Beijing in $690s-$780s RT

There's a lot to see in Beijing, so your itinerary is going to be stacked. But in between all the iconic stops (exploring the Forbidden City, sliding down the Great Wall, etc), make sure to find time for the weirder parts of the city.

Like this unusual temple dedicated to Emperor Dongyue, a powerful deity in the Chinese Daoist tradition. Dongyue has a few different jobs in the great celestial bureaucracy, including passing messages between heaven and Earth, but this particular shrine celebrates his rule over the 76 departments of the afterlife.

Each department gets its own room in the Dongyue Temple, complete with posed wooden statues. They run the gamut from the good-vibes Department of Accumulating Justifiable Wealth to the more ominous Department of Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death. We know which one we'd prefer to land in.

And if all that underworld talk didn't take away your appetite, stop by one of the three Guo Li Zhuang locations in Beijing for some... well, we'll let you see for yourself :-)