On the weekend, I went to Cloud Residence Temple, first visiting the Stone Sutra Mountain. The main activity was hiking; it's not very high, with some steps, and it takes about half an hour to climb up. There are mainly nine scripture caves that store over four thousand stone slabs of scriptures carved by monks since the Sui Dynasty. Only one Thunder Sound Cave is open, which contains some stone slab scriptures, but there are barriers preventing close viewing, making it hard to see the text on the scriptures; one can only get a sense of it. Additionally, there are two Tang Dynasty pagodas at the top of the mountain, but the path to them is blocked, so one can only see the Golden Immortal Princess Pagoda from a distance halfway up the mountain; the other single-eaved Tang pagoda is not visible. In the middle of the mountain, there is a tea pavilion with half a Tang pagoda; the pagoda's spire and five-layered eaves are from the Tang Dynasty, while the body of the pagoda is newly built.
Descending from Stone Sutra Mountain, it's about 1 kilometer to Cloud Residence Temple, mainly to see the famous North Tower. The base of the tower is built in a Chinese pavilion style from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, while the tower body above is built in a Tibetan stupa style from the Liao Dynasty, together with four Tang pagodas at the corners forming the Vajra Throne Tower. Among them, the tower in the southwest corner, built in the second year of Jingyun (711 AD), is the oldest existing tower in Beijing. The tower in the northeast corner, built in the tenth year of Kaiyuan (722 AD), is the best-preserved Tang tower in terms of text and images. The four Tang pagodas have similar styles, all featuring square niches with six levels of eaves, and both the inside and outside of the pagodas are carved with Buddha and human figures, while the outer wall of the tower body has an inscription recording information about the tower.
Around the North Tower, there are also some cultural relics relocated from other places, including a Thousand Buddha Stele from the Sui Dynasty, a single-eaved pagoda from the Tang Dynasty, and some stone tablets and scripture pillars from the Yuan, Liao, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, which are worth appreciating slowly. From the North Tower, looking towards the west mountain peak, there is an old Tiger Tower from the Liao Dynasty, but due to time constraints, I did not go up to see it closely. To the north of the North Tower, there are three Tibetan-style pagodas from the Qing Dynasty, commemorating three abbots of Cloud Residence Temple during that period.
The South Tower of Cloud Residence Temple was also a Liao tower, but unfortunately, it was destroyed by the Japanese army. The rebuilt tower is very new and rough, not worth seeing. Near the South Tower, there are two Liao towers: one is the Wan Gong Tower built by Master Jingwan, the founder of the Sui Dynasty's scripture carving, and the other is the pressure pagoda above the Stone Sutra underground palace. The Stone Sutra underground palace contains over ten thousand stone slab scriptures, which can only be viewed through glass. Additionally, next to the highest Great Compassion Hall in Cloud Residence Temple, there is a more than 1-meter-high Liao Dynasty Heavenly Opening Relic Tower; the relics need to be viewed inside the hall, and they are very small, about the size of a grain of rice, making it hard to see any special features.
Cloud Residence Temple also has over 22,000 volumes of Ming Dynasty paper scriptures and more than 7,000 volumes of Qing Dynasty woodblock scriptures. In the central hall, there is a special exhibition introducing the scriptures, allowing for close viewing, but unfortunately, I lack research on Buddhist scriptures and cannot discern their significance.
Cloud Residence Temple has numerous cultural relics, and if appreciated carefully, one could spend half a day to a whole day there. The environment in the temple is also nice, with pines, cypress, and bamboo, as well as various cats patrolling and napping around the temple. The 40 yuan entrance fee includes access to both the temple and Stone Sutra Mountain, which is worth the price.