The Baiyun Temple

About

As one of China's major Taoist temples, this is now the headquarters of the China Taoist Association. The Baiyun (White Cloud) Temple in the West District of Beijing is the largest Taoist establishment in Beijing. It is remarkable for its age. It was originally founded in 739 AD. and was burned down and then rebuilt, hence most of the buildings now date from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The temple conducts traditional Taoist ceremonies and is crowded with monks and their followers--and tourists--on Taoist holy days.

The fair at Chinese New Year is particularly noteworthy. The temple has a superbly decorative triple-entrance archway. As a visitor enters, they will proceed through a series of halls. Each hall is dedicated to a different Daoist deity. The Baiyun Guan is the chief temple of the Quanzhen Taoist sect and the center of the Longmen sub-sect. In China, Taoist temples are not actually called temples, but Guan. (Guan means something like "to look at" or "observe".) Buried in the compound are the remains of Qiu Chuji, a famed Yuan Taoist guru who lived in the temple all his life. For this reason, Taoists in China regard the White Cloud Temple as their ancestral sanctuary.