简单的北京天坛导游词

　　Today, well go to visit the Temple of Heaven. First, I'll give you a brief introduction of it. The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing. It was first built in 1420 in the Ming Dynasty. It covers an area of 273 hectares. The Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple building in China, but also the largest heaven-worshipping architecture in the world.

　　Originally the Temple of Heaven was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, so both heaven and earth were worshiped here, then it was called Temple of Heaven and Earth at that time. In 1530, another structure, Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing and the Heaven and Earth were worshipped separately. Since only Heaven was worshipped in here, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven.

　　During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place where the emperors came to worship the God of Heaven and pray for good harvest. The emperors came here twice a year. The first time was on the 15 th day of the first lunar month. The emperor would come to the Hall of the prayer for Good Harvest and held a big ceremony to pray for a bumper harvest. The second time was on Winter Solstice, and a sacrificial ceremony would be held at the Circular Mount Altar to offer a sacrifice to the Heaven.

　　Being a sacred place for worshipping heaven, the Temple of Heaven had been twice seriously damaged by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860 and the invading troops of the eight powers in 1900.

　　Architecturally speaking, the Temple of Heaven has two themes: the heave and the earth. The surrounding walls of the Temple of Heaven are 6 meters high with a semicircular wall to the north and square shaped wall to the south. This represents an ancient belief that the heaven was round and the earth was square. There are three main buildings in the Temple of Heaven, they are: the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Heavenly Vault and the Circular Mound Altar.