Yonghegong Lama Temple

I go through a station called Yonghegong Lama Temple every day on my commute to work and I have always want to get off and visit but I always have too much to do. This week, my students are rehearsing for a sports day which means some of my evening classes have been cancelled so on the way back today I went to investigate.

The temple is Buddhist, built mostly in the 18th century and has some really impressive decorations. I walked through a series of worship halls which got progressively bigger and bigger until I came to the last one which housed a huge 18 metre high statue of Buddha which is supposedly carved from a single piece of sandalwood. It was very impressive. The sun was dipping low in the sky and with no pollution today, this gave the whole place a really nice glow. It was quite serene watching worshippers burning incense. I got some great photos, of which I think this is my favourite.