English speaking guide will meet you at East gate of temple of heaven on 8:30AM or 11:00PM(two departure shifts). The Temple of Heaven is the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties “sacrificed to heaven” and “prayed for grain”. The park covers a total area of 273 hectares, and is the largest surviving ancient sacrificial complex in China. The history of the Temple of Heaven Park can be traced back to the 18th year of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to Beijing and built the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Beijing according to the rules of the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing. In the following year, Zhu Di held the first ceremony to celebrate the union of heaven and earth. In the ninth year of the Ming Dynasty (1530), Emperor Zhu Houjian decided to restore the old system of dividing heaven and earth into two separate rituals, and built the Huanqiu (圜丘) to the south of the Hall of Great Sacrifice, so that the ceremony could be held on the winter solstice.

The Temple of Heaven Park is surrounded by two altar walls and is divided into two parts, the “Inner Altar” and the “Outer Altar”. The northern part of the inner altar is round and the southern part is square, which means “Heaven is Round and Earth is Square”.