The white tower in the Miaoying Temple is the largest Lama tower of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) with the longest history in China. The temple was first built in the 8^th year (1271) of the Zhiyuan reign of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) when Emperor Shizu invited a craftsman from Nepal to design and build the white tower. In the 16^th year (1279) of the Zhiyuan reign, huge buildings were added to the temple, and Emperor Shizu granted the temple a name of  Dashengshou Wan'an Temple. The construction of the white tower and the temple was a big part of the important project to build the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. In the first year (1457) of the Tianshun reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the name was changed to the Miaoying Temple.

The Miaoying Temple is made up of four halls and the tower yard. It is 51 meters high and white all over. Beneath the tower is the 3-storeyed pedestal covered by a lotus throne. The body of the tower is round like a vase, supporting a canopy with a diameter of 9.9 meters and 40 radial bronze flat tiles on it. The tower spire on the canopy is nearly 5 meters high and weighs 4 tons. In 1979, Beijing municipal government found almost 100 pieces of valuable cultural relics such as Buddhist hats, Buddhist robes, sutras that were granted by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when they repaired the white tower.