Built in 1530, the Altar of Earth is located in the northern part of Beijing, a little way off Andingmenwai Street. Extending over an area of 37 hectares, it was surrounded by a double square enclosure. The outer enclosure no longer stands but its west gate remains.
For more than four centuries, the Altar of Earth was the sacred place where the emperors of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties worshipped the God of Earth. The place, formally reopened in 1984, has been converted into a park mainly serving the aged.
A centre for the aged opened there in 1984. At the centre, the public can play chess, billiards, and table tennis, or listen to lectures on flower-growing, learn taijiquan (a kind of traditional Chinese shadow boxing) or qigong (a system of deep breathing exercises).
The largest structure in the Altar of Earth is the altar known as Fangzetan - so called because a moat surrounds it. A sculpted stone dragon head is fixed on the west side of the southwestern corner of the moat wall; water was brought from a well through the dragon head. Fangzetan was built on a north-south axis, and it is surrounded by two square enclosures, both painted red and surmounted with yellow glazed tiles. Both Inner and outer enclosures have triple white marble gates to the north and one gate to the east, south and west.
The altar is a two-tiered square terrace surfaced with flagstones; its facades are yellow glazed bricks. Each terrace is one metre high and has a flight of eight steps leading up to it. The upper terrace is 20 metres wide and the lower one 35 metres. The even numbers six and eight, symbols of the earth, and multiples of six and eight recur several times in the arrangement of the square flagstones. On the west and east sides of the lower terrace lie four groups of stone sculptures, 23 in all. They symbolize 15 mountains, including Mount Taishan and Mount Huashan; four rivers, including the Yangtze River and Yellow River, and four seas (ancient Chinese believed that China was surrounded by four seas). There are more than 20 holes in the two terraces. They held flagstaffs and poles for banners and tents used during ceremonies. The ceremonies for worshipping the Earth took place once a year, at the summer solstice.
In 1420, the third Ming Emperor Yongle had the Temple of Heaven and Earth built in the southern part of Beijing. There he offered sacrifices to Heaven at the annual winter solstice and to Earth at the summer solstice. Having received a suggestion to worship Heaven and Earth separately, in 1530 Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566) ordered that the Circular Mound Altar be constructed for the worship of Heaven in Tiantan (now called the Temple of Heaven) and that Fangzetan (Square Stream Altar) be constructed for the worship of Earth in the Northern City. Fangzetan was renamed Ditan in 1534.
