天坛中英文介绍

The Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in

Beijing. It is much bigger than the Imperial Palace (the

Forbidden City) and smaller than the Summer Palace with an

area of about 2 700 000 square meters. The temple was built

in 1420 A.D. in the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven.

As Chinese emperors called themselves “the Son of Heaven”,

they dared not to build their own dwelling “Forbidden City”

bigger than the dwelling for Heaven.

The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and reflects an ancient Chinese thought of “The heaven is round and the earth is square”.

The Temple of Heaven is divided by two enclosed walls into inner part and outer part. The main buildings of the temple lie at the south and north ends of the middle axis line of the inner part. The most magnificent buildings from south to north are the Circular Terrace, the Imperial Heavenly Vault and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Also, there are some additional buildings like Three Echo Stones and Echo Wall.

Circular Terrace has three layered terraces with white marble. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368A.D.~1911A.D.), the emperors would offer sacrifices to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. This ceremony was to thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in

the future. Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

is a big palace with round roof and three

layers of eaves, the roof is covered with

black, yellow and green colored glaze

representing the heavens, the earth and

everything on earth. Another important

building in the Temple of Heaven is

Imperial Heavenly Vault. If you look at it

from far away, you will find that the vault is like a blue umbrella. The structure of it is like that of Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, but smaller in

size. The vault was made of bricks and timber, with white marble railings surrounded.

Three Echo Stones is outside of the gate of Imperial Heavenly Vault. If you speak facing the vault while standing on the first stone, you will hear one echo; standing on the second and the third stone, you will hear two and three echoes respectively.

Another interesting and famous place for you to visit is called Echo Wall owning special feature. The wall encloses Imperial Heavenly Vault. Its perimeter is 193 meters.

If you and your friend stand at the east and the west roots of the wall respectively and you whisper a word, then your friend will hear clearly what you say. Isn’t it interesting? The phenomenon utilizes the theory of sound wave.

天坛

在北京，天坛是一个值得参观的地方。它的面积约为270万平方米，比故宫（紫禁城）大得多，比颐和园小。天坛始建于明代公元1420年，为祭天之用。由于中国皇帝自称“天之子”，所以他们不敢使自

己的住宅“紫禁城”比天的大。

天坛被长长的围墙围着。墙里的北

面部分是象征着上天的半圆环，南部是

象征着大地的方形广场。北部高于南部。

这种设计显示天在上，地在下，反映了

中国古代人民“天圆地方”的思想。

两层围墙把天坛分为内坛和外坛。

天坛的主体建筑位于内坛中轴线的南北两端。最宏伟的建筑物从南到北依次是圜丘坛、皇穹宇和祈年殿。还有其他的建筑物，如三音石和回音壁。

圜丘坛是三层汉白玉构成的平台。在明朝时期（公元1368年~公元1911年），皇帝将在每年的冬至祭天。此仪式是为了感谢上天并祈愿将来一切都好。祈年殿是一座大殿，圆顶，有三层屋檐。祈年殿屋顶都铺上了黑色、黄色和绿色的琉璃瓦，象征着天、地和地上的万物。天坛另一个重要的建筑是皇穹宇。如果从远处看，你会发现皇穹宇像一把蓝伞。它的结构和祈年殿类似，但规模较小，由砖和木材构成，并被白色大理石栏杆围绕着。

三音石位于皇穹宇的门外。如果你面向皇穹宇说话，站在第一块石头上，将听到一声回音；站在第二块石头上，将听到两声