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Not far from the Forbidden City lies Temple Dongjingyuan (Temple 东景缘), formerly knowed as the Zhizhu Temple. It was founded at the beginning of the 15th century, and the current buildings date from 1700. Centuries after it was founded, and decades after it was decommissioned for religious services in the 1950s, the place is miraculously still standing and is a center of culture in the neighborhood.
In 2007, Juan van Wassenhove and Lin fan (林凡) decided to restore the place and run it as a cultural heritage enterprise. How do they manage to keep the place afloat and find a balance between preserving the history and making a profit ?
Aladin Farré is the founder and host of Middle Earth Podcast and a contributing writer at The World of Chinese.
