Yunju Monastery

Yun Ju Temple is located 70kms away southwest from Beijing city. You can take bus No. 917, 922, 616, 759 or 971 to Liangxiang Stadium Road and connect bus 12 to the entrance of the Yun Ju Temple directly. You can also take the tourist bus No. 10 at Qianmen station from May to October, or take small public bus from Liu Li Qiao bus station to get to there. The buses run every 10 or 20 minutes and the driving takes about 2.5 hours. The admission fee is CNY40.00.

This temple was built in the late of Sui Dynasty which is more than 1400 years ago. After all these years repair and extended construction, it now occupies an area of over 70000 square meters and is a national AAAA tourism spot. The amount of the Buddhist scriptures collection here is magnificent including precious stone scripture, paper scripture and wood blocks scripture. It was said that the process of carving scriptures had lasted for 1039 years and passed through Sui, Tang, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming Dynasties in ancient China, and it was complimented as the "Dunhuang in Beijing".

This temple is facing east with six main Buddhist Halls along the central axis. The first you will see is Tianwang Hall. And after you go forward, you can visit Pilu Hall, Sakyamuni Hall, Pharmacist Hall, Mituo Hall and Dabei Hall. Actually, the original buildings were bombed and burned down by Japan Army in 1942, and only the ancient pagodas survived. The buildings you are seeing today were all reconstructed according to the original pattern by government in 1999. Go along the path in front of the Pharmacist Hall to south, you can visit the underground palace where the scriptures are kept. In the north part of the temple, one 30 meters pagoda from Liao Dynasty and four 3 meters pagoda from Tang Dynasty constitute the earliest example of the King Kong Throne Tower. Other brick or stone pagodas from Tang, Liao and Ming Dynasties are also valuable elegant works of art and world cultural heritages. The temple also houses two rare beaded Buddha shariputra, the remains of Sakyamuni Buddha relic after his cremation. This is also a highlight of the temple.

Shi Du Scenic Spots, Beijing

After finishing your visit of Yun Ju Temple, please go to the bus station to take 917 and continue your exploration to Shi Du National Geopark, which is also called the Ten Ferries. The scenic area is famous for karst, peaks and forests, and is the closest site to Beijing with this kind of unique landform. Shi Du got its name because of the ten ferries meandered by the Juma River, and it enjoys high reputation because of its beautiful natural scenery which is like a small-sized Guilin.

Shi Du is a very large scenic area and a half day may not be enough to see all of the scenic spots. We suggest you ask a map of this tourist spots and choose to visit your favorite ones. From the first ferry to the eighth ferry, you can see the heavenly like mountains, water, canyons, small waterfalls, caves, etc. The ninth ferry is the central tourist spot. A big 10-meter-high stone terrace named Wangfo Pavilion is on the east side of the river, the beauty of the eighth, ninth and tenth ferry will be all unfolded in your sight. Once you are here, you may feel like waling in a painting, and get totally relaxed from daily work and life. There is a comprehensive amusement park named Juma Paradise in Ten Ferry scenic spot area, you may take a try to the China first bungee jumping game here. If you are interested in bamboo raft, you can also enjoy yourself to the full here. If you are not having enough fun, you can stay in overnight at a local guesthouse and continue the visit on the second day.

When you plan to come back to Beijing, bus 917 is a good choice. Or you can take a mini-bus or a taxi to the railway station and take train 6096 at 19:12.