Discover Beijing
Miaoying Temple White Pagoda
妙应寺白塔
The oldest and largest Tibetan-style stupa surviving in China, built in 1271 under Kublai Khan and still rising white above the grey hutong roofs of Fuchengmen. The surrounding temple halls hold Yuan and Ming Buddhist sculpture, and the lanes around it are a low-key hutong neighbourhood.
The story
What makes this place special
The White Dagoba was built in 1279 under Kublai Khan by the Nepali architect Arniko, who came to the Yuan court's notice by repairing a bronze statue and went on to build this - a Tibetan-style stupa raised to house a relic of the Buddha, and described as the oldest and largest Tibetan Buddhist pagoda in China. The temple around it was a Sakya monastery; its courtyards, four corner pavilions, Hall of the Heavenly Kings, Hall of the Buddhas of the Three Ages and Hall of the Seven Buddhas were repaired in a 1978 renovation. It is now open as a museum rather than a working temple, which is why almost nobody visits it - and why it is one of the very few Yuan-dynasty structures anywhere in Beijing.
What you’ll discover
A brilliant white bottle-shaped stupa on a stepped square base with a gilded top, rising directly out of a dense grey neighbourhood west of the centre - you see it from the surrounding streets before you find the gate. Inside the walls are a short sequence of modest halls arranged in courtyards, used for displays of Buddhist sculpture, bronzes and tangkas, with the stupa itself closed and standing in the rear court. It takes under an hour.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Come for the date, not the spectacle. Virtually everything a visitor sees in Beijing is Ming or Qing; this is Yuan, built while Kublai Khan was alive, by a Nepali architect, and that is the whole reason to walk round it.
- You cannot go inside the stupa. Walk the circuit around its base, which is how it was meant to be used, and look at the ring of ornament at the top.
- The halls now hold a good small collection of Buddhist bronzes and sculpture with almost no one looking at it - a quiet half hour that the big temples never offer.
- It is a short walk from the Xisi and Fuchengmen area, which has surviving hutongs and good cheap food, and from the Lu Xun Museum - a workable morning in a part of Beijing with no tour buses in it.
- The stupa photographs best from the lane to the south-east, where you get it rising over tiled courtyard roofs rather than over the compound wall.
- There is no English commentary to speak of and no audio guide; read about Arniko and the Yuan before you go or the visit will be fifteen minutes long.
When to come
Any weekday morning. Winter light makes the white stupa against a clear sky its best view; it is a small site so heat and cold are both brief problems.
Getting around
A small, mostly level site, so the distances are short and a wheelchair can see the stupa and cross the courtyards, with the usual raised thresholds and a few steps up into each hall. The stupa base is on a stepped platform and the circuit round it involves steps. There are no lifts and no modern facilities. For a bad knee it is one of the easier Beijing temples simply because it is small.
Worth knowing before you go
The best view of the pagoda is not from inside the courtyard but from the rooftop cafes on Gongmenkou Erdiao hutong just east of the temple, where the whole stupa frames above the tiled roofs. Bring your passport - entry is ID-checked.
Compare established providers
Check live tours and tickets
Search for Miaoying Temple White Pagoda in Beijing. Prices, availability, payment and confirmation are handled by the booking provider.
China Travel Select does not take payment or create the reservation. Confirm the exact name, dates, inclusions and cancellation rules on the provider’s page.
Take a closer look
Maps, videos & more
Prices and hours change. These are the places to check on the day.
