Beijing: Forbidden City, Coal Hill and Temple of Heaven

We will arrive in Beijing in the early morning and visit the Forbidden City (Palace Museum). "Forbidden" referred to the fact that nobody could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Built from 1406 to 1420 by the 3rd Ming Emperor Yongle, the complex consists of 9999 rooms (one short of the heavenly number of 10000) and covers 720,000 square meters.

The Forbidden City is surrounded on three sides by imperial gardens. We will visit Jingshan Park in the north, also known as Coal Hill, an artificial hill created from the soil excavated to build the moat and from nearby lakes.

The Temple of Heaven „Tian Tan“ - the perfection of Ming architecture situated in southeastern Beijing in Xuanwu District - has come to symbolize Beijing. Construction of the complex began in 1420, and was thereafter visited by all subsequent emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for good harvests, seek divine clearance and atone for the sins of the people. The northern end of the park is semicircular and the southern end is square – a pattern deriving from the ancient Chinese belief that heaven is round and earth is square. The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of the four great temples located in Beijing. The other prominent temples include the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west.

The main building of the whole complex is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, which is a magnificent piece mounted on a three-tiered marble terrace. It was built 1420 by the Emperor Zhu Di (Yongle), consumed by fire in 1889 and re-erected the following year. The wooden pillars support the 38m high ceiling without a single nail.

The octagonal Imperial Vault of Heaven is structured along the lines of the older Hall of Prayer of Good Harvests, though it is smaller. It used to contain tablets of the emperor’s ancestors, which were used in the winter solstice ceremony. Surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the Echo Wall, where a whisper can travel clearly from one end to the other. The Three Echo Stones are just outside of the gate of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. If you speak facing the vault while standing on the first stone, you will hear one echo; standing on the second and then the third stone, you will hear two and three echoes respectively.

The 5m high Round Altar was constructed in 1530 and rebuilt in 1740. It is composed of white marble arrayed in three tiers, and its geometry revolves around the imperial number nine. Odd numbers were considered heavenly and 9 is the largest single-digit odd number. The top tier – thought to symbolize heaven – has nine rings of stones, each ring composed of multiples of nine stones, so that the ninth ring has 81 stones. The middle tier – earth – has the 10th to 18th rings and the bottom tier – man – has the 19th to 27th rings, ending with a total of 243 stones in the largest ring. The number of stairs and balustrades are also multiples of nine.

The 360m long and 30m broad Danbi-Bridge connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The south end of the Bridge is lower than its north end. The emperors believed that they could go to heaven through this bridge, which is why it is also called “Sacred Way”.

In the evening you can visit a Beijing opera performance (optional).