About 2km southeast of the Forbidden City towers Tian Tan, or the Temple of Heaven. Started to be built in 1420, it was the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshipped heaven and prayed for abundant harvests. As Chinese emperors called themselves Tianzi, or the son of heaven, they had to cede supremacy to the heaven in terms of abiding. The Temple consists of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven, the Circular Mound Altar, the Echo Wall and the Thrice-Reechoing Stone. Of exquisite architectural workmanship, the Temple of Heaven is the largest existing ancient architectural group for worshipping in China.

The temple plus subsidiary buildings and a surrounding garden covers an area five times the size of the Forbidden City. It has an area of 273 hectares with a layout in two squares one inside the other. Two walls divide the ground into the outer and inner parts. The outer wall is 6,416 meters long and the inner wall is 3,292 meters long. The northern part of the outer and inner walls is a semicircle and the southern part of them is square, declining from north to south to symbolize the traditional belief that Heaven was high and round and the earth was low and rectangular.

Chinese emperors had many other gods to worship apart from the god of heaven, including the gods of earth, water and war. They also worshipped their ancestors. As a result, religious activities were an important part of their busy work schedule. Temples of various kinds are scattered in Beijing. The best-known are the Temple of Heaven in the south, the Temple of Earth in the north, the Temple of Sun in the east, and the Temple of the Moon in the west. The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of them all. It is an outstanding representative of Chinese traditional architecture for its clever design and harmonious colors.