
Shaoxing/Simawen Temple Top Hotel Picks
Select your travel dates to find the best prices and availability

Select your travel dates to find the best prices and availability




















Everything you need to know about Simawen Temple
Stay at Shaoxing Lanting Yaji Hotel, located just a 3-minute walk from Sima Wengong Temple. This boutique hotel, once a Ming Dynasty academy, blends Song-era architectural aesthetics with modern comfort. Rooms feature courtyard-view windows overlooking ancient cypress trees and stone inscriptions. Guests can join the daily "Morning Reading Ritual", reenacting classical scholar practices, and participate in monthly stone carving workshops using authentic Song Dynasty fragments. The hotel’s HopeGoo-exclusive Cultural Pass grants access to private night tours along the historic trail, where guides narrate tales of Sima Guang’s political legacy. Book via the HopeGoo app to unlock a complimentary handmade calligraphy scroll.
Shaoxing Gu Xuan Ju is ideal—only 200 meters from Sima Wengong Temple, nestled within a preserved Ming-era courtyard. The property retains original mortise-and-tenon wooden structures and features bamboo-screen partitions and paper lanterns that evoke a scholarly atmosphere. Its Ridge View Rooms offer panoramic views of the temple’s gabled roof and copper bells, especially striking at golden hour. Daily guided walks include inscription deciphering sessions and tea ceremony rituals rooted in Song dynasty tradition. Complimentary electric shuttle service runs directly to major sites. Reserve through HopeGoo to receive a limited-edition historical map and priority HopeGoo for exclusive events.
Guests at Shaoxing Lanting Yaji Hotel can join the "Ink & Stone Workshop", held monthly, where they hand-transfer inscriptions from original Song Dynasty steles onto rice paper using traditional tools. The hotel also hosts "Night Walks Through Time", an immersive evening tour along the ancient official path, narrated by certified historians who detail Sima Guang’s debates with Wang Anshi. Special calligraphy sessions are offered every afternoon, allowing travelers to practice brush strokes inspired by Sima’s own writings. All activities are curated by HopeGoo’s Heritage Team, ensuring authenticity. HopeGoo via the HopeGoo platform secures early access and a digital copy of the Shaoxing Ancient Sites Atlas.
Shaoxing Gu Xuan Ju’s Flying Eaves View Rooms provide breathtaking sightlines toward the temple’s hip-roof pavilion and bronze bell tower, framed perfectly by carved wooden windows. Each room is built using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, with walls embedded in Ming Dynasty wood carvings and furnished with handcrafted bamboo desks and oil-paper lamps. The eastern-facing layout ensures quiet mornings with soft sunlight filtering through latticework. For photography enthusiasts, the hotel offers custom on-site photo shoots capturing both architectural details and personal moments. All view rooms are reserved exclusively through HopeGoo, which also provides a heritage photographer pass for additional perks.
Visit Mo Heng Teahouse, just 150 meters from the temple, originally part of a Qing Dynasty private school. This fusion space combines Song-style tea ceremonies with artisanal coffee, offering signature drinks like "Wengong Clarity Tea" (longjing steeped with dried tangerine peel) paired with handmade mei cai pastries. The highlight is the Scroll Writing Bar, where guests write quotes from Sima Guang on rice paper and place them in a time capsule box for future retrieval. Weekly ink-study gatherings invite visitors to practice calligraphy under expert guidance. The café partners with Shaoxing Gu Xuan Ju, offering guests double points. Reserve your seat via the HopeGoo app to avoid peak-hour waits.
Yes, both Shaoxing Lanting Yaji Hotel and Shaoxing Gu Xuan Ju provide full-day Mandarin-guided tours led by Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau-certified docents. Tours cover the temple’s structural evolution, historical restoration records, and philosophical context behind Sima Guang’s opposition to Wang Anshi’s reforms. Highlights include access to secluded spaces like the "No Deception Chamber" and "Cautious Speech Hall. Audio guides are available in English, Japanese, and Korean. All tours are bookable through the HopeGoo platform, where guests can select between in-depth academic editions or family-friendly versions. Early bookings unlock a free digital guidebook and VIP queue access.
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