Temple of Dongyue - Zhihua Temple - Ritan Park - Xiushui Market

 
Being famous for its various temple fairs, the Temple of Dongyue attracts many visitors in and abroad everyday. You can take bus 101, 109, 112, 420, 855, 750 to get there, the address is 141, Chaoyangmen Wai Street, and admission fee is CNY10.00.

Dongyue Temple, Beijing

The Temple of Dongyue is the largest Taoism Palace in north China with 600 years history mainly worshipping the Emperor Dongyue, the god of Mt. Tai and he also takes in charge of Hades in legend. This temple is famous for the large amount of gods' statues, the steles and the couplets hung on the wall with the main buildings lying on the central axis. At the outside of the temple, you can see a big color-glazed archway and you may see the Bell Tower and Drum Tower after entering the temple. Go ahead and you can see Lingxingmen Gate, where you can see the inscribed tablet reading the Temple of Dongyue, written by Emperor Kangxi. The next you can see is Zhandaimen, and then pass through Fu Lu to visit the Daiyue Hall, the shrine dedicated to the Emperor of Dongyue, which is also the main hall of the temple. On the way, you can see a special mythical animal called Te with the donkey face, mule body, horse ears and cattle hoofs, which used to be the mount of a god. Go further and the last hall is Yude Hall. The backside of Yude Hall is the Museum of Folk Customs of Beijing. The exhibitions here are all related with the local folk customs. The museum holds special folk activities during the traditional holidays, such as the Spring Festival, the Dragon-Boat Festival, Mid-autumn festival and Double Ninth Festival. If you want to go inside to pay a visit, another CNY10.00 admission fee is needed. The Museum is closed on Monday.

Exit from the color-glazed archway of the Temple of Dongyue, go straight to west for about 140 meters along Xiasantiao, and then turn left at Yuanlao Hutong and walk to south for about 240 meters until reaching the Chaoyangmen Wai Street, and walk along the Chaoyangmen Wai Street to west for about 255 meters to take bus 101. You need to walk for another 133 meters to east after getting off at the Chaoyangmen Nei Street, then go down for about 261 meters to the second exit of the roundabout to reach Chaoyangmen South Street, and walk along this street for 0.7 kilometers to reach Jinbao Street. Then enter Jinbao Street and walk for 141 meters and turn right at Xiaopaifang Hutong and then again turn left at Lumicang Hutong and walk for about 50 meters, finally, you are at outside of the Zhihua Temple.

Here we suggest another route to Zhihua Temple to choose. After getting off at Chaoyangmen Nei Street, you can across the street and enter a road to south in front of Senhua Mansion. And you need to turn right at Hongyan Hutong until you reach Dongshuijing Hutong, and then turn right and go down to south, after passing Xiaopaifang Hutong, you can turn left at Lumicang Hutong, where the Zhihua Temple locates.

Zhihua Temple is a Buddha temple facing south and the admission fee is CNY10.00. After entering the main entrance, you can see the Drum Tower on your left and the Bell Tower on the right side. Go further along the central path, you are reaching Zhihuamen and take a visit to it. Then passing through the Zhihuamen, you can see Cang Hall is on the left and Dazhi Hall is on the right, Cang Hall is named after a cabinet for collecting Buddhist Scriptures. The next is the main hall, Zhihua Hall. Keep straight on until you see Rulaige and Wanfoge, the last building on the north is Jile Hall. Then exit in the same way.

Then walk to east end of Jinbao Street and after passing through the subterranean passage or the overline bridge, you can reach the Yabao Road. Yabao Road is a 300-meter-long business street, and the goods here sell well to Russian, East Europe, Africa and Arabia. You may have a look here on the way. After you get to the east end of this street, you can see the south gate of Ritan Park. Ritan Park used to be the royal temple for worshipping the God of Sun, and now it is a leisure park opened to public for free. You may visit the sights according to the clear signs of the park. Here we have a suggested route for your reference. Entering from the west gate, and then passing West Gate of Heaven and the Sacred Way to visit the Qinghui Pavilion. And then walk to Yuxin Garden and Peony Garden, then to Zaisheng Pavilion. After all these scenic spots, you can walk to the leisure places of local people, such as the golf course, free fitness place, adventure playground, etc. At last, you can visit the Quchishengchun Garden and then exit from the south gate.

Outside of South Gate, is Guanghua Road, you can walk to east until you reach East Bridge, and then turn to south until you reach the Jianguomen Wai Street, where you can see the famous Xiushui Market Building (Silk Market). Xiushui market is the only world-famous market in China and attracts many customers from domestic and abroad. Many foreigners call this market as OK Street, or Small Hongkong and Small Paris in China. There are no goods of well-known brand, but is well stocked with goods of all kinds, garments, pajama, underwear, hats, scarves, box, wrap, tie, vogue jewelry, pearl, carpet, chinawear, watch, ethnic attires, etc which are all available here. You can find everything that you can imagine and purchase with competitive low price, of course, you need time to find something you are interested for you or some presents for your friends with good quality. Bargaining with the shop keepers is a MUST and it is another kind of pleasure for shopping here. Nearly all the shop keepers can speak several languages, so please don't worry about the language barrier. The market will be closed at 21:00 and you can spend the rest of your time here.

The subway line 2 is available at Jianguomen Wai Street, or, you can walk to Yonganli Intersection West Stop and take bus 1, 4, 9, 120, 126, 673, 728, 802 to the destinations that you would like to go.