Roosting high above the city’s far north, the inside of this new and unexpectedly modern Tibetan temple looks like a kind of Buddhist-themed bus terminal, though the 6m-high gilt Buddha is pretty impressive and if you catch the monks doing their thing with drums, cymbals and chanting the atmosphere can be electric. However the real show-stealer here is the panoramic view, the smog-hazed city ringed by rumpled dust-bare peaks.
A new feature is the circular walk around the temple featuring pavilions with grotesque, man-size representations of the Chinese signs of the zodiac. Take marshrutka 97 from outside the Hotel Baikal Plaza on pl Sovetov to the last stop (right by the temple entrance).
