New Life for Ancient Clear Spring Temple

The first thing you notice is that the air is fresh and mountainous. The second, that it is quiet. Two women sell fruit in an empty car park that looks out over the level plains of Beijings countryside.

A hammer knocks at brickwork in a nearby building. A single bird s song echoes peacefully across the still lake. These are the first impressions of Minghui Teahouse.

Minghui Teahouse, also known as Bright Wisdom Temple Teahouse, is just 50 minutes drive from the centre of the city and situated on the grounds of the Da Jue Temple. The site has been occupied for prayer and meditation since 1068 and rests, somewhat protected, at the foot of the Yang Tai mountain range in the Haidian District of Beijing.

Originally known as Qingquan, or clear spring , the temple has not been used formally by Buddhist monks since 1952, with the last one leaving in 1994. Its name comes from a natural mountain spring that has been creatively directed through the grounds and temple buildings and can be drunk from with cupped hands.

This ancient temple site has been appropriately reincarnated into the Bright Wisdom Temple Teahouse or Minghui Teahouse. Using the ceremonial nature of tea as its theme, the complex of buildings provides space for eating, drinking and sleeping in an authentic and peaceful setting. In small temple buildings, there are tea tasting rooms in Chinese as well as Japanese style where tea ceremonies are performed in traditional costume.

An ancient magnolia tree takes pride of place in the teahouse gardens. Elsewhere the gnarled and naturally carved bark of a majestic ginkgo tree nearly one thousand years old, twists and curls, as if lifted from a painting by Van Gogh. The place is almost silent but for the sound of moving water. In an old wooden Buddhist lecture hall, called Da Jie Tang, there is a restaurant that provides food with the flavour of Hangzhou and Shaoxing that is salty, fresh and local in character.

A sumptuous meal for two will cost around 150 yuan. Minghui Teahouse caters especially well for small groups and has devoted a Western-style dining area for just this purpose. Housed in a converted place of prayer, two magnificent, identical dining rooms have been created, furnished with traditional design and Western table settings, cut glass and silverware.

Groups can select a menu from South Chinas Jiang Nan Fu Yuan style, that comes from a banquet cuisine called Tan Jia Cai. This restaurant is known as the VIP Room and each dining area seats ten. The menu is 500 yuan per head with 15% service charge and is perfect for special occasions. Minghui Teahouse provides the opportunity to sleep amongst the history of hundreds of years of prayer and to witness the exquisitely formed natural environment of the enclosed courtyard gardens.

For special occasions, or simply weekends to unwind, guests of the Minghui Teahouse, can chose from standard, en-suite accommodation at 280 yuan for a double room per night, up to the luxurious split-level suites, of which there are two, at 780 yuan.

What makes this accommodation really different, though, is the setting. Amidst birdsong and mountain streams, the suites are housed in small, almost individual, buildings that make it a really personal experience.

The cost of a weekend for two is 1,500 yuan, including Friday and Saturday night accommodation. Taking the Jingchang Expressway, and turning off at the Bei anhe exit, turning left and going west to the end of the road, then turning left, youll see a yellow sign for Minghui Chayuan, the Bright Wisdom Temple Teahouse.

For further information, call: 6246-1567/8/9