Sitting atop a hill on Nanjing's northeastern side near Xuanwu Lake, the halls of Jiming Temple (Jīmíng Sì, 鸡鸣寺) resonate with the chants and prayers of Buddhist nuns and faithful locals.

An active monastery, a number of buildings like the nun's quarters aren't meant for tourists. The temple's main hall, the Jeweled Hall of the Vairocana (Pílú Bǎodiàn, 毗卢宝殿), for example, is only open to nuns or those invited in—though the interior is quite visible through plentiful windows and windowed doors—the temple's other halls are open to visitors. Signage is mostly in English, though some areas lack translation.

The temple's vegetarian restaurant offers moderately priced meat-free dining (don't let the fake ham trick you—even though it tastes like the real thing). Besides a plethora of bottled beverages behind the counter, a machine holds hot plum juice—which to some may have a somewhat tobacco-like flavor.

First established during the short-lived Liang Dynasty (502-557), the temple went through repeated cycles of destruction and reconstruction as Nanjing saw successive waves of kingdoms and dynasties. While the current temple was built during Ming Dynasty, whose first capital was located in Nanjing, many of the current buildings were built in the 1980s.

Across a walkway just behind the temple, the Taicheng City Wall, a stretch of Nanjing's massive Ming Dynasty city wall, snakes along Xuanwu Lake towards Zijin Shan.

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