YONGHEGONG 雍和宫

The 'Fangjia Hutong 798'

And like mushrooms after a spring rain, Beijing's 'cultural venues' continue to sprout up in unexpected places, most of them in imitation of successful venues which have come before. And what's the most successful cultural venue in the city? 798. So find yourself a bunch of abandoned factories, preferably closer to the city center, renovate them nicely, rent them out, and you've got the next word in hip.

So go the prayers of the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park (中关村科技园), which has leased idle factories in Fangjia Hutong (方家胡同) from the China Machine-Tools Corporation (中国机床总公司). This address, just south of Guozijian near the Yonghegong, has hosted factories since 1929, when the Haijing Ironworks (海京铁工厂), funded by the American Presbyterian Church, was opened here (one of their main products was surgery tables for the Peking Union Hospital). The ironworks were taken over by the Japanese, and from 1949 to the present they've been a state-run machine tools company of one sort or another. The existing buildings (there are four or five of them) were each built at different times over the past 50 years, the earliest clearly Soviet, and while they lack the 798 Bauhaus loveliness, they do have 8-meter-high ceilings.

This art zone was meant to open at the end of the month, but they've had to re-build most of the utility infrastructure, and now we're looking at September/October (yes, there will be life after the Olympics). The name of the place is its address: Fangjia 46.

June 12, 11:39p.m.

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Bailin Temple

A few months ago, while looking over some maps, I realized there was a fairly enormous temple, called Bailinsi (柏林寺), just to the east of Yonghegong, and nearly as big as Yonghegong itself. It's closed to the public and occupied by several businesses, which was very frustrating, and after a few tries with the guard, I gave up.

Later it turned out that the Cultural Heritage Protection Center is one of the businesses located in Bailinsi (which was somewhat reassuring), and they've got a nice introduction to the temple online. I got inside last week, going to visit the CHP, and took a few pictures.

To be honest, it's not much different from other large Buddhist temples in Beijing, though it's lost its drum and bell towers and all of the statuary and other accoutrements are gone. The trees are still lovely, the buildings mostly kept up, and if there are rather more parked cars than you see in other temples, and no one's bothered to remove the slogans from the walls... well, it's closed to the public, after all.

Last year they opened Bailinsi to visitors for Cultural Heritage Day (June 9, that's tomorrow), and in the future you'll be able to see the temple if you keep a close watch on your calendar. This year, unfortunately – you can see where this is going – the temple will not be open, in honor of the Olympics. See you next year…

June 8, 10:13a.m.

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The Confucius Temple – Decorations

Following an extensive renovation, the Confucius Temple is looking pretty good these days. It's gotten a new coat of paint, and most of the buildings have been fixed up. But either they didn't look closely enough at the walls, or the brand of paint they're using these days can't hold a candle to the good old 1960s stuff: Cultural Revolution slogans are still all over this thing.

I first noticed the big one on the rear of the back wall (squeeze through the narrow side-alley to the east of the temple, and cut around to the back). I guess it's not surprising they left it there – who really goes around the back, now that Eje is no longer there? But when I told Matthew Hu at the CHP about it, he laughed and told me to look at the front gate. There they are, plain as day, on either side of a gate that must see hundreds of passersby per day; someone didn't bother to scrub hard enough.

June 7, 10:30a.m.

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