Inside Beijing's Temple of Heaven

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Inside Beijing's Temple of Heaven NPR's Steve Inskeep and Jennifer Pak visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. World Inside Beijing's Temple of Heaven May 15, 20264:44 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Steve Inskeep , Jennifer Pak Inside Beijing's Temple of Heaven Listen &middot; 3:26 3:26 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5822259/nx-s1-9771484" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript NPR's Steve Inskeep and Jennifer Pak visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Sponsor Message STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: During their summit here in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping took President Trump to the Temple of Heaven. The landmark was closed for their visit. It reopened today, and people danced under the trees.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language). INSKEEP: Crowds flowed toward the temple, which is a cluster of red buildings surrounding a wooden tower. This must have been a breathtaking structure to behold when it was built in 1420. The size, the scale is immense. JENNIFER PAK, BYLINE: It's breathtaking now. INSKEEP: We were there with our China correspondent, Jennifer Pak, and a few thousand friends. I know we're trying not to photobomb people 'cause everyone's taking a picture. But there is no way... PAK: It's impossible. INSKEEP: There's no way to avoid photobombing people. PAK: It's impossible. Now you can see the scale of maybe what 1.4 billion people might be like. INSKEEP: Jasmine Ling is our producer here in Beijing. So we have what looks like a gold-framed picture, immense, at the top of this temple, and it's a field of blue and three Chinese characters. What do they say? What do they mean? JASMINE LING, BYLINE: It says in Chinese, (speaking Chinese). And that means hall of prayer for good harvest. INSKEEP: In 1420, only an emperor could have commanded the resources to build this. It expressed the emperor's power. The temple was also a source of power. It was said the Chinese emperor ruled thanks to the mandate of heaven. Jennifer Pak says Beijing's newer buildings also send messages about power. She moved here 20 years ago when China was building new skyscrapers, like the one whose shape reminds people of a pair of pants. PAK: It is a monstrosity. This is the state broadcaster CCTV's building. And remember, this was back in 2006, 2007, leading up to the Beijing Olympics, which was really China's coming-out party. They were trying to say to the world, we have arrived. And for foreign observers, I think they were looking for signs of China opening up, which really meant Western signals. So you see these architectures that are steel structures, that are futuristic-looking, and they said... INSKEEP: A lot of glass. PAK: Yeah. And they say, wow, this is China. It's going to enter into the modern world 'cause that was the basis of the U.S.-China relationship. INSKEEP: What has China's president, Xi Jinping, said about that wild architecture of modern times, that said China is international and open to the world? PAK: Apparently, he's not a fan because in 2014, he said people should stop building these weird buildings. Those were his actual quotes. And he came in and basically said we should have cultural confidence. We should be confident in our Chineseness, in our Chinese history. That's why, when visiting dignitaries, including President Trump comes, that's where they bring them to, a place like this, to show... INSKEEP: The Temple of Heaven. PAK: Yeah, to show them the awesome power of China's buildings. INSKEEP: We don't know what's really going through the presidents' minds, but I would imagine when two presidents stand outside something like this place, the Temple of Heaven, a thought that might occur to them is, there was an emperor hundreds of years ago, and he built this thing, and it's still here for people to look at today. PAK: Absolutely. And I think President Xi had told President Trump that you want to make America great again. I want to make the Chinese rejuvenation, the Chinese dream come true. INSKEEP: Jennifer Pak, it's great to visit you here in Beijing. This has been fun. Thank you. PAK: Thank you so much. INSKEEP: We were visiting the building that President Xi showed President Trump yesterday. Today, Trump is returning to Washington, where he has building projects of his own. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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