-- The highlight of the Temple of Heaven is the Hall of Prayer for Gdod Harvest. The hall was originally built in 1420 based on a model of the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing. At that time, it was called the Hall of Great Sacrifice. In 1530, the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing, so only heaven was worshipped here. The hall was restored in 1751 and given its present name. In 1889, lightning caused extensive fire damage to the hall, but fortunately it was reconstructed ...

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    -- The Circular Mound Altar, which was built in 1530 and enlarged in 1740. There are two walls walls that encircle the altar. Both walls are painted red and surrounded by blue tiles. Each wall represents something different. The round inner wall represents heaven while the square outer wall represents earth ...

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     -- North of the Circular Mound Altar is the Imperial Vault of Heaven, which was originally built in 1530 and rebuilt 1752. Its structure is made from wood and brick with a blue tiled roof that is topped with a gilded ball. It is 19. 5 meters high and 15; 6 meters in diameter. From a distance, the Imperial Vault of Heaven looks like a small version of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest ...

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     -- The park surrounding the Temple of Heaven is one of Beijing’s more popular public spaces. The park covers 270 acres, and is shaped like a square interposed with a circle on the north side. This symbolizes the traditional Chinese belief that Heaven is round and the earth if square. Nearly every facet of the park was designed with some sort of atrological symbolism in mind.

     -- The wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the well-known Huiyinbi (Echo Wall). It is 193.2 meters in circumference, 3.7 meters high, 90 centimeters thick and 65.1 meters in diameter. What is interesting for the wall is that if one person speaks or even whispers at one end, the other would be able to hear rather clearly on the other end. This is probably because the eaves of the wall and the hermetically laid bricks make human voice “travel” round the wall easily ...

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     -- In front of the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the Triple-sound Stone,also called Sanyinshi in Chinese. If one person stands on the first stone and speaks toward the hall, his sound can be heard once; if he does the same thing on the second stone, then his sound will echo twice; and if he speaks on the third stone three echoes will be heard ...

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     -- The Hall of Abstinence, Zhaigong in Chinese, is a group of houses located on the western side of the temple.

The Hall of Abstinence was first built in 1420 and rebuilt three times in the dynasty. Outside its two surrounding walls there are a moat and several hundred rooms for stationing the imperial guards. Only one stone bridge was accessible to the inner part of the palace ...

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