Royal Ancestral Temple, built in the 18th year of Emperor Yongle at Ming Dynasty (1420), is the place where Ming and Qing emperors held a memorial ceremony for their ancestors. With an area of over 200 mu, it was constructed following the traditional rituals of honoring the heaven and abiding the forefathers. The ceilings and pillars were decorated with gold and refined sculptures in flower patterns in a luxurious manner.

Royal Ancestral Temple is the place where emperors held ancestor worship ceremonies. The main hall has fifteen side halls on both sides. In the east hall, tablets in memorial of imperial family members with contributions were consecrated while tablets in memorial of contributors from other families were consecrated in the west hall. Behind the main hall are nine halls with yellow glazed tiles. The middle hall is called Bedding Hall and the back hall named Tiao Temple. In addition, there are the divine kitchen, divine store, butcher pavilion and room for sacrifice processing. The Ancestral Temple is known for its hundred-year old and strong cypresses in various forms with distinctive features. Since the outbreak of Xinhai Revolution, Royal Ancestral Temple was still in the possession of the Qing. In 1924 it evolved into the Peace Park and was renamed to Working People’s Cultural Palace in 1950. In January 1988, it was listed into the key cultural relic site under state protection.The front hall is the major one among the three main halls, where the emperors hosted a grand sacrifice ritual.The front hall, initiated in Ming Dynasty, had only three halls and pillars left in the transitional period between Ming and Qing. During Emperor Shunzhi’s reign, the temple was renovated. The new hall has eleven columns and four columns in depth. It has multiple eaves and rows of ridges. And above hangs the plaque inscribed “Tai Miao” in both Chinese and Manchu language. The three-layer pedestal stage outside the hall was surrounded by a fence in white marble. On the façade of the imperial platform path were inscribed with dragon trace, grain of lions and sea beats. Crossbeams within the hall are made in agarwood and the else in elm, floors paved with gold bricks and ceilings and pillars decorated with red gold blades. The base for monument placement was made in wood and brushed with gold lacquer. And the façade of the base with sculpted with dragon while the back with phoenix. In front of the base are offerings, incense burner tables and copper stoves. Memorial tablets of the imperial kinsmen and meritorious statesmen are placed in side halls.The middle hall, nine columns in length and four columns in breadth, is connected to the front hall by a stone platform, with two stone lamps on each side down the staircase outside. Within the hall, the first founder of a dynasty was worshiped in the centre room while the rest emperors in other rooms. Out of the shrines are holly chairs in the same quantity to worship the empresses. The Ming dynasty worshiped only the first wives while in Qing dynasty, succeeding wives were also taken into account. The middle hall is the place where monuments in memorial of emperors and empresses were placed initiated in the 18th year of Emperor Yongle’s reign (1420), it has ceilings with single eaves and is paved with yellow glazed tiles. It is nine columns in length (62.31 meters) and four columns in breadth (20.54 meters). Ancestors are worshiped in the same hall but in different rooms. Each room contains holly chair, incense burner tables, beds, mattress and pillows. Monuments are placed on top of mattress to implicate the daily life and peaceful sleep of ancestors. In late Qing dynasty, Nurhaci, Huang Taiji, Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and their queens were worshiped. Their monuments were moved to the hall one day before the worship ceremony and returned where they were when the ceremony was over.The back hall, surrounded by red walls, has five columns in breadth and nine columns in length. The staircase outside the hall was sculpted with dragon trace. Emperors and empresses that were canonized before the founding of Qing Dynasty were worshiped here. It’s also named Tiao Hall to restore the sacrifice appliance. Now it has been secularized.