Located in the southeast part of the city, east of Tiananmen Square in the middle of Beijing, the Beijing Ancient Observatory stands high up on the top of a fort-like building at Jianguo Gate. From the avenue below, some of the various archaic instruments are clearly visible in the skyline, standing as anachronistic reminders of Imperial Beijing.

The Beijing Ancient Observatory was initially built in 1442 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and served as the national observatory in the Ming (1368-1644) and the following Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Architecture

As one of the oldest observatories in the world, the Beijing Ancient Observatory grounds cover an area of 10,000 square meters. The observatory itself is located on a 15 meter tall brick platform and about 40 x 40 square meters wide, an extant portion of the old Ming Dynasty era city wall that once encircled Beijing. Several of the bronze astronomical instruments are on the platform, and other armillary spheres, sundials, and assorted instruments are located nearby at ground level. It operates as a museum in affiliation with Beijing Planetarium.

An armillary sphere replica, similar to the one now at Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing

Four exhibition rooms are set in the quad under the platform: The Ziwei Palace and East Wing-room exhibited the "Lingtai Equipment", which introduces the site of Lingtai, the reform of existing ancient observatory and the production of astronomical equipment and etc; while the exhibition in the West Wing-room will enlighten you with the abundant calendars and important calendar reforms in China; the Shadow Observation House is the place that the astronomers in Ming and Qing Dynasty used to ascertain the time and conduct sun shadow measure.