- Location: Fangshan District, Beijing

Located in Shuitou Village, Shangle Township, southwest of Fangshan District, 75 km from Beijing downtown, Yunju Temple (房山云居寺塔及石经) was first built in the Sui Dynasty (581-618) by the famous monk Jingwan from the Zhiquan Temple in Youzhou. Two towers of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) stood by the side of the temple. However, the whole temple was destroyed in the anti-Japanese war, apart from the North Tower of the Liao Dynasty and the four towers built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The Four Tang Towers have a similar layout. Among them, the tower built in the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan reign (727) is the most significant. The body of the tower is carved with various kinds of images. Among them, a foreign donator with deep eyes and a high nose is very prominent, reflecting the booming cultural exchange with foreign countries during the most prosperous Tang Dynasty.

There are nine Stone-Carved Sutra storage caves to the northeast of the temple, featuring 4,195 pieces of stone carvings dating from the Sui Dynasty until the end of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Another sutra-storage cave was found near the south pagoda in 1956, including 10,082 flagstones with 3,400 volumes of scripture, making it the biggest existing storage place for stone-carved Buddhist Sutras in China.

Travel tips:

- Hours: 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. (summer);

              8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (winter);

- Admission: Junju Temple 40 yuan; Stone-Carved Sutra 15 yuan;

- Tel: +86-10-61389612

- How to get there: take bus No.917 or take bus No.922, 616, 759 and 971 and then transfer to 12.

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