The history of the ancient Chinese worshiping Heaven Ceremony dates back to 5,000 years ago.
The legend went that an ancient tribe leader, Huangdi, offered sacrifices to Heaven for a good harvest on a high altar, followed by the late kings and emperors from all dynasties, so a number of altars for offering sacrifices to Heaven were established successively.
The ancient people paid their homage to the altar to express their desires for happiness and longevity as well as a good harvest,which lasted for thousands of years as a tradition in Chinese history.
The sacrificial ceremony was endowed with special meaning by the ancient Chinese rulers, which plays an important part in people's social life.
As the most famous altar for worshiping Heaven in China, Beijing Temple of Heaven is located at No.
7 Tiantandongli, Chongwen District of Beijing, covering an area of 273 hectares, and it's four times larger than the Forbidden City and it initially functioned as a place for the Ming and Qing emperors to worship Heaven.
The Temple of Heaven is composed of the inner altar and the outer altar by two-layer walls.
The outer-layer wall and the inner-layer wall have a circumference of 6,416 meters and 3,292 meters respectively, and the southernmost part of the walls is square-shaped,symbolizing the Earth; while the northernmost part of the walls is semi-circle shaped, symbolizing the Heaven.
What's more, the north part of the walls is much taller than that in the south, which symbolizes the ancient Chinese philosophical ideas that "Heaven is higher than Earth" and "Heaven is round and Earth is square".
The main architectures are distributed along the south-north central axis in the Temple of Heaven, namely, Circular Mound Altar, Imperial Heavenly Vault, Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and Imperial Heaven Hall from south to north, which are well connected by a wide Vermilion Steps Bridge.
In addition, the Divine Kitchen, the Animal-Slaughtering Pavilion and the Hall of Abstinence are available in the Temple of Heaven, all of which are delicately designed with harmonious colors, and a number of old cypresses are planted in the scenic spot as well.
The Temple of Heaven was listed among "the Key Cultural Relic Units under China's State Protection" by China's State Council in 1961 andit was listed on "the World Heritage Sites" by UNESCO in 1998, which was chosen as the biggest worshiping-Heaven site in China by China's Word Record Association in 2009.
The best time to visit the Temple of Heaven is in spring and autumn every year.