Temple of Heaven - Circular Mound Altar, Beijing

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This is a large altar, at the south end of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It’s three marble tiers symbolise earth, man and heaven. There is a centre stone on the top tier from which the Emperor sacred prayers from a stone tablet, everyone was waiting to have their photo taken on here! The Emperor would come here every year on the Winter solstice and offer sacrifices to heaven. There is a lovely view from up here of the buildings below.

Also known as Heaven Mound Altar, it is five metres high and of three tiers. Around each tier there are white marble balusters.

During the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Emperor would come into this mount in the early winter time and give respect to heaven and also pray for peace and a good harvest.

Although it is hard to tell from the photo, this round altar is actually 5 metres high. If you enlarge the photo and count the stones, you will see that with the exception of the middle stone that I am standing on (looking every inch the sad tourist), every ring of stomes around it is in the multiple of nine. The first one has nine, the second 18. There are nine rings, so the last ring has 81 stones.

Why all of these nines? Well odd numbers were considered heavenly in ancient China, and as 9 is the largest single digit odd number, this apparently made it even more heavenly (there must be some logic in there somewhere!).

If you go around the outside, you can also count that the number of stairs and balustradesaround the altar are also in multiples of nines.

Oh, and by the way, if you stand on the middle stone and talk/sing/shout, you will find your voice is naturally amplified due to sound waves in your voice bouncing off all of the marble.

The Circular Altar is a three-tiered marble terrace. It was built in 1530 and enlarged in 1749, with all of its stones and balustrades organized in multiples of nine. Nine is the best number according to Chinese and only the Emporer is allowed to use it.

Here, a slaughtered bull would be set ablaze, the culmination of an elaborate ceremonial entreaty to the gods.

This three-level altar made of white marble is five metres high. The whole construction is based on number 9 considered to be divine. It consists of 9 rings, each made of the number of stones which is the multiple of nine. The number of steps is also the multiple of nine.