Ritan Park

The Ming altar to the sun, built 1530 as one of the capital's five altars and now a 20-hectare district park in the middle of the first embassy quarter. The compounds of the United States (former), Britain, India, Vietnam and a dozen others stand on its four sides, which is why most foreign visitors meet it on the way to a consular appointment rather than as a sight. Free, no booking, listed as such in the city's official park register; only the altar wall and a few sacrificial buildings (the sacred kitchen and storehouse, the slaughter pavilion, the robing hall) survive in the west half.