The Fayuan Temple situated in the southwest quarter of central Beijing, is one of the city's oldest and most renowned Buddhist temples.

It is also the location of the Chinese Buddhist Academy and the Museum of Buddhism in China, which is an important place for cultivating young monks and studying Buddhist culture.

The temple also contains a large number of cultural relics, including sculptures of ancient bronzes, stone lions, as well as gilded figures of the three Buddhas. The temple also features large number of Buddhist texts from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Fayuan Temple was originally built to mourn the dead soldiers by Emperor Taizong (598-649) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). When finished in 696, Empress Wu Zetian (624-705) gave it the name Minzhong Temple, which means a temple to mourn the late loyal people.