天坛(tiān tán) - Temple of Heaven in Mandarin

天坛 (Tiāntán) is the Temple of Heaven, a Ming-dynasty complex in southern Beijing where emperors once travelled each winter to pray for a good harvest. 天 (tiān) means "heaven" or "sky" and 坛 (tán) means "altar" or "platform", so the name is literally "heaven altar".

The site's most photographed building is the round, triple-roofed hall with distinctive deep blue tiles, a colour chosen because blue represented heaven in imperial symbolism. The whole complex is built on strict circular and square geometry, because in traditional Chinese cosmology 天 (tiān) is round and 地 (dì), "earth", is square.

These days 天坛 (Tiāntán) doubles as a public park: locals gather in the surrounding grounds each morning for tai chi, cards and singing, which is not quite what a visitor pictures from the name "Temple of Heaven" alone.