White Cloud Temple, Yonghegong and the Niujie Quarter

Beijing's religious map was never single. The White Cloud Temple in the west of the city is the principal monastery of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen Taoism, a school whose monks are celibate and ordained, and it holds the burial place of Qiu Chuji, the master summoned to meet Chinggis Khan. Its ordination platform made it a national centre for the transmission of Taoist orders, and it houses the China Taoist Association today.

Yonghegong began as the residence of the prince who became the Yongzheng emperor and was converted into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelug school in 1744. The Qing court used such foundations to manage its relationship with Tibet and Mongolia as much as to patronise a tradition, and the golden urn procedure the Qianlong emperor introduced for confirming certain reincarnations by lot belongs to that policy; the modern state has invoked the same precedent in its own regulation of recognised incarnations.

The Niujie Mosque in the south west of the city serves a Hui Muslim quarter that has grown around it for a thousand years, its prayer hall built in Chinese timber style with Arabic inscription rather than in any imported idiom. Catholic Beijing dates from the Jesuit mission: Matteo Ricci died in the city in 1610 and was granted burial ground there by the throne, and the Nantang cathedral stands on the site of his chapel. All of these communities now operate through the state recognised religious associations, which is the single most important fact about religious practice in the city today.