city temple Beijing
White Cloud Temple
The seat of China's Taoist Association
The most important Taoist temple in Beijing and the national headquarters of the China Taoist Association. White Cloud Temple is the ancestral court of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) branch of Quanzhen Taoism, the lineage into which the great majority of China's monastic Taoist clergy are ordained today. It functions simultaneously as an active monastery, a pilgrimage site, and the administrative center of state-recognised Taoism in China.
Sacred narrative
Qiu Chuji's audience with Genghis Khan
The temple's modern identity traces to Qiu Chuji, who in 1219, already in his seventies, undertook a multi-year overland journey to Central Asia at Genghis Khan's summons. Asked for the secret of immortality, Qiu Chuji is recorded as answering that there was no elixir — only compassion, restraint of killing, and cultivation of the Dao. The Khan, impressed, granted him authority over all religious affairs in China and control of Tianchang Guan, which Qiu Chuji rebuilt as Changchun Guan, the founding seat of Longmen Taoism. His tomb remains inside the temple complex, in the Hall of the Patriarch.
History
Founded Founded as Tianchang Guan in the Tang dynasty (8th century); rebuilt and renamed under the Jin and Yuan dynasties.
Key figures
- Qiu Chuji (Changchun, "Perpetual Spring") — Yuan dynasty abbot who founded the Longmen lineage here
Major events
- Tang dynasty: founded as Tianchang Guan
- 13th century: Qiu Chuji, one of the "Seven Perfected" disciples of Wang Chongyang, is granted the temple by Genghis Khan's successors and founds the Longmen branch
- 20th century: survives Cultural Revolution disruption; reopens and is restored as national Taoist headquarters
Today
The site as it currently stands.
Central Beijing, accessible by metro; open daily with an entrance fee
Year-round; the Lunar New Year temple fair is the single largest annual gathering
Beijing
Resident Longmen Quanzhen monastic community; national administrative offices of the China Taoist Association
busy
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