Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven is called Tiāntán in Chinese.

Temple of Heaven is a park with Taoist buildings and temples, and is located in southeast Beijing. It began to be built in the year 1420 and subsequently used by the Ming and Qing dynasties to worship heaven.

The most famous temple, which can be seen on all postcards and tourist advertisement of Beijing, is The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It’s a circular building built on a base of three levels of marble stone. Emperors came here to pray for good harvests.

The emperor was considered to be the son of heaven in ancient China, and they had to take care of any problems on the earth on behalf of a heavenly authority. In order to show respect, it was very important to sacrifice to heaven. The temple was constructed for these celebrations.