Wanshou Temple

Wanshou Temple (Temple of Longevity), located in Suzhou Street, Haidian District, was first built in the Tang Dynasty, and named as Juse Temple at that time. After rebuilt in the 5th year under the reign of Wan Li of the Ming Dynasty (1577), the temple was renamed as Wanshou Temple. It is a national cultural heritage under special protection now.

Through large-scale construction during Ming and Qing dynasties, Wanshou Temple became a royal Buddhist holly land in combination of imperial temple, dwelling house and garden. It had ever been an important place for imperial family of Qing Dynasty to hold the observance of the emperor's birthday, and so reputed as "a small imperial palace in west Beijing" at that time. The temple is arranged in three lines, i.e. east, middle and west lines. Monks' residences are placed in the east line. The rooms in the west line were renovated as emperor's temporary residence during the reign of Qian Long of the Qing Dynasty. In the 20th year under the reign of Guang Xu of the Qing Dynasty (1894), Empress Dowager Cixi had the imperial residence rebuilt with more structures added. In those years, Cixi always came here to worship Buddha and take a rest in the imperial residence whenever she was on the way from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City. It was so called "small Ningshou Palace (Cixi's bedchamber)". All main buildings are placed in the middle line, including Heavenly King Hall, MahavTra Hall, Pavilion of Ten Thousand Buddhas (destroyed) and Meditation Hall. On back of them are some accessory buildings. Now, it is the site of Beijing Art Museum.

Beijing Art Museum contains nearly 50,000 ancient artworks from primitive society to Ming and Qing dynasties. Most of them are those of Ming and Qing dynasties with a wide .variety such as calligraphy & pamting, rubbing from stone inscription, brocade and embroidery, porcelain, furniture, coin and imperial seal. A lot of Buddhist relics collected are also very special, including some very rare treasures.