Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Park was built between 1406 and 1420 and was used by the Emperor to communicate directly with Heaven. The emperor would come to pray for good harvests, enough rain, etc several times a year. The temple consists of four major parts - the Round Altar, Echo Wall, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The buildings all run along the north/south axis of the park and are joined by a 30 metre wide, 4 meter above ground promenade (Bridge of Vermilion Stairway). The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was built between 1406-1420 but the other structures were added later in about 1530.
Entry to the park itself was Y4 and we entered at the West Heavenly Gate. We then walked up to the main (tourist) attraction, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests via a fantastic tree lined avenue. Admission to The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was a further Y10, but this also included entry to the Round Alter and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The Hall was spectacular and well worth seeing. It is one of the only examples of Ming architecture left in Beijing (although it was 'faithfully reconstructed' after burning down in 1889). Most other Ming buildings, including the Forbidden City were destroyed when the Qing Dynasty came to power. The building itself is 38 m high yet it doesn't have a single nail in it! It stands on a three tiered marble terrace that was very similar in design to those we had seen in the Forbidden City and Beihai Park. Behind the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was the Hall of August Heaven. This was filled with a display of different relics. A couple of the other buildings on each side of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests had also been turned into museums and we spent a bit of time looking at the things in them.
From there we went to the Round Altar, where the emperor talked directly to god as the 'collective voice of the whole nation'. It has been constructed in such a way that your voice is amplified to become 'sonorous and resonant'. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me. We had to bypass the Imperial Vault of Heaven and Echo Wall because we ran out of time. I would have liked to visit Echo Wall because, apparently, if you whisper along the inner wall, it can be heard round the other side. However the number of people around meant that it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.