The Temple of Heaven is located on Temple of Heaven Road, Beijing Chongwen District, outside Zhengyangmen, on the east of Yongdingmen road. An annual sacrifice of burnt offerings was performed here by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties at the time of the winter solstice.They also went to worship heaven for good harvests upon the coming of spring.
The Temple of Heaven was first built in the 18th year of the rein of Yongle（1420）, Ming Dynasty for the worship of both the heaven and the earth in the Hall of Worship, mimic one built in Nanjing. In the 9th year of the rein of Jiajing（1530）, the emperor built the Circular Mound Altar by following his minister’s advice, who said that, “The ancestors used to worship the heaven in the circular altar and worship the earth in the square altar separately. The circular altar built in the south part is round and high to symbolize the heaven, while the square altar built in the north part is square and lies downward to symbolize the earth.” Thus the ritual was divided into two parts, i.e. to worship the heaven for homage and to worship the earth for prayer for harvest. To the south of the Hall of Worship was the circular altar to worship the heaven, to the north outside Anding Gate of Beicheng was the square altar to worship the earth. In the 13th year of the rein of Jiajing (1534), the name of the Circular Mound Altar was changed into the Temple of Heaven while that of the square altar was changed into the Temple of Earth. The name of it had been changed for several times. In 1538, the former was abolished and two years later another one started to be rebuilt, finished in 1562. Then the Hall of Worship was renamed the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in 1751 and it had undergone renovation and extension for many times.
In 1900 Eight-Power Allied Forces once set up headquaters in Zhaigong of the Temple of Heaven, put guns on the Circular Mound Altar. The culture relics and the sacrificial utensil were swept away, buildings and trees suffered damage. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the government invested a lot on the protection and maintenance of the cultural relics of the Temple of Heaven. Many times of restoration and large-scale Landscaping have been carried out to make the ancient Temple of Heaven even more magnificent. Now the garden covers an area of 200 hectares, with a door on each of four sides. It also boosts more than 2,500 cypresses with a history of over 200 years. A large number of flowers are planted in Baihuayuan (the garden of flowers). In recent years, a unique garden with the connection of corridors and pavilions has been built in the north of Baihuayuan, adding attration to the landscape of the garden.
The State Council declared the Temple of Heaven as “national key culture relic protection unit” in 1961. It is included in the UNESCO world heritage list in 1998. The park of the Temple of Heaven was officially approved by National Tourist Administration to be national AAAAA tourist area on May 8,2007.
