Huilongguan

By china tour on 2009-12-17 17:22:00 | Beijing Tours

Huilongguan is a place on northern outskirt of Beijing City, on the way to Badaling Great Wall, 16 kilometers from Desheng Gate to south, 18 Kilometers from Changping Distict to north. The name Huilongguan is from Huilong Village which can trace back to Ming Dynasty, 600 years ago. At this time, this place was a large pasture. Later, in order to learn Taoism, Emperor Hongzhi ordered people to build Xuanfu Temple here. The temple was the imperial temple, also one of the largest Taoism Temple in Beijing then. The constraction of the temple lasted about 12 years.
In the temple, there were double entrance in front, Drum tower, Bell tower, Dragon Palace, Tiger Palace, Left and Right Chamber, the Central Palace etc. In the Central Palace worshipped the God of Xuanwu, which is the God of Water in Taoism. It was not just a temple, also worked as a temporary palace of the emperor. Everytime, when they come back from Ming Tomb, Ming emperors will stay some days here. For dragon represents emperor in ancient Chinese culture, hence the name Huilong guan-Hui: come back; Long-dragon; Guang-Palace.But right now, the temple and the pasture are disapeared, only the name remained.