Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Day 72 - The Temple of Heaven

When I talk about the "Temple of Heaven" this means basically the whole complex of temples within the Tiantan Park. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Side, just as many other sights in and around Beijing as well.
Basically there are three main constructions. These are (From south to north, just as the Emperor always entered the park(click on the pictures for a magnified view)):

The Circular Mound Altar. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, where the Emperor prayed for favorable weather. The whole construction is based around the number 9 because odd numbers were meant to be for the heaven, so there are e.g. 9 rings of stones to build the platforms.

Then there is The Imperial Vault of Heaven, which is a circular temple within a circular wall - The Echo Wall - that should transmit sounds over to the other side. So, all the Chinese stand there shouting and listening to the wall... :-D of course there were too many people shouting...


Finally there is the The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, which most people would mean when talking about the Temple of Heaven. It is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 32 meters in diameter and 38 meters tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The building is completely wooden, with no nails!!!

This whole thing is veeeeeery old. The park was constructed from 1406 to 1420, but of course was renovated couple of times - but still, it is one of the nicest temple complexes in Beijing - in better shape than the Forbidden City is.
As it is one of the main attractions in Beijing it has t be visited, besides that it is just another temple in another park ;-)

Just next to it is the "Pearl Market", very similar to the Silk Street - no need to go there. It is basically the same, but the sellers may not be sooo pushy... Silk Street is just unique ;-)

Check out more pictures - starting here. Good bye!

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