The Imperial Ancestral Temple is the temple for the ancient Chinese emperors. During the Xia Dynasty, the Imperial Ancestral Temple was called "Shiwu(pedigree house)"; during the Yin and Shang Period, it was called "Zhongwu(important room)"; in the Zhou Dynasty it was called "MingTang( enlightning hall)"; and during the Qin and Han Dynasties it was called "Taimiao(Imperial Ancestral Temple)".

At first, the Imperial Ancestral Temple was only a place dedicated to the ancestors of the emperor. Later, the spirit tablets of empresses and heroes could also be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple with the approval of the emperor. The plane of the temple is rectangular, 475 m (from north to south) by 294 m (from east to west), with three walls, and a three-story enclosed garden composed of three halls: the front, middle and rear halls.

Front Hall

On the north of the Ji Gate, that is the front hall, also known as the main hall, the privileged hall; it towers in the center of the entire Taimiao complex, with 11 rooms laterally, 4 rooms vertically, 2240 ㎡construction area; the main beams in the hall are covered with agarwood, other building components are precious Phoebe zhennan. The entire hall is built on the white marble Sumire base. The front hall is a place to enshrine the ancestral tablets of the imperial family, and at end of each year, the ascension to the throne, the royal wedding, the triumph, the prisoner taking and other ceremonies, the emperor and the ministers must come here to sacrifice. There are fifteen rooms in the front hall in the east and fifteen in the west, a large furnace next to the east rooms, and a small stove in the west, all of which are used for incineration.

Xiaojin Hall (Little Golden Hall)

The Xiaojin Hall is located on the north of the main entrance of the southeast sacrifice hall of the Taimiao Temple, and the glazed tiles imitate the formal building in the shape of mountains, with a stone foundation at the bottom, a green brick wall in the middle, and a red wall on the outside. The length of the hall is 5.2 m (from east to west), and the width (from north to south) is 6.08 m. The walls are very thick, the interior is 3.6 m long (from east to west), 4.5 m wide (from north to south), and the area is 16㎡. There is a small courtyard in front of the temple, which is 5.2 m long (from east to west) and 2.48 m wide (from north to south).

Address: East of Tiananmen Square, Dongcheng District, Beijing