# Lama Temple (Yonghegong), Beijing > Beijing's Lama Temple (Yonghegong) is a working Tibetan Buddhist monastery, famous for an 18-metre Maitreya carved from a single sandalwood trunk. Tickets are about ¥25 (unofficial), bought with your passport in the temple's WeChat account. It's open daily from 9:00, last entry 16:00 November–March and 16:30 April–October. Allow one to two hours. Web page: https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/lama-temple - City: [Beijing](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing), China - YesGo score: 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 1 h - With kids: Fine with kids - Ticket: ≈ ¥25, half price ≈ ¥12 — unofficial - Free: Children under 6 or under 1.2 m - Where to buy: Only the temple's official WeChat account “雍和宫游客信众服务”; no third-party seller is authorised - Foreign visitors: Full-price ticket online with your passport, QR code at the gate; half price only at the ticket office - Hours: Nov–Mar 9:00–16:30, last entry 16:00; Apr–Oct 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30 - Closed: No weekly closing day; occasional one-day closures are announced - Incense: Free at the entrance; bringing your own isn't allowed - Bag storage: None, according to the temple — don't bring a suitcase - Payment: WeChat Pay linked to a foreign Visa or Mastercard, or cash at the ticket office - Metro: Lines 2 and 5, Yonghegong Lama Temple station, then about 5 minutes on foot - Address: 12 Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District (雍和宫大街12号) - Coordinates: 39.94709, 116.41092 - Facts checked: 04.11.2026 ## Key facts - **18 m** — height of the Maitreya above the floor of the Wanfu Pavilion, with about 8 m more below ground (source: English and Chinese Wikipedia; Visit Beijing) - **1 trunk** — of white sandalwood, carved into the Maitreya — a gift from the 7th Dalai Lama to the Qianlong Emperor (source: English and Chinese Wikipedia; Wanderin China) - **1744** — the palace became a monastery of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism (source: English and Chinese Wikipedia; Visit Beijing) - **1694** — built as the mansion of Prince Yinzhen, later the Yongzheng Emperor (source: English and Chinese Wikipedia; Visit Beijing) - **1993** — the sandalwood Maitreya entered the Guinness Book of Records (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **5 halls** — on the main south–north axis, from the Gate of Harmony to the Wanfu Pavilion (source: English Wikipedia; Visit Beijing) - **≈ 6.6 ha** — area of the monastery (source: Chinese and English Wikipedia) - **≈ 5 m** — height of the carved Mountain of 500 Arhats in the Hall of the Wheel of the Law (source: Chinese Wikipedia) - **≈ 300 m** — in a straight line from the Lama Temple to the Confucius Temple (source: Wikidata coordinates) - **1981** — the monastery reopened to worshippers and visitors (source: English, Russian and Chinese Wikipedia) ## Lama Temple tickets and how to book A full ticket is **about ¥25** and a half-price ticket about ¥12. Those are the figures from a 2022 Beijing government notice and Visit Beijing; we found no current official price list, so treat them as unofficial. Children under 6 or under 1.2 m go free. Chinese guides give half price to ages 6–18, students and over-60s, while English-language guides disagree on whether foreign seniors pay half or nothing. The temple sells tickets **only through its official WeChat account, “雍和宫游客信众服务”**, and warns that no other platform or person is authorised to resell them. Passport holders buy a full-price ticket online and scan a QR code at the gate; half-price tickets are issued at the ticket office against the original document. It's one ticket per document per day. Whether you can still buy at the ticket office on the day is the open question: one 2026 guide says walk-up tickets are gone, another says the ticket office still sells them. Book ahead to be safe, especially for weekends and Buddhist holidays. To pay in WeChat you need **WeChat Pay linked to a foreign Visa or Mastercard** — set it up before you fly. Cash in yuan works at the ticket office. If that all sounds like a hassle, a guided tour includes the ticket. > **Buy from the temple, not a reseller** The temple says it has never authorised any third party to sell its tickets, and you enter with a QR code tied to your passport. Plenty of booking sites still list “Lama Temple tickets”; if you use one, you're relying on the reseller to book through the official account for you. Buying in WeChat yourself is cheaper and safer. ## Lama Temple opening hours The temple is open **every day**, with no weekly closing day. Chinese guides give **9:00–16:30 from November to March** (last entry 16:00) and **9:00–17:00 from April to October** (last entry 16:30). Some older guides list 16:00 and 16:30 as closing times instead — the difference seems to be last entry versus closing, so aim to arrive well before 16:00 in winter. It's open on Mondays, when the Confucius Temple next door and the halls at the Temple of Heaven are shut, which makes it a good Monday-morning choice. Very occasionally the temple closes for a day by notice in its WeChat account, and Chinese New Year brings special hours and huge crowds. Go **at 9:00 on a weekday**. The courtyards are still quiet, incense smoke hangs in the low light, and you can stand in front of the Maitreya without being pushed along. ## How to get to the Lama Temple 1. From Tiananmen Square, take **Line 1** from Tiananmen East two stops to **Dongdan**. 2. Change to **Line 5** northbound: Dengshikou, Dongsi, Zhangzizhonglu, Beixinqiao, then **Yonghegong Lama Temple** — about 10 minutes on the train. 3. Yonghegong is also a stop on **Line 2**, the loop line. Follow signs for 雍和宫 to Yonghegong Street; one recent guide recommends Exit C, while others name different exits. 4. Walk south along Yonghegong Street for about 5 minutes. The monastery wall is on your **left**. 5. The entrance and ticket office are at the **south gate**, at the southern end of the monastery. Around 30 minutes door to door from Tiananmen. 6. From Capital Airport, take the Capital Airport Express to Beixinqiao and ride Line 5 one stop north to Yonghegong. ## Is the Lama Temple worth it? Yes — it's Beijing's best place to see **living religion** rather than a museum. Monks, people bowing with incense, prayer wheels turning and golden halls under imperial yellow roofs make it one of the most atmospheric sights in the city, and the sandalwood Maitreya is genuinely jaw-dropping. It's less essential if you've seen big Tibetan monasteries elsewhere, and it does get crowded by late morning. **One to two hours** covers all five halls; add an hour for the Confucius Temple across the street. The one real hurdle is the WeChat-only booking — sort it before your trip. ## What to see at the Lama Temple - **The south entrance** — where free incense is handed out; the temple suggests lighting three sticks. - **Gate of Harmony and Peace** (Hall of the Heavenly Kings) — a laughing Maitreya, the guardian Weituo and the four Heavenly Kings. - **Hall of Harmony and Peace** — the old palace's main hall, with the Buddhas of the Three Ages and 18 arhats along the walls. - **Hall of Everlasting Protection** — with the Medicine Buddha at its centre. - **Hall of the Wheel of the Law** — a bronze Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school, and behind him the nearly 5-metre Mountain of 500 Arhats with figures cast in five metals. - **Wanfu Pavilion** (Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses) — the 18-metre white-sandalwood Maitreya you came for. The pavilion has three storeys, and the statue rises through all of them. - **The 1792 Lama Discourse stele** — Qianlong's decree on choosing reincarnated lamas by drawing lots from a golden urn. - **Prayer wheels** along the galleries — spin them clockwise, the same way you walk around the halls. > **What to wear** There is no formal dress code, but it is an active monastery: cover shoulders and knees, and save shorts and vest tops for elsewhere. Step over the high wooden thresholds rather than on them, keep your voice down, don't touch the statues, walk around the halls clockwise, and don't photograph monks without asking. ## Photos and incense: the house rules Photos in the courtyards are fine. Inside the halls, watch for signs — photography is banned at many of the altars, and flash is never welcome. Honestly, the Maitreya is easier to remember than to photograph: it's too tall to fit in a frame from the floor. The temple hands out **free eco-friendly incense** and doesn't let you bring your own. Light three sticks and hold them at the burners in the courtyards, never inside the halls. Burning may be paused in high wind, heavy rain or smog. There's no need to buy incense from shops outside. ## A short history Construction began in **1694**, when the Kangxi Emperor built a mansion for his fourth son, Prince Yinzhen. The prince became the Yongzheng Emperor in 1722, and in 1725 his former home was renamed Yonghegong, the Palace of Harmony and Peace — hence the imperial yellow roof tiles. In **1744** his son, the Qianlong Emperor, turned the palace into a Gelug monastery, and it became the Qing court's centre for managing Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism. The 7th Dalai Lama sent the sandalwood trunk for the Maitreya; tradition says it took three years to reach Beijing. The monastery was listed as a national monument in 1961 and reopened to worshippers and visitors in 1981. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] Ticket bought in the temple's WeChat account with my passport - [ ] Original passport with me - [ ] WeChat Pay working with my foreign card, or some cash in yuan - [ ] I'll arrive before last entry: 16:00 in winter, 16:30 in summer - [ ] Shoulders and knees covered - [ ] No suitcase — there's no bag storage - [ ] 雍和宫 saved to show a taxi driver ## Lama Temple vs Confucius Temple vs Temple of Heaven | | Lama Temple | Confucius Temple & Academy | Temple of Heaven | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Working Buddhist monastery | Museum: Confucian temple and imperial academy | Park with imperial altars | | Ticket | ≈ ¥25 (unofficial) | ¥30 | ¥10–15, ¥28–34 with halls | | Mondays | Open | Closed | Halls closed | | Buying | Temple's WeChat account only | Ticket office or museum WeChat | Park's WeChat booking | | Feel | Monks, incense, crowds | Quiet, tablets and cypresses | Morning tai chi and dancing | | Time | 1–2 hours | 60–90 min | 2 hours | The Lama Temple and the Confucius Temple face each other across Yonghegong Street — do both and you get the contrast of a busy monastery and a silent museum in one morning. On a Monday, when the museum and the Temple of Heaven halls are closed, the Lama Temple is the obvious pick. ## Beijing’s temples compared Every temple and shrine in Beijing rated by YesGo. - [Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple)](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/lama-temple) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ≈ ¥25, booked in WeChat - [Confucius Temple and Imperial Academy](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-confucius-temple) — YesGo score 33/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 15 min · ¥30, one ticket with the Guozijian ## Temples and hutongs of the north centre in half a day The Lama Temple at opening time, the Confucius Temple across the street, the hutongs and the Drum Tower, then Houhai Lake at dusk. Add them to your route — YesGo fits in the timing and transfers. 1. [Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple)](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/lama-temple) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ≈ ¥25, booked in WeChat 2. [Confucius Temple and Imperial Academy](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-confucius-temple) — YesGo score 33/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 15 min · ¥30, one ticket with the Guozijian 3. [Beijing hutongs](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-hutongs) — YesGo score 42/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free; rickshaw about ¥100–200 4. [Drum and Bell Towers](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-drum-and-bell-towers) — YesGo score 34/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ¥30 for both towers 5. [Houhai Lake and Shichahai](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/houhai-lake) — YesGo score 38/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Free ## Good to know “Yonghegong” is both the temple and the metro station named after it, so don't be thrown when the same word appears on signs. The [Confucius Temple](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-confucius-temple) across the road is a separate museum with its own ticket and a Monday closure; Wudaoying Hutong, just north-west, is the place for coffee afterwards. ## Tips - Set up WeChat Pay with your foreign card before the trip — the temple sells tickets only through WeChat. - Walk from south to north: the halls build up to the Maitreya in the last pavilion. - Take the free incense at the entrance; you can't bring your own in. - Wear comfortable shoes — the courtyards are long and the thresholds high. - Keep your backpack in front of you and don't carry lit incense into the halls. - Afterwards, wander the [hutongs](https://yesgo.io/china/beijing/beijing-hutongs) of Wudaoying and Guozijian Street for cafés and quiet courtyards. - Travel light: there's no bag storage at the temple. ## Questions ### How much is the Lama Temple ticket? About ¥25 for adults and about ¥12 for half price — unofficial figures. Children under 6 or under 1.2 m go free. ### Do I need to book the Lama Temple in advance? It's safest to. The temple sells tickets through its official WeChat account, “雍和宫游客信众服务”; guides disagree on whether the ticket office still sells on the day. ### Can foreigners book with a passport? Yes. Passport holders buy a full-price ticket online and scan the QR code at the gate. You'll need WeChat Pay linked to a foreign card. ### What are the Lama Temple opening hours? Daily. November–March 9:00–16:30 with last entry 16:00; April–October 9:00–17:00 with last entry 16:30, according to guides. ### Is the Lama Temple open on Mondays? Yes, there's no weekly closing day. The Confucius Temple next door is the one closed on Mondays. ### How do I get to the Lama Temple by metro? Lines 2 or 5 to Yonghegong Lama Temple station, then about 5 minutes south along Yonghegong Street to the south gate. ### How long do you need at the Lama Temple? One to two hours for the five halls; half a day with the Confucius Temple and the hutongs. ### Can you take photos inside the Lama Temple? In the courtyards, yes. Inside the halls, follow the signs — many altars are no-photo zones. Don't photograph monks without asking. ### Is there a dress code? No formal one, but cover shoulders and knees — it's a working monastery. ### How tall is the sandalwood Buddha? The Maitreya stands 18 metres above the floor, with about 8 metres more below ground — 26 metres of a single white-sandalwood trunk. ## How we checked We could not open an official price or hours page: the temple publishes inside WeChat. The ¥25 and ¥12 prices come from a 2022 Beijing government notice and 2016 Visit Beijing pages, so they're marked checking. Hours differ: Chinese guides and Trip.com give 9:00–17:00 in summer and 9:00–16:30 in winter with last entry half an hour earlier, while 2016 Visit Beijing and some guides give 16:30 and 16:00 as closing; we show the first. No source names a weekly closing day. Official-account-only sales, free incense and no bag storage come from the temple's 2026 notice; one English guide mentions free bag storage, and we follow the temple. Guides disagree on same-day sales at the ticket office and on whether foreign over-60s pay half or nothing. Sources name different metro exits (B, C, F). The 18 m and 26 m Maitreya heights come from English and Chinese Wikipedia. The street side and walk from the station were checked on OpenStreetMap. The English core comes from search results and “People also ask”. ## Sources - Beijing Municipal Government, english.beijing.gov.cn — news on online booking for Yonghe Temple (6 Jan 2022): full and half-price tickets, the “雍和宫游客信众服务” account - Yonghe Temple's 2026 Spring Festival notice as reported by Beijing News and Beijing Daily (6 Feb 2026): official-account-only sales, free incense, no bag storage - Beijing Bendibao, how to buy Yonghe Temple tickets (24 Sep 2026): passport purchase, QR entry, half-price tickets at the ticket office - Visit Beijing (official Beijing tourism portal): Yonghegong Lama Temple and The Largest Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Beijing (2016) — price, halls, Maitreya, dates - English, Russian and Chinese Wikipedia: Yonghe Temple and its Russian and Chinese counterparts; Wikidata Q692723 - Guides: cncn.com (2021) — hours and concessions; Wanderin China (2026), Ruqin Travel (2026) — booking, incense, etiquette - OpenStreetMap and Wikidata — street side, station, distances - YesGo's Beijing and China notes: metro and airport express, paying with foreign cards --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.