Zhihua Temple

Located at No.5 Lumicang Alley, Dongcheng District, Zhihua Temple was built in the 8th year under the reign of Zheng Tong of the Ming Dynasty (1443). A distinguishing feature of the temple is that main buildings are all provided with black glazed tile roofs, which has the moral of rooting out all evils. Although the temple is not large, it boasts precise layout, sublime and royal style, and distinguishing features. It has the best preserved building complex of timber structure of the Ming Dynasty in Beijing.

There are many treasures in the temple, e.g. mural paintings of Ming Dynasty on the back wall of Zhihua Hall, rotary cupboard for storing Buddhist literatures the oldest one in Beijing, and the printing plates of Longzang (sutra series) the only one in China. Zhihua Temple (Jing) music has seen over 500 years of history roll, and is honoured one of five kinds of greatest classical music with other four kinds being Xi'an's Town God Temple drumbeat music, Kaifeng's Great Minister Temple music, Wutai Mountain's Temple music, and Fujian's south music. The Zhihua Temple music is also hailed as an intangible cultural relic, an unearthed disc and a living fossil in music world. By closed master-to-apprentice imparting method, Zhihua Temple music has been passed to the 28th generation.

Black glazed tile roofed structures, decorative mural paintings, ancient Buddhist art and old-line Jing music are all national treasures with significant historical, academic and artistic values. It is a national cultural heritage under special protection.