Tanzhe Temple

1,700-year-old Buddhist temple in the western hills. Older than Beijing itself; 'Tanzhe before there was Youzhou' goes the saying.

Tanzhe Temple occupies a mountainside 45 kilometres west of central Beijing in the Mentougou district, set in a wooded ravine where a pool (tan) and mulberry trees (zhe) gave the site its name. The temple was founded in 307 CE during the Western Jin dynasty — making it, by the traditional reckoning, substantially older than Beijing itself. The local saying goes: 'First there was Tanzhe, then there was Youzhou' — Youzhou being the predecessor settlement to Liao and Jin dynasty Beijing. The current structures span Tang, Liao, Ming, and Qing periods.

The temple complex spreads across a hillside on three parallel terraced axes — an unusual layout compared to the standard single-axis Buddhist monastery. The main axis runs through the Shanmen, Tianwang Hall, Daxiong Baodian, and Vairocana Pavilion. The east axis contains the temple's most famous single element: the Emperor's Tree, a ginkgo said to have been planted in the Tang dynasty, now over a thousand years old, with a trunk circumference requiring several adults to embrace. The Imperial Tablet Pavilion on this axis contains tablets from multiple dynasties. The west axis has rockwork, bamboo groves, and quieter courtyards.

The combination of mountain setting, architectural age, and botanical interest (the ginkgo and a secondary ancient ginkgo known as the Empress's Tree are especially striking in October when the leaves turn gold) makes Tanzhe the most visited of Beijing's outlying temple sites. Spring flower season and autumn foliage are the peak periods for crowds. The nearby Jietai Temple is commonly combined in a single day trip by private driver or tour vehicle — public bus from Pingguoyuan metro takes about 90 minutes each way.