Meet the skillful 'ancient tree doctor' at Temple of Heaven

Zhang Hui, a senior engineer at the Temple of Heaven, has been responsible for the protection and maintenance of ancient trees over the past 20 years. The ancient trees are irreplaceable, and she would make every effort to save them even there is only one leaf left, Zhang said. 　

The Temple of Heaven, located in Beijing's Dongcheng District, is set in gardens and surrounded by ancient trees. Ancient trees are an important part of heritage at the Temple of Heaven, and is called "living cultural relics".

Among the 3,562 ancient trees there, the oldest tree is 620 years old, according to Zhang Hui. 　

The Temple of Heaven, founded in the first half of the 15th century, is a complex of buildings where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China offered sacrifices to heaven and prayed for bumper harvests. It is the most complete existing imperial sacrificial building complex in China and the world's largest existing building complex for offering sacrifice to heaven. In 1998, the Temple of Heaven was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO.