In the north and west of the Chengde Mountain Resort lies the Eight Outer Temples, built between 1713 and 1780, many of them in Tibetan style, among which the most famous are Putuo Zongcheng Temple and Puning Temple.

The Putuo Zongcheng Temple was built in 1771 to celebrate Qianlong Emporer’s 60th birthday and his mother’s 80th birthday and was modeled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa of Tibet.

The entire temple was built based on traditional Chinese architecture with a blend of Tibetan architectural features and is commonly known as the ‘Little Potala Palace. The Qianlong Emperor spared no expense in building the extremely luxurious temple of Putuo Zongchen to make the Mountain Resort become another Buddhist center, and the chiefs of the Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan races to experience the architecture, spirituality, and magnificence of Tibetan sites outside of its homelands.

The temple covers an area of 220,000 square meters. A square architecture named Big Red Platform is the principal part, on which there are three halls. The tops of the halls are covered with copper-gold tiles, thus a very precious monument. This temple was used to hold important religious ceremonies and for the emperors to interview the heads of the Minorities and some ministers in the past.

It contains a collection of Tibetan religious objects from the Qing period and exhibits impressive religious scrolls, the Tangkas, which are sacred Tibetan art.