Imperial Hall of Heaven
Another important main building in this area is the Imperial Hall of Heaven, which is located to the north of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, connecting with the Altar for Grain Prayers by three glaze doors. It used to be the place where God tablets were consecrated. The gate on the west side is called the Guxi Gate (Guxi means seventy years old). The roof of the hall is covered with blue colored glaze. Under the eave, there is a board reading "the Imperial Hall of Heaven" inscribed by Emperor Jiajing. Inside the hall, there are house-shaped shrines holding god tablets. On the first and fifth day of each lunar month, officials would sweep the dust and burn the incense there. The emperor would give a ritual there on the eve of the Ceremony of Worshipping Heaven.

On the two sides of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests are the West Annex Halls and the East Annex Halls. The two annex halls used to be the storeroom of divine tablets. Now the West Annex Halls are set as a Worshipping Heaven Ceremony Exhibition Hall, displaying sacrificial utensils and the whole procedure about worshipping heaven by the emperor. There is an excellent picture about Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) showing the highest ritual in the Qing Dynasty. The East Annex Halls are now changed into a Worshipping Music and Dancing Hall, exhibiting Shao Music instruments, such as bells and chimes. By means of text description, pictures, light boxes, models, sound and electricity, etc., the music and dancing scene of the ceremony is vividly demonstrated to the visitors.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a masterpiece of wood frame construction. Inside the hall there is no beam, but 28 Phoebe columns and 36 pieces of interconnected squared rafters. These large columns have different symbolic meanings: The four posts along the inner circle represent the four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter; the 12 posts along the middle circle represent the 12 months; and the 12 along the outer circle represent 12 Shichen (an ancient Chinese timing unit equaling two hours). The ceiling and the columns are decorated with fine colorful paintings. In the central hall, there is a flat circular marble with naturally formed dragon and phoenix patterns, and the name "dragon and phoenix stone" was thus given. According to legend, originally the stone only had a phoenix pattern, while there was a dragon pattern on the ceiling. As time went by, the dragon and the phoenix fell in love with each other. The dragon always flew down to date with the phoenix. Unexpectedly, one day, Emperor Jiajing (1507－1567) of the Ming Dynasty held a worship ceremony in the hall, and knelt down on the stone. It was too late for the dragon to fly back and it was pressed into the stone forever. Today you can see the dragon and the phoenix together on the stone. Standing in the middle of the hall, the Sacred Altar is the most sacred part, on which the Heaven Great Tablet is placed. On the eastern and western sides of the Sacred Altar stand four ancestral tablets of Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) respectively.