Zhenjue Temple

Zhenjue Temple in Beijing tells of a monk who arrived from India in the early fourteen hundreds carrying five gold Buddha statues and a design never before built in China, a plan that sat unused for decades until construction finally finished in fourteen seventy-three under the Chenghua Emperor. The guide walks the platform's five stone towers and more than fifteen hundred carved Buddha figures, Sanskrit letters, elephants and lions, and points out a pair of stone footprints said to belong to the Buddha himself.