Imperial Ancestral Temple

This guide to the Imperial Ancestral Temple in Beijing opens in 1402, when the prince Zhu Di seized the throne from his own nephew, who vanished during the fall of Nanjing, and then built this temple beside his new palace to secure his ancestors' blessing on a crown taken by force. You'll hear about the private gates linking temple and palace, the three-tiered platform reserved for the most sacred ground in the city, and the nanmu-wood columns still holding up the hall's roof. A six-hundred-year-old cypress near the entrance is said to have been planted by Zhu Di himself.