Bai Lin Hutong. Photo: Yin Yeping

A 70-year-old local resident named Sun said that after 1949 the monks in the temple were dispatched elsewhere.

Lu, a 76-year-old local Beijinger said that there was a small Bai Lin temple located in the Bei Xiao Jie Beikou related to this temple long before the establishment of the city. "It is also said that the empress Cixi gave birth here, but no one could tell now," Lu said. When he was young he often played in the temple, which at the time was open to visitors. "It was also for conducting funerals," said Lu. One time, before 1949, he saw a funeral held with life-sized paper vehicles and soldiers. Although he could not remember when the ceremony took place, Lu said he presumed that it was for a military person.

According to Lu, the Bai Lin Hutong was named after the temple because, while the monks were still there, the houses nearby belonged to the temple, and the high cypress trees around were also the part of the temple's grounds. But although the Bai Lin Hutong was named after the temple, the temple's address has been changed to No.1 of the nearby Xilou Hutong.

Today, the lane's occupants have more than doubled in number, including vendors and migrant workers, and it is now a crowded, sweltering place far removed from its previous tranquility.