Yonghegong Lama Temple
The prince's mansion where the Yongzheng Emperor lived before the throne and the Qianlong Emperor was born, turned into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in 1744 and still Beijing's largest working Gelug temple: five halls climbing north to the Wanfu Pavilion and its 18 m Maitreya carved from one sandalwood trunk. It is the busiest place of worship in the city, and the one Beijing sight whose rules are worth reading first: ¥25, 9:00 opening, tickets sold online on the temple's own WeChat official account and at a window on site, and, unusually for Beijing, the official ticket page spells out exactly how a passport holder gets in (full-price online ticket, QR code at the gate).
Online on the temple's WeChat official account '雍和宫游客信众服务' (one ticket per ID per day, 5 per WeChat official account), or paper tickets at the on-site ticket centre; no third-party sales. Spring Festival: 40,000 online tickets a day in morning / afternoon sessionsVerified · 2017-01Source ↗
Real-name entry; passport holders use the staffed window. Full-price ticket bought online: 'when buying a full-price ticket, name and ID number are optional; if not filled in, use the QR code to enter' — so a passport holder needs no document details and enters on the QR code, or buys at the window. Half-price ticket: name and ID number are required online, and passport holders must buy it in person at the ticket centre with the original document (official ticket page, online-purchase rule 6)
Ordinary weekdays after 14:00 are calm; weekends and the 1st and 15th of each lunar month are heavy; the first days of Spring Festival are the worst crowds in Beijing.
Guided tours in Chinese, English, German and Russian for a fee (official guide: ¥200 for 1-3 people in a foreign language, about 40 minutes), and a free bilingual phone-scan audio guide inside. Hall labels are bilingual; the ticket page and notices are Chinese only.
How to visit
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