Beijing Ditan Park - The Temple of Earth

Beijing is such a loud city, and it was hard to find a piece of peacefulness. DiTan (The temple of earth) offered a place of quietness and all. It was also known as Fangze altar. The altar is the second largest one of five ancient altars in Beijing. Ditan Park was built in the ninth year of Emperor Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1530), and it was used to be the place where emperors in Ming and Qing feted the "Imperial Land God". The altar is also the largest one among the existing altars in China. The altar is shaped as a square and covers a total area of 37.4 hectares. The structure of building follows an ancient Chinese architecture rule of "round heaven and square land". 地坛又叫方泽坛，中国最大的祭地之坛，北京五坛中的第二大坛。大部分时候是个安静的公园，坐落着一些古建筑（已修缮），像是牌楼，方泽坛，斋宫，神马殿等等。园内参天古树一百多株，有些树龄超过三百年。夏天在树荫下坐一坐，沿着地坛方形围墙走几圈，看一看强身健体的市民们，是散心和冥想的好去处。春节有著名的地坛庙会。 门票两元，里面还有个皇祇(qí)室额外要五元门票。