[2025 Quyang Attraction] Travel Guide for Beiyue Temple (Updated Apr)

Last week, I drove to Baoding and finally visited Quyang County to see the Northern Sacred Mountain Temple (Beiyue Temple) that I had been longing to visit. Before the Ming Dynasty, all sacrificial ceremonies for Mount Heng, the Northern Sacred Mountain, were held at Beiyue Temple in Quyang. It wasn't until the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty that ceremonies were moved to Hunyuan, Shanxi. This shows the temple's significant role in imperial ceremonies from its establishment during Emperor Xuanwu's reign in the Northern Wei Dynasty until the Shunzhi period. At Beiyue Temple, there are three highlights you shouldn't miss: the Dening Hall, the Heavenly Palace mural, and the stone inscriptions. The Dening Hall, the largest and highest-ranking surviving Yuan Dynasty official wooden structure, served as the main hall for official ceremonies to the Northern Sacred Mountain. While inheriting architectural traditions from the Song and Jin dynasties, it features distinctive Yuan Dynasty characteristics. The exquisite Heavenly Palace mural inside the hall is a masterpiece. Known for its artistic excellence and ethereal style, the mural depicts 286 deities arranged in hierarchical layers around the central figure of the Great Emperor of the Northern Peak. This grand Taoist scene, together with the murals in the Sanqing Hall of Yongle Palace in Shanxi, are known as the Twin Treasures of Yuan Dynasty Taoist Murals. On the lawn and along the pathways of Beiyue Temple, over 100 stone inscriptions from seven dynasties - Northern Wei, Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing - are displayed. These form a tangible textbook of Chinese calligraphy history and an open-air museum of calligraphic art. The inscriptions include works by masters such as Zhao Mengfu, Huaisu, and Dong Qichang, serving as stone archives of historical documents. ☀️Useful Tips☀️ 1️⃣Beiyue Temple has a Quyang Museum which, though small, is worth visiting. It's hidden and easy to miss. 2️⃣Admission is 40 yuan per person, but sometimes it's reduced to 20 yuan when Dening Hall is closed for maintenance.

✨The highlight of Beiyue Temple is the giant murals on the east and west sides of the Dening Hall—🎨Wu Daozi's "Heavenly Palace Map", ➡️"Clouds and Rain" on the east side, and "Peace in All Nations" on the west side, with a total of 73 characters, each with a unique image.⬅️ The god Zhong Kui on the west side has a ferocious face and strong muscles, holding a spear and galloping in the air. ✅ Pass through the Stone Bridge and the Archway, to the Chaoyue Gate, Yuxiang Pavilion, Lingxiao Gate, Sanshan Gate, Feishi Hall, and finally the main building Dening Hall. ✅ On both sides of Dening Hall are the Forest of Steles, Stele Pavilion, and Stone Carvings, which have unique artistic value. ✅ Ancient architecture, painting, calligraphy, stone carving, and Ding porcelain are all in one, with rich connotations.

😜 Today, I'm going to introduce you to Quyang Beiyue Temple! Although it's not as popular as Dingzhou, it has the largest existing wooden structure from the Yuan dynasty! 😲 The murals are also a masterpiece. Locals believe they were painted by Wu Daozi, a famous painter, but they were actually painted by a Yuan dynasty artist. They are still worthy of praise! 👏 The architecture, murals, and stone inscriptions make this place a treasure trove that carries the wishes of a thousand years. 🤩 Come to Quyang and experience its unique charm!

❤Recommendation reason: Beiyue Temple is located in the west of Quyang County, Baoding City, Hebei Province. It was first built during the Jingming and Zhengshi years of the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Before Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Beiyue Temple had always been the place where feudal emperors of all dynasties worshipped Beiyue. 🌟Highlights: The Beiyue Temple's architectural layout is symmetrical in traditional form, facing south and centered on the central axis. The main building, the Dening Hall, is located at the north end of the central axis. To the south, there are the Fei Shi Hall, Sanshan Gate, Lingxiao Gate, Yuxiang Pavilion, Chaoyue Gate, archway, stone bridge, etc. 👍Most Recommended: The most spectacular feature of Beiyue Temple is the murals in the Dening Hall, where there are tall murals on the east and west walls. The eastern mural is painted with a title of "Clouds Bringing Rain", which depicts many gods in heaven and on earth creating clouds and rain to bring down sweet rain for the benefit of the people; the western mural is painted with a title of "All Nations in Peace and Happiness", which depicts the scene of the gods returning to the palace in triumph after successfully completing the task of creating clouds and rain. 📝Note tips: [1:00] Opening hours: 8:30-17:00 [○] Ticket price: Full price 40 yuan

San Shan Men, the fourth gate of Beiyue Temple, is five bays wide and three bays deep, with a single-eave hanging mountain roof. On the walls outside the gate, there is a stone stele with a 'Quyang Ghost' painted on each side, with robust muscles and fierce looks, said to be the authentic work of Wu Daozi. Inside the gate, on the wall, is the famous 'Zhongshan Songlao Fu' stele, created by Su Dongpo when he served as the governor of Dingzhou. He visited Beiyue Temple and was inspired to write after making pine wine from the resin of ancient pines in the temple courtyard.

Beiyue Temple is located in Quyang County, Hebei, a county famous for its stone carvings. Before the Qing Dynasty, Beiyue was always the Da Mao Mountain within the territory of Quyang County, until the Shunzhi era of the Qing Dynasty, when it was changed to worship Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Shanxi. Today's Beiyue Temple is famous for its ancient architecture and murals. The entire architectural complex includes, from south to north, the remains of the wooden archway, Chaoyue Gate, Yuxiang Pavilion, Lingxiao Gate, Sanshan Gate, the remains of the Feishi Hall, and the Denning Hall, among other structures. The main building of Beiyue Temple—the Denning Hall—is the largest existing Yuan Dynasty wooden structure in China. Approaching it, one can feel the grandeur of the hall. The hall is six bays deep, nine bays wide, and 25 meters high, with a double-eaved nine-ridged wudian-style roof, which is also the highest grade of ancient architecture. Among the ancient buildings we can see today, there are only about twenty places with double-eaved wudian-style roofs, including the three main halls of the Forbidden City, the Tai Temple, the Ling'en Hall of Changling, the Dacheng Hall of the Confucius Temple in Qufu, the main hall of Dongyue Temple, Tiankuang Hall, and the main hall of Zhongyue Temple, Junji Hall. Another marvel of Beiyue Temple is its murals. On the east and west walls of the main hall are painted 'Heavenly Palace' murals, with the east wall depicting 'Cloud Movement and Rain Dispensing' and the west wall 'Universal Peace'. Each is 8 meters high and 18 meters long, with numerous figures and an extraordinary momentum, depicting the gods lining up to travel before dispensing rain, and the scene of returning to court after the rain. Some say these are works by the Tang Dynasty artist Wu Daozi. But upon careful consideration, this is impossible. The hall was built during the Yuan Dynasty, so how could Wu Daozi have painted on it? It is most likely that these are copies of Wu Daozi's works, or based on sketches made by him. Among these divine images, the Quyang ghost is the most famous. This image is at the top of the mural on the left side of the main hall, and its stone carving replica is on the Sanshan Gate. Indeed, it is full of dynamism and very lifelike. In the courtyard, there are also inscriptions from the Tang to the Qing dynasties, recording sacrifices or repairs to Beiyue Temple, whose calligraphy is also a treasure left to us. ——Travel tips—— ☑️Opening hours: 9 am to 5 pm. ☑️Tour time: about 2 hours. ☑️Ticket price: 40 yuan, children free. ☑️Tourism and protection level: National 2, 4A scenic area. ☑️Surroundings: A 10-minute walk in front of Beiyue Temple, you can visit the Xiude Temple Pagoda, the most beautiful compound-style pagoda, not to be missed.

Baoding Quyang Beiyue Temple | A thousand years of Quyang stone carving Quyang is located in the southwest of Baoding, Hebei, on the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, and is named for its location on the curved sunny side of the ancient Beiyue Hengshan (now Damao Mountain). Speaking of the sunny side, some people may not be familiar with it. As the old saying goes, the south of the mountain and the north of the water are called Yang. The so-called sunny side is actually the south. Quyang is located in the ancient Yan and Zhao regions, and is a major transportation route from the Central Plains to Shanxi and the northern frontier. It has always been a battleground for strategists. Its development and the ceremonies of Beiyue Hengshan and Beiyue Temple are inseparable. Starting from Emperor Wu of Han, there has been a tradition of worshiping Beiyue Temple. According to the 'Quyang County Chronicles' and the inscriptions of Beiyue Temple, from the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the emperor and his officials went to Beiyue Temple for worship more than 300 times. The ceremony brought people to Quyang, and the people brought development. Against this background, it is natural for Quyang stone carving to flourish. When Quyang stone carving shapes images of unclear gender like Buddha, it emphasizes the depiction of the inner world of characters, and pays attention to the echo between characters and between characters and animals. The modeling of Quyang stone carving is not only similar in shape, but also removes complicated details, captures the spirit and structure of people, uses subtraction, and strives to achieve the requirement of vividness in dynamic structure. The shapes of Quyang stone carving works are varied, and the composition images are different. Due to the primitive means of stone mining, it is impossible to control the thickness, thinness, square and round of the stone volume. Quyang stone carvers shape according to the shape, and based on these different types of stones, they develop rich imagination and carve various stone carving works. Beiyue Temple