The Best Temples

Kong Miào (Qufu): One of China's greatest classical architectural complexes, this spectacular temple in Confucius's home town is the largest and most magnificent of the hundreds of temples around the country honoring the sage. Greatly enlarged since it was originally built in 478 B.C., it has a series of gates and buildings aligned on a north-south axis and decorated with imperial flourishes like yellow-tiled roofs and dragon-entwined pillars.

Màiji Shan Shíku (Tianshui): This haystack-shaped mountain of soft red rock, covered in brilliant green foliage, is China's prettiest cave-temple site, and the only one where statuary has been added to the cave walls rather than carved out of them. Views from the stairs and walkways lacing the cliffs are spectacular (including those straight down).

Zhèngdìng (Hébei): Neither the most spectacular nor the best known of temple groups, but within a short walking distance of each other, are some of China's oldest surviving unimproved temple buildings (one of which houses a 30m/90-ft.) high multi-armed bronze of Guanyin), and a collection of ancient pagodas so varied it's almost as if they've been set out specifically to surprise you.

Jokhang Temple (Lhasa): The spiritual heart of Tibetan Buddhism, this temple should be visited twice: once to see the intense devotion of pilgrims circumnavigating it by prostrating themselves repeatedly across cobblestones made slippery by centuries of burning yak butter lamps, and rubbing their foreheads against the statuary in the dim, smoky interior; and a second time in the afternoon for a closer look at the ancient images they venerate.

Temple of Heaven (Beijing): The circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, one of the finest achievements of Míng architecture, is almost as well-known as a symbol of Beijing as the Tian'an Mén, but the three-tiered sacrificial altar of plain stone is thought by many to be the most sublime object of beauty in China.

Mògao Shíku (Dunhuáng): The biggest, best-preserved, and most significant site of Buddhist statuary and frescoes in all China, with the broadest historical range, the Mògao Caves, in their tranquil desert setting, should be your choice if you can see only one cave site.

Yonghé Gong (Beijing): After the Qing Yongzhèng emperor moved into the Forbidden City, his personal residence was converted into this temple. Several impressive incense burners are scattered throughout the golden-roofed complex, also known as the Lama Temple. A 20m (60-ft.) tall sandalwood statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha, fills the last building.

Baoding Shan (Dàzú): Artistically among the subtlest and most sophisticated of China's Buddhist grottoes, these Sòng dynasty caves are situated around a horseshoe-shaped cove, at the center of which is lush forest.

Lóngmén Shíku (Luòyáng): About 2,300 caves and niches with more than 2,800 inscriptions and over 100,000 Buddhist statues are spread across two hills and 400 years in time.

Yúngang Shíku (Shanxi): These are the earliest Buddhist caves carved in China. Most were hollowed out over a 65-year period between 460 and 524. Viewed as a whole, they show a movement from Indian and Central Asian artistic models to greater reliance on Chinese traditions.

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