Qingyang Palace 青羊宫

Welcome, everyone! You've arrived at Qingyang Gong in Chengdu. Today I'll take you through the site in order — from the Main Gate to the Mountain Gate, the Lingzu Hall, the Hunyuan Hall, the Bagua Pavilion, the Sanqing Hall, the Doumu Hall, the Yuhuang Hall, the Nativity Platform and Preaching Platform, and finally the Zijin Platform, also known as the Tang Emperor's Hall. Together we'll explore a Daoist sanctuary with nearly three thousand years of history, known as "the foremost Daoist temple of western Sichuan."

Let's start with some background on Qingyang Gong. The word "gong" here doesn't mean a royal palace — it means a Daoist temple complex. Qingyang Gong was founded during the Zhou dynasty, nearly three thousand years ago. It was originally called "Qingyang Si" — "si" being an ancient word for marketplace, meaning this site was once a bustling market. So how did a marketplace become a Daoist temple? That story begins with Laozi himself. Legend has it that when Laozi rode his green ox through Hangu Pass, he dictated the Daodejing to the gatekeeper Yin Xi, then parted with these words: "After a thousand days of cultivation, come find me at Qingyang Si in Chengdu." Laozi appeared as promised, and continued teaching Yin Xi here — which is why Qingyang Gong became one of Daoism's most sacred sites. During the An-Shi Rebellion and the Huang Chao Uprising of the Tang dynasty, two emperors — Xuanzong and Xizong — both fled to Sichuan and took shelter at Qingyang Gong. Emperor Xizong later had workers dig up a jade brick inscribed with the ancient seal characters "May the Supreme Lord bring peace and end all calamity," which he took as a divine sign from Laozi himself. He donated two million taels of silver to expand the site from a humble "guan" into a grand "gong," giving Qingyang Gong both its name and its monumental scale. Most of the buildings standing today were reconstructed between 1667 and 1671, during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty — more than 350 years ago. Qingyang Gong belongs to the Quanzhen Longmen school of Daoism, covers roughly 120,000 square meters, and is the largest and best-preserved Daoist temple complex in southwest China.

Admission is 10 RMB per person. Full-time students at any level pay 5 RMB with a valid student ID. Free admission applies to visitors over 60, children under 1.2 meters tall, active military personnel, people with disabilities, and emergency management workers. Opening hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM — last entry at 5:00 PM. No advance booking required; just buy your ticket at the gate. Getting here is easy: take Metro Line 5 to Qingyang Gong Station and exit from Gate C — you'll be right at the main entrance. Bus routes 11, 19, 27, 34, 42, and 58 also stop nearby.

Take a moment to look up at the plaque above the main gate — those three characters read "Qingyang Gong." The plaque was inscribed by An Hongde, a county magistrate of Huayang, Chengdu, during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. It has hung here for over two hundred years, the brushwork firm and vigorous. Above the plaque, two dragons writhe across the roofline, chasing a luminous pearl between layered eaves and intricate carvings. Here's a quick photo tip: step back a few paces from the main gate and frame both the plaque and the dragons on the eaves in your shot. Before 10:00 AM, light coming in from the east catches the golden characters perfectly, giving the image real depth and dimension. That said, there's no rush — the light may actually be softer on your way out, so you can always come back for the shot. For now, let's step through the main gate and begin our tour of Qingyang Gong.

Walking in from the main gate, you're now looking at the Mountain Gate — the true first threshold of Qingyang Gong. Notice how the walls on either side flare outward in a V-shape. Each wing is about 20 meters long and 4 meters high. In Daoist architecture this is called a "figure-eight wall," symbolizing the temple opening its arms to welcome devotees from every direction. You'll find this design repeated across Daoist temples throughout China — the idea being that the temple reaches out to embrace all who come seeking the Way.

The Mountain Gate dates to the Ming dynasty. Originally, a statue of the Earth God and the Azure Dragon stood on the left, with the White Tiger on the right — left dragon, right tiger is the standard protective arrangement in Daoist temple architecture, with both creatures serving as guardian spirits. Looking down where I'm pointing, you'll also see the Seven-Star Posts in front of the gate, carved with the secret "celestial cloud script" of Daoist tradition and arranged to mirror the Big Dipper's seven stars. These posts function as a kind of geomantic anchor for the temple — said to stabilize the energy field and ward off harmful forces. Beside the Mountain Gate there is also an ancient Dragon King Well. The gate itself was rebuilt in a later period; its eaves and columns are carved with dragons, tigers, deer, and other auspicious animals, elegant and finely detailed.

The Mountain Gate marks the beginning of your visit to Qingyang Gong, but it is more than just a doorway — it is the first threshold in Daoist spatial thinking, the crossing point between the ordinary world and the realm of the immortals. In earlier times, pilgrims would stop here to straighten their robes and quiet their minds as a mark of respect before the gods. Take a moment to feel it yourself: you've just stepped in from the busy ring road outside, and already the noise seems to fall away. That's the genius of Chinese sacred architecture — finding stillness in the middle of the city.

Through the Mountain Gate, we arrive at the Lingzu Hall — the first major hall along Qingyang Gong's central axis. The hall covers roughly 400 square meters and rises about 20 meters high, its roof clad in glazed tiles with white-petaled lotus flowers centered in red that glitter brilliantly in the sunlight.

The Lingzu Hall enshrines Wang Lingguan, the chief protector deity of Daoist temples. His role is roughly equivalent to that of Weituo, the guardian bodhisattva found in Buddhist monasteries — think of him as the temple's chief of security. His image is striking: a red face, three eyes, and a golden whip held at the ready. Tradition holds that when you enter a Daoist temple you should pay respects to Wang Lingguan first, as if checking in, before proceeding to the other deities in the halls beyond. A note for visitors: photography is generally not permitted inside the Lingzu Hall. Please put away your cameras and phones before entering — this applies both as a matter of religious etiquette and to protect the artifacts inside.

The Lingzu Hall also houses a precious stone stele dating to the twelfth year of the Zhengde reign of the Ming dynasty (1517), known as the "Nine Dragon Stele of Imperial Grace." Nine dragons coil across its face in intricate relief carving — it is one of the earliest inscribed steles surviving at Qingyang Gong. Take a close look at the dragon-scale patterns on the Nine Dragon Stele. Even in stone, they remain remarkably crisp after more than five hundred years. The skill of those Ming-dynasty craftsmen is genuinely humbling.

Leaving the Lingzu Hall, we come to the second great hall of Qingyang Gong — the Hunyuan Hall. This hall was rebuilt during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty and covers 616 square meters, supported by 26 stone columns and 2 wooden ones. Look closely at the carvings on the columns — deer, a phoenix gazing at the moon, two lions playing with a ball, all rendered in open fretwork, each scene full of life. This style of openwork stone carving is one of the most distinctive features of Sichuan's historic architecture.

So what does "Hunyuan" mean? The name traces back to Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty, a devoted Daoist who bestowed upon Laozi the title "Hunyuan Shang De Huang Di" — the Supreme Virtue Emperor of Primordial Chaos. Halls enshrining Laozi have been called Hunyuan Hall ever since. "Hunyuan" refers to the undifferentiated state before heaven and earth separated, before anything existed — the very origin of the "Way," or Dao, in Daoist philosophy. The figure enthroned at the center of the hall is the Supreme Lord Laozi, serene-faced and holding a circular ring called the Hunyuan Ring of Heaven and Earth. Look carefully at what the ring suggests: stretch it out flat and it becomes a straight line — the character for "one" — evoking the teaching that "the Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the ten thousand things." The Supreme Lord Laozi is the deified form of the historical philosopher Laozi, whose Daodejing — barely five thousand characters long — has been translated into more languages than almost any other work of Chinese literature.

Walk around to the rear of the Hunyuan Hall and you'll find the back shrine, which enshrines Cihang Zhenren. The name may not ring a bell, but the other name surely will — this is Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. In the Daoist tradition she is known as Cihang Zhenren; in Buddhism she is Guanyin or Avalokiteshvara. The fact that both traditions venerate her is a vivid example of the way China's three great teachings — Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism — have woven together over the centuries. The Hunyuan Hall is your first window into Daoist philosophy. From here, you'll begin to encounter the Daoist view of the cosmos, the pantheon of deities, and the practice of cultivation — each hall building on the last.

We've now reached the crown jewel of Qingyang Gong's architecture — the Bagua Pavilion. This is the best-preserved and most magnificent structure in the entire complex, and the single building that most vividly embodies Daoist thought. Step back a few paces and take it all in at once.

The Bagua Pavilion stands about 20 meters tall, spans roughly 17 meters across, and covers nearly 300 square meters. What makes it truly unique is its base — the stone platform has three tiers: the lowest is square, the middle is octagonal, and the top is circular. From bottom to top: square, octagon, circle. This progression mirrors the Daoist teaching that "one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to the ten thousand things," and it embodies the ancient cosmological idea of a round heaven arching over a square earth. The entire pavilion is assembled without a single nail or wedge — every joint is a mortise-and-tenon connection, the highest achievement of traditional Chinese timber construction. No metal fasteners at all, yet it has stood for centuries.

Now move in close and look at the columns. The Bagua Pavilion is ringed by a double row of 16 stone columns, each hewn from a single block of stone, each standing roughly 4.8 meters tall with a diameter of about 50 centimeters. The eight outer columns are the real showpieces — each one is carved with a full dragon in high-relief fretwork, the body coiling up the column in a spiral, the head thrusting outward, scales and claws and whiskers rendered in fine detail, as if the creature were about to take flight at any moment. These eight dragon-wrapped columns are considered among the rarest treasures in Chinese historic architecture.

And there is a delightful legend attached to them. The story goes that on the eve of the pavilion's completion, one of the stone dragons on the columns of the Sanqing Hall opposite suddenly came to life, coiling and straining to leap into the clouds. The Moon Deity spotted it and stopped it with a single punch — pinning the dragon back to the stone. The fist print is said to be visible on the column head even today. See if you can find it.

Inside the pavilion stands a statue of Laozi riding his green ox. Why a green ox? In Chinese tradition, the ox represents patience, steadiness, and quiet strength — qualities that resonate perfectly with Laozi's teachings of "profound wisdom that appears simple" and "yielding overcomes force." The green ox is also a Daoist symbol of good omen: green belongs to the east and to new life.

The roof is laid with glazed tiles in yellow, green, and purple, and the crown of the pavilion is a glazed gourd-shaped finial rising about 3.6 meters. In Daoism the gourd is the vessel used to hold immortal elixirs, and its sound in Chinese also evokes the words for "fortune" and "prosperity." The pavilion's walls feature latticed tortoiseshell-pattern doors and cloud-flower openwork windows; the south-facing entrance carries a bas-relief of the twelve zodiac animals arranged around a taiji symbol. Photo tip: stand directly in front of the Bagua Pavilion and tilt your camera upward to capture both the glazed gourd finial and the dragon-wrapped columns in the same frame — the classic composition for this spot. The raking light between eight and nine in the morning, or between three and four in the afternoon, gives the most sculptural effect.

Past the Bagua Pavilion, we arrive at the main hall of Qingyang Gong — the Sanqing Hall. Also known as the Wuji Hall, this is the largest and most important hall in the complex. It was originally built in the Tang dynasty, and the structure standing today was rebuilt in 1669, the eighth year of the Kangxi reign. The foundation measures 40 meters on each side — a perfect square — giving a total footprint of 1,600 square meters.

Who are the "Three Pure Ones"? In the Daoist pantheon they are the three supreme deities. At the center sits Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, representing the state before the universe came into being. To the left stands Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun, the Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, representing the moment of creation. To the right stands Taiqing Daode Tianzun — none other than the Supreme Lord Laozi — representing the generation of all living things. Together, the three embody the complete arc of the Dao: from nothingness to being, from being to the ten thousand things.

Look up at the plaques and couplets on the hall's exterior. The outer columns carry a gilded couplet written by Li Yuhang, former president of the China Daoist Association: "On this blessed ground reclines the green ox — mist and haze of the stone chamber, ten thousand ages; in this celestial grotto soars the white crane — the immortal isle, a thousand autumns." The couplet weaves together several classic Daoist images — the green ox, the white crane, the stone chamber, the immortal isle — painting Qingyang Gong as a sanctuary of paradise beyond time.

Inside the hall there are thirty-six great columns: eight wooden columns representing the Eight Heavenly Kings of Daoism, and twenty-eight stone columns representing the twenty-eight lunar mansions — Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Xin, Wei, Ji, and so on through the full sequence. These are the twenty-eight sectors into which ancient Chinese astronomy divided the night sky, and here the Sanqing Hall transforms that celestial map into a three-dimensional architectural cosmos. Along the flanking walls of the hall are statues of the Twelve Immortals — Guangchengzi, Chijingzi, Taiyi Zhenren, Cihang Daoren, and others well known from the classic mythological novel Investiture of the Gods.

To the left of the hall stands a great bronze bell known as the "Bell of the Underworld," cast during the Ming dynasty and weighing over three thousand kilograms. A large drum stands on the right. On the first and fifteenth of each lunar month, and during major ritual observances, bell and drum sound together, the resonance carrying for miles.

Now, let's turn to the two stars of the show in front of the Sanqing Hall — the two bronze rams. These are the temple's most beloved treasures. As I point them out, you'll see: on the left, a single-horned ram; on the right, a two-horned ram.

The single-horned ram on the left is extraordinary — its body is a composite of all twelve Chinese zodiac animals: the ears of a rat, the body of an ox, the claws of a tiger, the back of a rabbit, the horn of a dragon, the tail of a snake, the mouth of a horse, the beard of a goat, the head of a monkey, the eyes of a rooster, the belly of a dog, and the haunches of a pig. It is, in effect, a three-dimensional mashup of the entire Chinese zodiac. This ram was brought from Beijing to Qingyang Gong in 1723, the first year of the Yongzheng reign, as a gift from the Grand Secretary Zhang Penghao. The pedestal bears a poem he wrote: "I found this bronze ram at a market in the capital and brought it to this ancient Daoist ground in Chengdu. It feels like the moment Yin Xi recognized Laozi at the pass — finding joy in this place called Huayang, with no end to the happiness." The reference, of course, is to the story of Laozi and Yin Xi that is at the very heart of Qingyang Gong.

The two-horned ram on the right was cast in 1829, the ninth year of the Daoguang reign, commissioned by a Chengdu devotee named Zhang Ke Shi, and made by Yunnanese craftsmen Chen Wenbing and Gu Tiren. The two rams stand side by side, one on each flank, guarding the entrance to the Sanqing Hall.

In Chengdu, people say "rub the bronze ram to cure all ailments." The tradition holds that touching a part of the ram's body corresponding to a part of your own body will bring health and protection to that area. The single-horned ram is especially popular since it combines all twelve zodiac animals — no matter what your birth sign, your animal is somewhere on its body. Since 2004, the originals have been moved into protected storage to preserve them as cultural relics. The rams in front of the hall today are high-quality replicas, and you are welcome to touch them freely. The custom is to stroke from head to tail for a complete blessing. Local children love climbing up onto the rams for photos — they're part of the childhood memories of several generations of Chengdu families.

Photo tip: the Sanqing Hall is a large structure. For a shot that captures both the hall and the bronze rams together, back up toward the Bagua Pavilion and shoot toward the hall from there. Note that flash photography is prohibited inside the Sanqing Hall — please switch it off before you enter.

Through the Sanqing Hall, we continue north along the central axis to the Doumu Hall. The hall is about 10 meters long and 9 meters wide, built in the style of an elevated pavilion — and it is the only surviving Ming-dynasty original structure in all of Qingyang Gong. Every hall we've seen before this — the Mountain Gate, the Hunyuan Hall, the Sanqing Hall — was rebuilt during the Qing dynasty. The Doumu Hall alone has stood since the Ming, somewhere between five and six hundred years. Look carefully at its timber construction — entirely wood, without a single iron nail. The interlocking bracket sets stack and project outward to support the whole structure, a textbook example of Ming-dynasty southwestern architectural style.

The deity enshrined inside is Doumu, whose full Daoist title is Moli Zhitian Great Sage Primordial Doumu Yuanjun — a figure unlike any other in the Daoist pantheon. Her appearance is arresting: three eyes on her forehead, four heads at her shoulders, and four arms extending from each side. This "three-eyed, four-headed, eight-armed" form reflects her immense cosmic authority. In Daoist mythology, Doumu is the mother of all the stars in heaven. She bore nine sons: the eldest is the Jade Emperor, the second is the Purple Tenuity Emperor, and the remaining seven are the stars of the Big Dipper — Tanlang, Jumen, Lucun, Wenqu, Lianzhen, Wuqu, and Pojun. For this reason she is revered as the "Mother of All Stars," governing the movement of the heavens and, by extension, the fortunes of every living being.

To Doumu's right is enshrined the Queen Mother of the West — the Wang Mu Niang Niang of Chinese popular tradition. Legend places her palace at Yaochi Lake on Mount Kunlun, where she presides over all the female immortals. On the third day of the third lunar month, her birthday, immortals from across the heavens gather at Yaochi for the Peach Banquet — the very occasion that the Monkey King crashes in Journey to the West. To Doumu's left is enshrined Houtu Huangdi Zhi, the Earth Mother, goddess of the land, mountains, rivers, and the cycles of life and death, one of the "Four Sovereigns" of the Daoist heavenly hierarchy. The side walls of the hall also carry statues of the Six Stars of the Southern Dipper and the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper — the Southern Dipper governing birth, the Northern Dipper governing death. Take it all together, and the Doumu Hall spans heaven above, earth below, and human fate in between — a complete model of the Daoist cosmos in a single room.

Standing before the Doumu Hall, notice the quality of the wood itself — centuries of age have turned it a deep reddish brown, and the surface is mapped with fine cracks left by time. Compared to the Qing-dynasty halls behind us, there is something different here, something older and quieter. It's a texture that can't be rebuilt.

Stepping out of the Doumu Hall, your eye is immediately caught by an enormous spirit wall — the famous "Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity" Screen Wall. Three towering characters are inscribed across its face: Fu, Lu, Shou — Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity. Fortune for happiness, Prosperity for success and wealth, Longevity for health and long life. These three wishes sum up everything the Chinese people have ever hoped for from a good life. Here's a little folk custom to try: stand before the screen wall, close your eyes, spin around three times, then walk straight toward it and point at whichever character your finger lands on. The one you touch is said to reveal where your good luck will come from. It's a popular game at Qingyang Gong — give it a go.

Walk around to the back of the screen wall and you'll find the Yuhuang Hall. The original hall, built during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty, fell into disrepair and had to be demolished. The hall you see today was rebuilt in 1995, and measures about 18 meters long and 6 meters wide. The upper floor enshrines the Jade Emperor — ranking just below the Three Pure Ones in the Daoist hierarchy, and the most widely recognized deity in Chinese popular religion. He is, if you like, the chief executive of heaven — and the eldest son of Doumu, as we learned in the last hall. The lower floor houses the Three Officials in the front section: the Heavenly Official Who Grants Fortune, the Earth Official Who Pardons Sin, and the Water Official Who Relieves Hardship. The rear section enshrines the Purple Tenuity North Pole Emperor and the True Martial Emperor, also known as the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven.

The Yuhuang Hall is a relatively modest structure, but its position — between the Doumu Hall and the elevated platforms ahead — makes it a key transitional point in the layout. From here, looking north, you can already see the buildings rising on the high terrace ahead. That's where we're heading next.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've now reached the final cluster of buildings at the heart of Qingyang Gong — the Rear Garden Triple Platforms. At the end of the central axis, a raised terrace carries three structures side by side: the Nativity Platform on the left, the Preaching Platform on the right, and the Zijin Platform — also called the Tang Emperor's Hall — at the center. All three were built during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, set high above the rest of the complex with the whole of Qingyang Gong spread out below.

Let's begin with the Nativity Platform on the left. This shrine houses a statue of the mother of the Supreme Lord Laozi, alongside a painting cycle depicting his miraculous birth. According to Daoist canonical texts, Laozi's mother carried him for eighty-one years before giving birth — and when he arrived, he already had a full head of white hair. That is why he is called "Laozi": "lao" meaning old, "zi" being the honorific for a learned master. The Nativity Platform tells the story of this sacred birth, and it is said that Laozi himself once manifested here. Look carefully at the birth murals inside the hall — the colors are rich and deep, the composition grand in scale, the figures rendered with remarkable expressiveness. They depict the auspicious portents at Laozi's birth: heavenly radiance descending, nine dragons spouting water — a masterpiece of Qing-dynasty Daoist mural painting.

Now to the Preaching Platform on the right. This hall recreates the scene of Laozi expounding the Dao to Yin Xi. As we mentioned at the very beginning, when Laozi rode his green ox through Hangu Pass, he wrote down the five-thousand-character Daodejing at Yin Xi's request, then promised to meet him again at Qingyang Si in Chengdu after a thousand days. Three years later Laozi kept his word, and it was here, on this very spot, that he continued to transmit the great Way. Inside the hall, a statue of Laozi sits serenely on a lotus throne; before him, Yin Xi listens with reverence. The scene is solemn and still, as if the two thousand years between that moment and this one had simply dissolved. The Nativity Platform and the Preaching Platform together trace the full arc of Laozi's story — from birth to the transmission of the teaching, from the human to the divine.

Climb up to the terrace of either platform and you can look back along the entire central axis of Qingyang Gong — from the Doumu Hall and Yuhuang Hall at your feet, all the way to the Sanqing Hall, the Bagua Pavilion, and the Hunyuan Hall in the distance, the layered rooftops nestled among the trees, the glazed tiles catching the light. This is the best vantage point for a panoramic shot of the whole complex, and well worth a few extra frames.

Between the Nativity Platform and the Preaching Platform rises the central structure of the group — the Zijin Platform, also known as the Tang Emperor's Hall. This hall enshrines statues of Tang dynasty Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan and his consort, along with Emperor Taizong Li Shimin. What would Tang dynasty emperors be doing inside a Daoist temple? The answer lies in a dramatic moment from history.

In 881, the first year of the Zhonghe era, rebel forces under Huang Chao stormed the Tang capital. Emperor Xizong fled in haste to Sichuan, taking refuge at Qingyang Gong, which served as his temporary imperial residence. During his stay, a strange red light was seen shooting into the earth. Xizong ordered the spot to be excavated, and workers unearthed a jade brick inscribed in ancient seal script with the six characters meaning "May the Supreme Lord bring peace and end the suffering of this age." Xizong was overjoyed, interpreting this as a direct sign from Laozi that his dynasty would be restored. He did in fact return to the capital — and in gratitude he issued an imperial decree upgrading the site from a "guan" (a Daoist monastery) to a "gong" (an imperial temple precinct), donating two million taels of silver to fund a grand expansion. It was in this rebuilding that Qingyang Gong received both its name and the monumental scale it has maintained ever since.

A stone stele stands before the hall, bearing the full text of Emperor Xizong's imperial edict proclaiming the renaming of Xuanzhong Guan as Qingyang Gong — the most authoritative historical document attesting to the temple's identity. The statues of Li Yuan, his consort, and Li Shimin inside the hall represent not only the Tang imperial family's reverence for Daoism, but the pivotal moment when Qingyang Gong transformed from an ordinary Daoist temple into an imperially patronized sacred precinct.

One more thing worth knowing: Qingyang Gong is home to a hundred-year-old camphor tree with a spectacularly unusual shape. This is the very tree that was used as the "ginseng fruit tree" filming location for the 1986 television series Journey to the West! The famous scene in which the Monkey King knocks the tree down and the Bodhisattva Guanyin restores it to life was shot right here beneath this camphor. If you grew up watching that series, standing under this tree will feel like stepping into a scene you've known your whole life.

We've now walked the full length of Qingyang Gong's central axis. If you have time and energy to spare, I'd highly recommend stopping at the tea garden before you leave — there's no more authentic slice of Chengdu life than this.

The tea garden at Qingyang Gong is one of the most distinctive in the city. Bamboo chairs, square wooden tables, lidded bowl tea — the classic trio of an old Chengdu teahouse. A bowl of tea costs 15 yuan, usually accompanied by a small dish of seeds. Settle into a chair beneath a centuries-old ginkgo tree, listen to the sound of Daoist chanting drifting from somewhere beyond the walls, and look out at red temple walls, grey-green tiles, and the slow curl of incense smoke. That sense of deep quiet at the center of a busy city — hidden in plain sight — is the purest expression of Chengdu's unhurried way of life. The Laozhuang Academy is right next door, with a collection of Daoist classical texts; browsing the shelves is well worth a few minutes if you're curious.

If you'd like to explore further, the side halls flanking the central axis offer more to discover. The Yuanchen Hall enshrines the sixty Jiazi Star Officers; the Lv Zu Hall enshrines Lu Dongbin; the Wenchang Hall enshrines the God of Literature and Learning; the Sanhuang Hall enshrines Fu Xi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor. If you're interested in Chinese mythology and Daoist culture, a thorough visit to these side halls will take another 40 minutes to an hour.

To wrap up, here is the essence of Qingyang Gong in three things to remember:

First, the two bronze rams — the single-horned ram combining all twelve zodiac animals, and the double-horned ram. Don't leave without rubbing them for good luck.

Second, the Bagua Pavilion — assembled without a single nail using mortise-and-tenon joinery, ringed by eight dragon-wrapped stone columns, rising from a three-tiered base of square, octagon, and circle. It is one of the pinnacles of Chinese architecture.

Third, the origin of the name: Laozi told Yin Xi, "After a thousand days, come find me at Qingyang Si in Chengdu." That promise made across a millennium is the soul of this place.

Admission is 10 yuan per person. Opening hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The exit is beside the Mountain Gate — simply retrace your steps. Turn right out of the exit and you're at Qingyang Gong Station on Metro Line 5. The Erxian An ruins and Chengdu Culture Park are both right next to Qingyang Gong and free to enter — worth a look if you have time. Qingyang Gong is about 1.2 kilometers from Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, 3 kilometers from Wuhou Shrine, and 2 kilometers from Kuanzhai Alley — a tight schedule could get you through all of them in a single day. Thank you for joining the tour, and enjoy the rest of your time in Chengdu!