Temple of Heaven 天坛公园

The Temple of Heaven is a place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties "sacrifice to the sky" and "pray for the valley", located on the east side of Zhengyangmen. The altar area is round in the north and square in the south, meaning "a place with a round sky". Surrounded by two altar walls, the whole altar is divided into two parts, the inner altar and the outer altar. The total area is 273 hectares. The main buildings are concentrated in the inner altar. The inner altar is divided into north and south parts by walls. The north is the "Praying Valley Altar", which is used to pray for good harvest in spring, and the center building is the Hall of Praying for Good Harvests. To the south is the "Wuqiu Altar", which is specially used to worship the sky on the "Winter Solstice". The center building is a huge round stone platform named "Wuqiu". The two altars are connected by a 360-meter-long corridor-Danbi Bridge, which is above the ground, forming a 1,200-meter-long axis of the Temple of Heaven from north to south, with a large area of ​​Gübelin on both sides