Wenchang Palace

This guide to Wenchang Palace in Lijiang follows a Naxi teenager climbing these stone steps before dawn with incense in hand, on his way to an imperial exam that will lock him alone in a cell for three days. It traces the temple built for Wenchang, god of scholars' fates, first raised in 1725 and rebuilt on Lion Hill in 1831, where Confucian scholars, Taoist priests and Buddhist monks shared altars so as not to risk the wrong god's temper. Once a year, on the third day of the third lunar month, officials and candidates gathered here together to pray for weather, harvests and talented sons. Look out from the courtyard toward Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the same view every nervous candidate once faced.