Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple)

Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple) tickets and tours: which one to book

The basic purchase at the Lama Temple is a timed entry ticket, and in recent years Beijing's main sights have required advance real-name booking with a passport number, so buying ahead online is the safest way to make sure you get in on the day you want. Several resellers offer the same entry with a QR code, a digital audio guide or a booking service for visitors who cannot use Chinese payment apps; the ticket itself includes a small bundle of incense sticks for offerings. Guided products come in a few forms. Short private walks of three to four hours combine the temple with the Confucius Temple and the Imperial Academy, which stand across the street, and often end with tea or dim sum.

Hutong tours, on foot or by bicycle, link the temple with the old lanes of Dongcheng and the Drum and Bell Towers. Full-day city tours add the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City or even a section of the Great Wall, usually with a Peking duck or noodle lunch, and include a car, a guide and the entry fees. There are also tours led by guides with a background in Buddhism, and a fast-track option that includes a blessing with incense. If you are travelling independently, the temple is one of the easiest Beijing sights to reach: Yonghegong station, on metro lines 2 and 5, is directly outside the south gate.

Visiting Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple): what to see and how to behave

The temple began in 1694 as a mansion for court eunuchs and then became the residence of Prince Yong, the fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor, who took the throne in 1722 as the Yongzheng Emperor. Because an emperor had lived there, the palace could not return to ordinary use, and in 1744 his son, the Qianlong Emperor, gave it to the monks of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It became the most important lamasery in China outside Tibet and Mongolia, survived the Cultural Revolution largely intact and is still home to resident monks. The complex is laid out along a north-south axis about 400 m long.

You enter through a long avenue shaded by trees and pass through a sequence of five main halls, each a step higher and more elaborate than the last, with yellow-tiled roofs that mark their imperial status. Look for the bronze figure of Mount Sumeru in one of the courtyards, the three Buddhas of past, present and future in the Hall of Harmony and Peace, and the Tibetan prayer wheels and mandalas in the side halls. The climax is the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses at the back, which houses a standing Maitreya Buddha carved from a single trunk of white sandalwood, 18 m above ground, a gift from the seventh Dalai Lama. Photography is not allowed inside the halls. Light incense only at the burners in the courtyards, using three sticks held at the forehead, and walk clockwise round the prayer wheels.

Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple): opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple opens daily from about 9 am until late afternoon, closing slightly earlier in the winter months; check the official site for the current hours and booking rules. Arrive at opening time, when the courtyards are calm and the monks are chanting, or after about 2 pm, when the morning tour groups have moved on. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons in Beijing; summer is hot and humid, and winter is cold but clear.

The temple is at its most crowded on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month and during the Spring Festival, when tens of thousands of Beijingers queue to offer the first incense of the year and access is sometimes restricted. The traditional masked dance of the monks, held in the first lunar month, is the most colourful ceremony of the year. Allow about 90 minutes. Combine it with the Confucius Temple and the Imperial Academy across the road, and the hutongs around Wudaoying and Guozijian streets, which have cafes and small restaurants.