Beijing attractions

 

 

Fayuan Temple is the oldest temple in Beijing and also China Buddhism College, and the Chinese Buddhism Books and Materials Cultural Heritage Center. 

Fayuan Temple has more than one thousand and three hundred years’ history. It covers a floor area of 6,700 square meters. The whole building complex is enormous in scale, well-design in structure, symmetric in layout. From south to north are respectively the Mountain Gate, Bell and Drum Tower, Tianwang Palace, Daxiongbao Palace, Minzhongtai, and Jingye Hall etc.

In Tianwang Palace, there is a bronze statue of Pu-Tai, the incarnation of Maitreya, it is beaming and joyful, the statue is in the height of 1.12 meters. Behind it is valor and awe-inspiring Buddhist guardian Weifo’s sitting statue, which is 1.7 meters tall. On the both sides are the four great Heavenly Kings’ statues. These are very precious.

Together with the temple weathered the ages, the plants in the temple are all with long history, such as luxuriant cypresses and pines, ginkgo and lilac. Emperor Qianlong had planted two crab-apples here, so it is quite famous for its crab-apple and lilac. The best time to visit Fayuan Temple is at the end of the spring and the beginning of the summer, you’ll be charmed by the sea of lilac.

Address : on the east side of southern end of the Jiaozi Hutong, Xuanwu District, Beijing, China.
Transportation : bus 6, 50, 53, 56, 61 or 109.