Besides the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven is one of the largest Ancient sites in Beijing. We visited there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. This area was built to honor the harvest season and the blessing of a great harvest. There was a festival held for this purpose at the Winter Soltice (or something like that). I do know it was built in 1530 and alot of the structures were in a circular shape. The carved marble terraces and and pillars and staircases and courtyards were very impressive. Once again, hard to imagine how long this place has been standing. The main Circular Temple was so intricately painted it was almost too much to absorb the immense detail.
There are 4000 Cypress trees on this site, some dating back 800 years! Cypress trees are a symbol of longevity and are planted at alot of the historic sites. You'll notice the roof tiles here are blue as opposed to the gold tiles at the Forbidden City. Gold was the color to denote the rulers and emperors and blue denoted the spiritual aspects of their lives.
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