Five altars are the total name of the Altar of Heaven, of Earth, of Sun, of Mun, and Ancestors. They were all built-in Ming Dynasty and continued to use in Qing Dynasty. They are places where emperors held to worship the gods of sky, earth, sun, moon, mountain and so on.

The eight temples refer to Ancestral Temple, Hall for Ancestry Worship, Chuanxin Hall, Shouhuang Hall, Yonghe Temple, Tangzi Manchuria Temple, Confucian Temple and the Temple of Ancient Monarch. These places in the feudal era were the places where emperors sacrificed ancestors, gods, Buddhas, and sages of all dynasties. Except for Fengxian Hall and Chuanxin Hall, which are in the Forbidden City of the Forbidden City, the rest are all outside the City.