The Temple Hotel

The Temple Hotel is located in the very center of the Chinese capital, and yet is far removed from the crowds, the bustle, the shopping malls, the obvious places. It is a well kept secret, a real haven of peace for the contemporary traveler that wishes to wake up in an ancient China environment but with all the comforts that a luxury hotel can offer.

The Temple Hotel also offers corporations and brands a dreamlike setting to stage special events, meetings, creative sessions, product launches. Its restaurant TRB is lauded as one of the best fine dining experiences in Beijing and its art spaces, the Gallery (which regularly presents exhibitions by China and the world's most interesting artists) and Gathered Sky (the first and only permanent light installation of James Turrell in China) have become destinations for world travelers.

The history of the area where The Temple Hotel stands today spans 600 years. Under the Ming dynasty, imperial printing workshops were located here and churned out Buddhist sutras for Beijing's many temples. Under the Qing, with the construction of Songzhu temple, Fayuan temple and Zhizhu temple ("Temple of Wisdom", which is now part of The Temple Hotel) between 1711 and 1756, the area became a center for teaching and spreading religious knowledge, a place where prayers and chants resonated. The Temple Hotel's 8 guest rooms and 5 function spaces are housed in historical buildings, some of which are protected cultural heritage dating back to the Qing dynasty, as well as in industrial architecture constructed after the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

The overall interior design of our function rooms and hotel rooms has been curated by our founder Juan van Wassenhove. 80% of the lights featured in our function spaces and hotel rooms are by German light designer Ingo Maurer. Maurer's design team also curated The Temple Hotel outdoor master plan, conceived around the idea of unobtrusive luminescent lights subtly enhancing ancient architectural elements. In the hotel rooms we also used wall lamps and table lamps by brand Atelier Areti. Bamboo desks, bookshelves and armchairs featured in our largest suite have been designed by Sangaru Sandeep, hailing from Bangalore, India. The 2 adjoining hotel suites, located in an architecture left by a television factory in the 1960s, have been decorated with statement pieces from the “Da Tian Di” Collection by brand SHANG XIA. Several accessories scattered around the hotel rooms (just to name a few, wall mounted coat hangers, paper vases, leather pillows) have been sourced from Wuhao Curated-Shop.

The main objective of the restoration work was minimal alteration, ample reuse of its original materials, maximum retention of its heritage and even though reproductions of window frames, doors and others were necessitated, the property still stands historical, living, and more than ever, closer to what it once was. The founders wished to salvage as much of the original construction materials as possible, and the government agencies agreed to this approach inasmuch as the structural safety of the buildings was not compromised.

Throughout the process, there was never any doubt that the first choice was to conserve and strengthen existing materials. Another important objective during the restoration process was the resurrection/preservation – as far as possible – of the complete range of historical site development. It aimed at restoring the Qing dynasty architecture as close as possible to its original form and at preserving what was built or added in more recent years because these developments also bore witness in a meaningful way to the history of the site.

In 2012, the restoration of Zhizhu temple received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

The hotel has won the Wallpaper Best Urban Hotel awards 2014.