Dongyue Taoist Temple

Dongyue Taoist Temple, located in Chaoyangmen Outer Street, was initially built during the reign of Yan You of the Yuan Dynasty. After destroyed by war in the end of Yuan Dynasty, the temple was rebuilt and expanded several times. As the largest temple of the Orthodox One Sect of Taoism in North China, it was crowned as the No.1 Taoist Temple of North China. In the temple, there are over 600 buildings respectively built in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Now, it is the site of Beijing Folk-Custom Culture Museum. It is a national cultural heritage under special protection.

Dongyue Taoist Temple is famous for statues of Gods, couplets and stone tablets. There are also numerous distinctive buildings in the temple, including color-glazed archway, bell & drum towers, Main Hall, Heavenly King Hall and so on. Both artistic level and scale of the temple building take the lead among the temples in the county.

Dongyue Taoist Temple was built mainly to pay homage to Mythical Emperor Dongyue (the God of Mount Tai). The temple still keeps more than 100 stone tablets. They are all made during Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties with high artistic and historic values. Out of the stone tablets, the most prized is the one engraved with Zhao Mengfu's calligraphy, commonly called Taoist Stele. It is a treasure of calligraphic art of Yuan Dynasty.