Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven was constructed during the reign of the Yong-Le Emperor Ming Dynasty, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The complex was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven during the reign of the Jia-Jing Emperor in the 16^th century. Jiajing also built three other prominent temples in Beijing, the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west.

Temple of Heaven was renovated in the 18^th century under the Qian-Long Emperor of Qing Dynasty. This was also the last large-scale renovation in imperial times.

In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied the temple and turned it into the force’s commanding base during the Second Opium War, which lasted for one year. The occupation desecrated the temple and casued serious damage to the building and the garden.

In 1914, Yuan Shi-kai, then President of the Republic of China, performed a Ming prayer ceremony at the temple, as part of an effort to have himself declared Emperor of China. In 1918 the temple was turned into a park and for the first time open to the public.

The Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was described as “a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations…” as the “symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries.