This was the only major site that we visited after leaving our tour group. and we were delighted that we had chosen the site. It was not just for the opportunity to venture on our own, but also because the Temple is fantastic! You know the Lama Temple is home to the Yellow Sect of Buddhism, the same sect as the Dalai Lama. It is also an active lamasary, which means that monks of the sect live and work in the temple. The temple has an amazing relic: the largest Buddha statue carved from a single tree! The statue is huge: over 3 stories and about 9 feet across. She is carved from a single tree that had to be carried from outside the capital. Amaizing! When we were walking, China was just about to have its Autumn Festival. There were many worshippers at the temple making offerings of incense and praying. The atmosphere during our visit was calm and quiet, very unlike some of our other hurried visits to major sites! We walked and got a close look at the architecture and the artwork… all amazing! The temple is not very big, relatively speaking, to many of the other sites you can visit in Beijing, but we would definitely recommend it as a trip of good choice beside the five major sites like,great wall, summer palace,temple of heaven and ming tomb.