THE GUIDE - The Rough Guide to Beijing - page 109

Entered from a quiet hutong lined with shops selling incense, images and tapes of religious
music, the KongMiao , or ConfuciusTemple , is up there with Beijing's most pleasant sights.
One of the best things to do here is sit on a bench in the peaceful courtyard among the an-
cient, twisted trees and enjoy the silence, though there's plenty to look at inside, too. The
complex is split into two main areas: the temple proper to the east, and the easy to miss but
equally large old imperial college, Guozi Guan, to the west; in between the two sits a hall
containing the Qianlong stone scriptures , a Buddhist text consisting of 630,000 characters
written between 1726 and 1738.
The temple complex
Constructed in 1302-06, the temple is a charming place filled with carved steles, red-
lacquered wood and gnarled cypresses, some of which are over 700 years old; one, to the
southwest of the complex, is now a mulberry tree too, the ambitious mulberry seed apparently
dropped into the trunk by a bird. The buildings themselves are pretty ancient, too; parts of the
colossal DachengHall date back to 1411. The halls to its east and west were once sacrificial
venues, but are now employed as museums of sorts; these hold a diverse range of objects
from every dynasty, though the Tang pottery, which includes images of pointy-faced foreign-
ers, is most diverting. Small performances, featuring dancing girls in costume, take place to
the rear of the complex - the Confucius connection is rather weak, but they're enjoyable to
watch nonetheless.
Guozi Jian
国子监 , guózĭ jiàn
To the west of the temple complex is GuoziJian , the old imperial college, the temple's junior
by only two years and equally beautiful. After walking through the gigantic main gate, you'll
be confronted by the Memorial Arch , clad with orange and green tiles and featuring the
(slightly tatty) calligraphy of Emperor Qianlong. Behind this is the BiyongHall , set in a cir-
cular lake filled with carp; Qianlong used to give speeches here, backed by an elaborate fold-
ing screen, and replicas of both are now in place.
Ditan Park
地坛公园 , dìtán gōngyuán • Hepingli Xijie • Daily 6am-9.30pm • ￥ 2, ￥ 5 extra for altar and museum •
Yonghegong Lama Temple subway (lines 2 & 5)
Just north of Yonghe Gong is DitanPark , the northern member in the imperial city's original
quartet of four parks; there was one for each cardinal direction, with Tiantan (to the south),
Ritan (east) and Yuetan (west). Each park was the location for an annual sacrificial ritual;
as befits this park's name ( dì means “ground” or “earth”), this was where the emperor once
performed sacrifices to the earth god, using the huge, tiered stone platform just up from the
south entrance as an altar . A small museum next to it holds the emperor's sedan chair -
covered, of course, so that no commoner could glimpse the divine presence on his journey