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Fayuan Temple, established in 696, is the oldest temple in Beijing. It bears witness to the wars in Beijing's history. In 645, one of China's greatest feudal ruler, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), fought a war of conquest against minority peoples in Northeast China. The Tang army failed to subdue its enemy and winter compelled the emperor to order a retreat of his cold and hungry army to Beijing. Many soldiers died on the way. Then the emperor ordered the construction of the temple to commemorate his dead soldiers. Over the last thousand plus years, the temple was destroyed by warfare, fire, and even an earthquake. Thus it has had to be rebuilt many times, and most of its surviving buildings date to the seventeenth-nineteenth centuries. The Heavenly King Hall is its main architecture. Inside the temple, Budai Monk is worshiped with four Heaven Kings standing on both sides. Above the Mahavira Hall is a board with "True Origin of Rules" written by the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Numerous flowers and grasses are planted here. There are so many of clove that they have formed a forest, producing an exquisite scenery. Now the Fayuan Temple is a key cultural relics and the China Buddhism Association resides here now.

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