In the Zhongshan Park in central Beijing lies a terrace filled and surfaced with earth of five different colours. This is Shejitan (the Altar of the Land and Grain), popularly known as Wusetu (Five-Coloured Earth).

The classical sense of the word "she" means the God of the Land or Soil, while "ji" refers to the God of Grain. Shejitan was the site where ancient emperors held rites of worship and offered sacrifices to the Gods of Land and Grain and prayed for good harvests.

The terrace is an elevated square bordered with three tiers of low walls of white marble. The surface earth shows five patches of different colours with nuclear demarcation - green to the east, red to the south, white to the west, black to the north and yellow in the middle. The arrangement symbolizes the ancient principle that "all earth under the sky belongs to the emperor".