Page 49 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Beijing

Off The Beaten Path ❮❮ 47

Poly Art Museum
9
The silent, richly carpeted
rooms at the Poly Art Museum
hold a wealth of stone, ceramic,
and bronze statuary. Highlights
include four bronze animals
rescued from the 19th-century
sacking of the Summer Palace,
as well as artifacts ranging from
the Shang to the Tang dynasties
and earlier (see p40).
Beijing Eunuch
0
Museum (Tian Yi Mu)
80 Moshi Kou Dajie, Shijing Shan
District • 8872 4148 • Subway:
Pingguoyuan, then bus 959 or
746 to Shougang Xiaoqu • Open
9am–4pm daily • Adm
In the 16th century, the eunuch
Tian Yi, who carried his genitals
Bronze lion at Fayuan Temple in a jug, served three emperors
of the Ming dynasty. Over time,
Fayuan Temple
6 he achieved an elevated position
at court, and when he died, in
A visit to Fayuan Temple
offers the opportunity to observe 1605, his funeral generated three
the fascinating daily life of a monk. days of silence in the Forbidden
Built in AD 696 by Tang dynasty City. Tian Yi’s elaborately carved
emperor Tai Zong to mourn fallen tomb is now empty, having been
soldiers, Fayuan is Beijing’s largest raided during China’s Cultural
– and likely oldest – Buddhist Revolution. However, this interesting
temple (see p74). museum houses a range of murals,
monuments, marble phalluses, and
Qianding Old Liquor
7 a diorama of unfortunate men about
Museum
to undergo the unkindest cut.
MAP E2 • 69 Zhaofu Jie (near Gulou),
Dongcheng District • 6404 0299 • S50 Wangjing West
Open 10am–6pm daily • Adm
This museum is all about baijiu Beigongmen Shaoyaoju G101
(traditional grain alcohol) through S50 HAIDIAN
the ages, and on display are more Beijing Zoo
than 1,600 varieties of the stuff. Pingguoyuan
The entrance is tricky to find – look G108 Beijing
West
for the bottles embedded in brick. Beijing South Beijing G2
The Former Residence
8 Zhangguozhuang NANYUANXIANG
Gongyixiqiao
WANGZUOZHEN
of Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo was a 20th-century G4 Dabaotai Xihongmen
writer, poet, dramatist, historian, Gaomidian
G107
South
archeologist, and paleographer, Guangyangcheng G4501
as well as an enthusiastic gardener. Suzhuang HULUFAXIANG Huangcun
Railway
Much of his outdoor handiwork
survives here, his former home, GUANDAOZHEN Tiangongyuan
in addition to piles of manuscripts, 0 km 8 WEISHANZH-
books, and a bronze statue of the G45 UANGZHEN
man himself (see p26). 0 miles 8
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