Beijing - Temple of Heaven
Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests - Beijing
Temple of Heaven Photo Gallery (Downloadable Pictures)
The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in
Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and
smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about
2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D.
during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As
Chinese emperors called themselves 'The Son of Heaven' ,they
dared not to build their own dwelling,'Forbidden City'
bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.
The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with 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 enclosed walls into inner part
and outer part. The main buildings of the Temple lie at the
south and north ends of the middle axis line of the inner
part. The most magnificent buildings are The Circular Mound
Altar (Yuanqiutan), Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu)
and Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) from south
to north. Also, there are some additional buildings like
Three Echo Stones and Echo Wall.Almost all of the buildings
are connected by a wide bridge called Vermilion Steps Bridge
(Danbiqiao) or called Sacred Way.
The Circular Altar has three layered terraces with white
marble. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 A.D. - 1911
A.D.), the emperors would offer sacrifice to Heaven on the
day of the Winter Solstice every year. This ceremony was to
thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in the
future. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is a big palace
with round roof and three layers of eaves. Inside the Hall
are 28 huge posts. The four posts along the inner circle
represent four seasons-spring, summer, autumn and winter;
the 12 posts along the middle circle represent the 12
months; and 12 posts along the outer circle represent 12
Shichen (Shichen is a means of counting time in ancient
China. One Shichen in the past equaled two hours and a whole
day was divided into 12 Shichens). The roof is covered with
black, yellow and green colored glaze representing the
heavens, the earth and everything on earth. The Hall has a
base named Altar for Grain Prayers which is made of three
layers of white marble and has a height of six meters.
Another important building in Temple of Heaven is Imperial
Vault of Heaven. If you look at it from far away, you will
find that the Vault is like a blue umbrella with gold head.
The structure of it is like that of Hall of Prayer for Good
Harvest, but smaller in size. The structure was made of
bricks and timber. The Vault was used to place memorial
tablets of Gods. White marble railings surround the vault.
The Vermilion Steps Bridge connects the Hall of Prayer for
Good Harvest and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The south end
of the Bridge is lower than its north end. The emperors in
the past believed that they could go to heaven through this
Bridge, which is why this bridge is also called Sacred Way.
A Yu Route and a Wang Route are on two sides of the Sacred
Way. The former one is only for the emperors to walk on and
the later one is for the princes and the high officials to
pass.
Three Echo Stones is outside of the gate of the Imperial
Vault of Heaven. If you speak facing the Vault while
standing on the first stone, you will hear one echo;
standing on the second and then the third stone, you will
hear two and three echoes respectively.
Another interesting and famous place for you to visit is
called Echo Wall owning special feature. The wall encloses
the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Its perimeter is 193 meters.
If you and your friend stand at the east and the west roots
of the wall respectively and you whisper a word, then your
friend will hear clearly what you say. Isn't it interesting?
The phenomenon utilizes the theory of sound wave.
Besides carefully designed buildings, there are also some
other scenes that you can enjoy like Nine-Dragon Cypress. It
got its name from branches which look like nine dragons wind
with each other. It was said that the cypress was planted
more than 500 years ago. Really, a grandfather tree!
(TravelChinaGuide.com)
