The royal temple to worship the God of Earth

Located in the northern part of central Beijing, the Temple of Earth is the second largest of the Five Temples of Beijing, be next to the Temple of Heaven. It is outside of Beijing's second ring road and just a few hundred yards north of Lama Temple. Besides, it is also the largest temple where to make sacrifice to the God of Earth in ancient China.

Before Ming Dynasty, the ceremony of worshipping God of Heaven and God of Earth were both carried out at the Temple of Heaven. This practice had come to the end in year 1530 when a new rule that sacrifices should be done at four different places which located at the four compass directions with the Forbidden City. As a result of that new rule, construction for the Temple of Earth had begun. Temple of Earth was built as the north of the Forbidden City while Temple of Heaven is located at the south of Forbidden City. Temple of Sun and Temple of Moon are situated at East and West side of the palace.

With an occupation of 37.3 hectares, the Temple of Earth is not that large compared to the Temple of Heaven (about 273 hectares). The layout of the temple is totally in accordance with Chinese traditional beliefs such as the "Heaven is round and the earth is square". Temple of Earth was divided into Inner Temple and Outer Temple enclosed by two walls in square. Main buildings are also circled with square walls.

On a north-south axis, the temple consists of 5 main buildings, the Fangze Altar, the Imperial Respecting House, the Sacrifice Pavilion, the Fast Palace and the Divine Warehouse. The Fangze altar is the main building of the temple, where royal family held sacrifice ceremony in ancient times. The altar is also square shaped with water channels. It used to be surrounded by water, but these days it is drained.

The temple itself is actually a very small park (comparing with the Temple of Heaven). The park is frequented by joggers and runners and rare to see foreign tourists. Since the 1980s, traditional Beijing temple fairs have been held annually here in Chinese Spring Festival. During the fair, there will be various cultural performances. Many folk cultures have been well preserved through the temple fair.