Fayuan Temple sits in a dense residential quarter of southern Xicheng, in lanes that have been lived in for far longer than most of Beijing's reconstructed historic streets. It is traditionally dated to the middle of the seventh century, when a temple was founded on the site to pray for soldiers lost in the campaigns of the early Tang, and although its buildings have been rebuilt many times since, the site and the layout have not moved. It is one of the oldest religious foundations in the city and, because it is a working institution, one of the least visited.
The temple today
The complex follows the standard arrangement of a Chinese monastery along a central axis: a gate hall with guardian figures, a hall of heavenly kings, a main hall with a seated Buddha, and further halls behind, with side courtyards and cloisters. In Fayuan's case the buildings are Qing, with the plain grey brick and dark timber typical of Beijing rather than the bright paint of a tourist temple, and the courtyards are filled with old trees - pines, cypresses, lilacs and a pair of ancient ginkgos. Since the 1950s the temple has housed the Chinese Buddhist Academy, the training college for monks, and a Buddhist library, so you will meet students and resident monks rather than tour groups.
The surrounding quarter
The temple stands in Niujie, the historic Muslim quarter of Beijing, which gives the neighbourhood an unusual character: within a short walk you find the city's largest mosque, a long-established halal food trade with its own bakeries and butchers, and lanes of low courtyard houses and shops. This is one of the few parts of the old city where a walk between two buildings of completely different traditions takes ten minutes. The lanes are narrow and busy with scooters, and the food is cheap and good, particularly the beef and mutton pastries and the pressed bean curd.
Practical notes
The temple is open to visitors daily, charges a small admission and closes in the early afternoon; as an active monastery it also closes to tourists on major Buddhist festival days, when it is full of worshippers. Photography inside the halls is restricted, and dress should be modest. It is a short walk from a metro station in the Niujie area. Allow an hour for the temple and another hour for the surrounding lanes and the mosque, which together make one of the most rewarding and least crowded half days in central Beijing.
