September 14 (Tuesday): Capital Museum (首都博物館), Yonghegong Temple & Pine Hall Museum (北京松堂博物館)
By phone booking three days ago we got free admission to the Capital Museum (首都博物館 http://www.capitalmuseum.org.cn/en/index.htm). We went there by MTR. The Capital Museum determines its exhibition items by: permanent exhibitions, exhibitions of fine artistic collections and temporary exhibitions. Permanent exhibitions include "Ancient Capital: Chapter on the History and Culture of Beijing", "Ancient Capital: Urban Construction" and "Stories of the Capital City - Old Beijing Folk-customs Exhibition". The permanent exhibitions shows the splendid and glorious culture of Beijing, which has constantly evolved and gradually formed its splendid development of the capital. Exhibitions of fine artistic collection include "Exhibition of Ming-Qing Classical Paintings”, “Selected works of Ancient Calligraphy", "Selected works of Ancient Buddhist Statues”, “Selected works of Ancient Porcelain Art", "Selected works of Bronze Art in the Beijing Area", "Selected works of Ancient Jade Art" and "Selected works of Ancient Stationary and other Study Utensils". These exhibitions will allow visitors of the museum to deepen their understanding of the Chinese and Beijing culture. A total of 5,622 pieces of historical heritages are exhibited in all these exhibitions. The temporary exhibitions serve as a stage to study and appreciate the exchange relations between cultures of Beijing and the other regions and that of China and the world. We spent nearly three hours at the museum. It’s well worth the time and it’s free.
After a quick lunch at a nearby MacDonald, we took a taxi (quite far away and cost us RMB31) to the Lama Temple or Yonghegong Temple (雍和宮). It’s the largest lamasery in China (i.e. excluding Tibet). Building work on the Yonghegong Temple started in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. It originally served as an official residence for court eunuchs. It was then converted into the court of the Prince Yong (Yin Zhen), a son of the Kangxi (康熙) Emperor and himself the future Yongzheng Emperor. After Yongzheng's ascension to the throne in 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace. After Yongzheng's death in 1735, his coffin was placed in the temple. The Qianlong Emperor, Yongzheng's successor, gave the temple imperial status signified by having its turquoise tiles replaced with yellow tiles which were reserved for the emperor. Subsequently, the monastery became a residence for large numbers of Tibetan Buddhist monks from Mongolia and Tibet, and so the Yonghe Lamasery became the national centre of Lama Administration. The temple is said to have survived the Cultural Revolution due to the intervention of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. It was reopened to the public in 1981.

Afterwards we went to the nearby Confucius Temple (孔廟) & Imperial College (國子監) and had a look from the outside. Though we got a free guide of the Pine Hall Museum (北京松堂博物館) said to be the #1 Siheyuen (四合院) in Beijing by style or its famous distich (對聯):

“佛道儒鄰裹
真善美人家”

Besides aptly denoting its neighborhood (the Lama Temple, Confucius Temple and Imperial College) one can read the distich upside down, left or right.

For dinner we’d Szechuan food @ the Yuxiang Kitchen (渝鄉人家) opposite to Ascott. Its reasonably priced and the food quite good.


NB: Photos without metadata were taken by Nikon F6, the film camera