Ditan Park

Ditan Park Introduction

Introduction
Ditan Park is the Temple of Earth and complements the Temple of Heaven in the south of Beijing. The altar here is square, which represents Earth, while at the Temple of Heaven the altar is round to represent Heaven. The emperor would offer sacrifices to Heaven at the winter solstice and to Earth at the summer solstice.The Temple of Earth is o­ne of the key historic sites under national protection. It is located in Andingmen Outer Street in Dongcheng District. It was the place where the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty offered sacrifices to the Earth. It was the largest as well as the o­nly surviving o­ne of its kind. Sacrifices offered by 14 emperors continued here for 381 years until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. In 1925, it was made a park open to the public. In 1926, when troops were stationed here, it went into disrepair. In 1938, when Japanese invaders started to build an airport in the western suburbs of Beijing, they ordered residents of the requisitioned area to move here. That was when the park was closed to the public. Since 1949, it has been reopened as a public park. The temple is also known as the Fangzetan Altar. It was first built in 1530, or the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty it was expanded and rebuilt many times. The current layout came into being in the years of Qianlong, when Fangzetan Altar and Earth Deity Shrine, the principal parts of it, were rebuilt.

Ditan Park Features

Highlights
The park covers an area of 430,000 square meters, 374,000 square meters of which is officially managed. Facing north, it is encircled by two layers of square walls, which divide it into the inner part and the outer part. The inner wall has four gates in it, while the outer wall has o¬nly o¬ne gate in its west side. This latter gate is connected by an Altar Street to the Andingmen Outer Street. At the west end of the street is a wooden three-bay archway, with four pillars and seven layers, which serves to guide tourists to the temple. The central axis of the inner part is slightly inclined to the east. The main buildings are divided into three sections. The Fangzetan Altar and the Earth Deity Hall are o¬n the central axis. To the west of Fangzetan Altar are the sacred warehouse and the Slaughter Pavilion. To its northwest are such subsidiary buildings as Fast Hall, the bell tower, and the sacred stable. The inner eaves of the buildings are decorated with colored double-phoenix-and-imperial-seal patterns. The cypresses around them give them a solemn look.

Ditan Park Tickets

Ditan park fee and opening hours
Admission 1yuan
Opening hours 6:00-21:00

Ditan Park Transporation

Traffic
Bus 2、18、104、104k、108、113、119、407、803 to Ditan park station.
Bus 104,108 from Beijing station. Bus803 from Tiantan, Yongding gate.bus 27 from Zoo, Xizhimen.bue 13 from Yuyuantan, Sanlihe. Bus302,367 from Zhongguan village.