Imperial Ancestral Temple
太庙
The Ming and Qing imperial ancestral temple east of the Forbidden City. It now houses the Working People's Cultural Palace, with a grand main hall and far fewer visitors than the Palace Museum.
The Imperial Ancestral Temple was first built in 1420, in the 18th year of the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty. It served as the family temple where Ming and Qing emperors worshipped their ancestors. It was built at the same time as the Forbidden City. Its Hall of Worship is eleven bays wide and is one of the largest surviving wooden halls in Beijing. Thousand-year-old cypresses grow throughout the courtyard. It is now the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace, with an entrance fee of about 2 yuan, and it holds exhibitions year-round. Enter from the east side of Tiananmen. A visit takes about an hour. Crowds are much lighter than at the Forbidden City, so it is a good place to see imperial architecture off-peak and to photograph the Forbidden City's corner towers from a distance. Pair it with Zhongshan Park.
Opening hours
6:30 am–8:00 pm (shorter hours in winter)
Nearby sights
- Tiananmen Square
- Zhongshan Park (Beijing)
- The Palace Museum (Forbidden City)
- National Museum of China
- Mausoleum of Mao Zedong
- Zhengyangmen (Qianmen)
- Wangfujing Street
- National Centre for the Performing Arts