Tiantai Mountain Charity Temple

Tiantai Mountain Charity Temple

Charity Temple is a protected cultural heritage site of Beijing.

Destination Introduction

Charity Temple is situated on Tiantai Mountain in Shijingshan District. Located atop the mountain, it is also referred to as Tiantai Temple. The exact time of its establishment is unclear, but it is believed to have been a temple by the early Qing Dynasty.

General Feng Yuxiang once resided there in seclusion, which is why the surrounding rocks feature many of his inscriptions, such as “True Hardship” and “Diligence and Frugality Are Treasures,” all written in large characters.

The temple is divided into three sections: central, eastern, and western, with the Grand Mercy Hall (Dabei Hall) in the western section as the main structure. This three-bay hall houses a gold-lacquered wooden statue of Guanyin in the center, flanked by eight other deities including Bixia Yuanjun. It’s rare in the suburbs of Beijing to find a hall where Buddhist and Taoist figures coexist.

On the southern hillside stands a Tibetan-style stupa, about 10 meters tall, said to be the relic pagoda of Monk Demon King. On the 15th day of the third lunar month, the day believed to be when Monk Demon King attained enlightenment, Charity Temple holds a three-day temple fair and attracts large numbers of worshippers, making it one of the most popular temples in western Beijing. Most of the temple buildings remain intact, though most of the statues have been damaged. There are numerous stone carvings around the temple, among which those left by General Feng Yuxiang are the most eye-catching. These include bold regular-script characters such as “Diligence and Frugality Are Treasures,” “True Hardship,” “Farming and Reading,” and “Detachment,” with the first seven characters each about three square feet, and the latter four about two square feet, engraved on the eastern hillside outside the temple gate and the northern hillside behind the temple. Near the inscriptions “Farming and Reading” and “Detachment,” there are also over 200 characters from the “Eight Trigrams and Modesty” section of the *Book of Changes*, each about half a square foot.

Phone: 88905988, 88905989

Location: Tiantai Mountain, Shijingshan District

The layout of Charity Temple seems rather unusual. Typically, temples are arranged along a central axis leading from the mountain gate to the main hall, but Charity Temple lacks a proper gate for displaying its name. Instead, starting a few hundred meters from the temple, various halls appear one after another along the roadside, continuing all the way to near the main hall.

Even the main structure of the temple lacks the neat symmetry typical of religious architecture, resembling more a bustling gathering place of deities, with each hall housing one or two clay statues. It's unclear whether this layout follows some special design principle or simply resulted from temporary construction chaos.

Unfortunately, no detailed historical records about Charity Temple could be found. It is known to have been built during the Ming Dynasty, but the reason for constructing this Buddhist-Taoist hybrid temple deep in the mountains remains unclear.

To reach the temple, you can start from Gaojing in Shijingshan, pass through Heishitou, take the “Hei-Chen Road” to Shuangquan Temple. Alternatively, go via Wulituo toward Tanyu, head northeast, and ascend the mountain near the large landfill to get to Charity Temple. Price Information Opening Hours: 7:00–18:00

Ticket: Adults 8 RMB, students 4 RMB

Address: Tiantai Mountain, northeast of Tanyu Village, Shijingshan District, Beijing

Type: Temple

Recommended Visiting Time: About 1 hour

Phone: 010-88905988

Opening Hours:

9:00—17:00

Ticket Information:

List Price: 8.0 RMB

Adults 8 RMB; students 4 RMB, groups 6 RMB.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Municipal-Level Protected Cultural Heritage Sites in Beijing