420 under the reign of the Yongle Emperor. Tourists visit this temple for its wonderful architecture and pleasant grassland and also to understand the ancient ceremonies. While your visit you can see how emperors pray, perform rituals and prepare for them. Also, you can stand on top of the Circular Mound Altar, and whisper secrets down the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Check out some interesting facts about the temple, which will make you visit it once in your lifetime.
temple of Beijing, China
- It has become one of Beijing’s landmarks as media use the photos of this temple to represent Beijing.
- Built in the area of 3,529,412 square yards the temple of heaven is 4 times larger than the Forbidden City.
- The main structures in the Temple of Heaven are situated in the south-north axis with all temples in China.
- This temple is built for prayers to reach Heaven and its architecture has mesmerizing details. The famous details are in the pillars in the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest: the four dragon well pillars on the inner circle symbolize the four seasons, the 12 inner pillars represent 12 months of the year; the three groups of pillars signify the 28 Mansions of the Moon, the 12 outer pillars stand for 12 two-hour periods of the day – the two groups of 12 pillars, added up to 24, implicate the 24 solar terms.
- The seven stones in the temple originally consist of eight stones. The seven-star stones were built according to Big Dipper Sky constellation with similar size to comply with the similar brightness of the stars and the eight stone is much smaller in size, it is said to be the Alcor- the companion star to Mizar.
- When seen from above all the temple halls and the base square shapes symbolize the heaven and earth.
- The Yuan Qiu circular Mound Altar in the southern part of the Temple of Heaven is a marvelously built altar which is amazingly decorated with carved dragons. In all the possible elements of altar number 9 is craves as it is considered to be the supreme number in Chinese culture.
- It also has a magic Echo wall, if you walk to the Imperial Vault of Heaven with a friend and ask them to stand opposite side of the wall you can hear each other’s voice. It happens because the wall’s eaves and the bricks make the refraction of sound waves possible.
- The Temple of Heaven was used as the sacred place where emperors of the Ming Dynasty performed the Heaven Worship Ceremony. First built in 1420, it is China’s largest and most representative masterpiece.
