Asia Travel Blog

China has many fascinating destinations. One of them is Temple of Heaven. It is quite worth to be visited when you go to China.

This temple is located in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. It is much much bigger than Forbidden City, with an area is about 2.73 kilometres squares. It was constructed in reign of Yongle Emperor, which also constructed Forbidden City. The name was given in Jiajing Emperor in 16th century.

On 1998, this temple was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was described as “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…” as the “symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries.” (I took this quote from here).

The temple is divided by two kind of walls, inner part and outer part. There are other 3 temples that related with Temple of Heaven (indirect), they the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west.

Anyway, if you enter this temple, you will find 3 main groups of construction: 1. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests 2. The Imperial Vault of Heaven 3. The Circular Mound Altar

Admission Fee: CNY 30 (Nov. 1 to Mar. 31), CNY 35 (Apr. 1 to Oct. 31) Opening Hours: 06:00 to 20:00 Recommended Time for a Visit: One and a half hour Bus Route: 2, 6, 17, 34, 35, 110, 120, 122, 610, 707, 721, 739…

Hmmm….I want to go there, someday. :-) the pics were taken from here and here

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