Located in Dongcheng District, Beijing, the Ditan(Temple of Earth) Park  was a site for emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to perform earth worship rituals. It is the largest existing temple of its kind in China and is officially classified as a 4A-level scenic area, though it is not widely known. Many people only discovered it after reading works by the writer Shi Tiesheng.

Today, it is no longer the abandoned garden depicted in Shi Tiesheng's writings, nor is it just an ancient Jingzhao Park. It has evolved and been preserved as Ditan Park, maintaining its new and vibrant identity to this day.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Earth (Ditan) served solely as a site for worshipping the earth deity. In 1925, the mayor of Beijing transformed it into Jingzhao Park, which was renamed Citizen's Park three years later.

Ditan Park was established during the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty. It is the second largest of the five temples in Beijing, complementing the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan Park). As the largest remaining altar dedicated to earth worship in China, Ditan was primarily built to facilitate earth deity worship by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, serving as a "royal exclusive altar." Within the park, there are several significant structures, including the Imperial Vault, Fasting Palace and Fangze Altar.

The core attraction of Ditan Park is the Fangze Altar, which dates back to the Ming dynasty and was reconstructed during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty. The altar's square shape aligns with the ancient Chinese cosmological belief of "heaven is round, earth is square." While modern science universally acknowledges that the Earth is a sphere, in ancient times, with limited technological advancement, people relied on their observations to interpret the world, leading to such beliefs.

Ditan Park is designed for barrier-free access throughout.

Translator: DING Hongwei

Reviewer: BAI Jing