Beijing - Temple of the White Clouds Baiyun Guan

The famous Taoist Temple of the White Clouds lies about 2km/3.2mi to the west. It was built in 1227 on the order of Gengis Khan to honor the Taoist scholar Qiu Chuji (1148-1227) who had impressed him with his wisdom. Today it is the headquarters of the Taoist Association of China. Along its main axis, beyond an ornamental gate and the inner gate, four courtyards and halls are lined up.

A guardian figure stands in the first hall, while the jade emperor, the highest deity of Taoism, is seated on his throne surrounded by the gods of stars and the heavens in the second. The third hall contains the figures of seven saints, and the fourth and final hall is a two-story mausoleum for Qiu Chuji (other name: Changchun). His bones are laid to rest underneath his statue on the ground floor, while the three pure ones, the highest gods in Taoist religion, are worshipped on the upper floor. The smaller halls of the western side courtyards are dedicated to mother goddesses - responsible for fertility, painless birth and the health of offspring - as well as to important Confucians and the sixty gods of the years - the birth years of the Chinese cycle of sixty years. In the monastery gardens, in the north of the complex, a terrace for ordination and two colorful murals can be found. The murals depict the Taoist pantheon and the eight immortals in the process of crossing the sea.