Hidden in a Beijing hutong, the Zhihua Temple offers visitors a chance to hear centuries-old music still performed today.

The ancient music performed at the temple, now home to the Beijing Museum for Cultural Heritage Exchanges, has been passed down through 27 generations of inheritors over more than 580 years. Renowned as a "living fossil" of ancient Chinese music, Zhihua Temple music was inscribed on China's national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

Originally built in 1444 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Zhihua Temple was the family temple of Wang Zhen, a favored eunuch of Emperor Yingzong and supervisor of the Office of Rites. Today, it is the best-preserved complex of Ming Dynasty wooden architecture in Beijing.