552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
form, as it were, a glorious crown for the capital of the Empire. The 
approaches to the pagoda, which were also built by K’ien-lung, lead 
through a marble gate. The spires of the pagoda then appear 
visible in the distance behind a second gate. The marble structure 
stands upon a high platform and is most elaborately covered with 
ornamentations and Buddha reliefs, and carries on top five four-sided 
pagodas. Here there is a cypress tree, with nine sacred branches, 
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Fig. 5.—Temple of Heaven in Peking. Sacrificial altar. 
that was planted by the late Empress-Dowager with her own hands. 
The buildings are in a dense grove of cypresses and pines, among 
which a species of pine, the Pinus bungeana, that has a snow-white 
bark. In the soft moonlight this grove is enchanting. 
The ascent is by a wide staircase, the Buddhas greeting from above. 
Comfortable steps lead up into the interior of the buildings to the 
uppermost terrace on which the pagodas stand—one in the middle 
