[2025 Jiexiu Attraction] Travel Guide for City God Temple (Updated Mar)

Jiexiu is named after Jie Zitui, a famous minister of Duke Wen of Jin, one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period. It is also the birthplace of the Cold Food Festival and the Qingming Festival. The City God Temple of Jiexiu is located at No. 285, East Street, Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province. It is mainly used to worship the City God, who is regarded as the god in charge of the city and the guardian of the land. It is a key cultural relic under state protection. The City God Temple was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. It faces south and has a rigorous layout. It is tall, magnificent, and well-proportioned. The central axis is composed of a screen wall, a mountain gate, a stage, a main hall, and a sleeping hall from south to north. On both sides are the bell tower, drum tower, and side halls. The main part of the temple is well-preserved, with a high level of design and a well-documented history of repairs. It is an important example of ancient wooden architecture. The main hall has seven rooms, with a double-eave hip roof and yellow-green glazed ridge decorations. The glazed ridge tiles, ridge beasts, and roof figurines are perfectly shaped and colored. The glazed windbreak boards and hanging fish are particularly exquisite. Unfortunately, they cannot be fully seen from inside the temple, so it is recommended to take photos from outside. The temple originally enshrined a statue of the City God, with judges, ox-headed and horse-faced demons, and black and white impermanence ghosts on both sides. Unlike other City God Temples, this temple has an abacus and two plaques. One plaque has the three characters "明白处" (Ming Bai Chu) in running script, and the other has the five characters "你也来了么" (Ni Ye Lai Le Ma). The large abacus is used by the City God to calculate the length of life and the amount of good and evil deeds. Near the abacus is a banner with the words "不由人算" (Bu You Ren Suan), meaning that life and death are determined by heaven. The music building in the temple has a hard mountain roof with a rolled shed structure. The top is decorated with yellow-green glazed ridge spires, ridge beasts, and square glazed tiles. The ridge beasts, roof figurines, pavilions, and vases are all perfectly shaped and colored. There is a passage on the lower level of the music building that leads to the temple courtyard. The attraction is free to visit, but registration is required. It is closed on Mondays and has a lunch break from 12:00 to 2:00. It is close to the Houtu Temple, the Xianshen Tower, and the museum. Note that Jiexiu attractions have a lunch break, so you can visit the museum during this time and plan your itinerary accordingly.

Because Liuli knows Jiexiu Jiexiu One-Day City Walk Route Hou Tu Temple→Cheng Huang Temple→Zao Shen Tower→Jiexiu Museum I didn't go to the Taiheyan Archway which is a little further away. 1⃣Houtu Temple It is a Taoist Quanzhen Sect temple building. The main buildings include Sanqing Building, Houtu Temple, Guandi Temple, Tushen Temple, etc. The roof of the entire building is decorated with blue, yellow and green glazed products, which sparkle in the sun. 💰Tickets: Free. Enter with your Mainland China ID card. If you don’t have your Mainland China ID card, just register. 🕙 Closed on Monday 2⃣Chenghuang Temple It takes more than ten minutes to walk from Hou Tu Temple to Cheng Huang Temple. The overall layout of the City God Temple is grand in scale and complete in form. The screen wall, mountain gate, ceremonial gate, stage, offering hall, main hall, and rear sleeping hall are arranged in sequence along the central axis, with bell and drum towers on both sides. The exquisite glazed components on the roof of the building are the few Ming Dynasty relics that still exist in Jiexiu. The glazed ridge tiles, the beast-shaped owl tails, the immortals and animals, and the pavilion vases are perfect in both color glaze and shape, and have high cultural relic and artistic value. 💰Tickets: Free, just register with your Mainland China ID card 🕙 Closed on Monday 3⃣Ao Shen Lou It takes about a quarter of an hour to walk from Chenghuang Temple to Ao Shen Tower. It is the only ancient Zoroastrian building preserved in China. 4⃣Jiexiu Museum Ao Shen Lou is a five-minute walk from Jiexiu Museum. Time was a bit tight, so I mainly went to the basement to see the glass The super cute yellow glazed beast is also here, with round eyes and furrowed brows. 💰Tickets: Free, just register with your Mainland China ID card 🕙 Closed on Monday

|Super High Glazed Art Temple. Jiexiu City God Temple was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1398), and was rebuilt during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jiexiu City God Temple was occupied by the Jiexiu Grain Station, and the mountain gate, screen wall, and glazed lions in front of the temple gate were all demolished. The history of glazed pottery in Jiexiu dates back more than 1,200 years, and the technique of glazed pottery has developed its own style, especially architectural glazed pottery. Jiexiu City God Temple includes all styles such as ridge decorations, chiwen, drip tiles, tubular tiles, flat tiles, hanging fish, windbreaks, screen walls, archways, couplets, and steles. Jiexiu City God Temple is not only a religious building, but also a material carrier of historical information. It reflects the historical background, political and economic system, and social life of the time, and has important historical and religious value. The site selection of the City God Temple is based on the ancient traditional cultural concepts of feng shui, yin and yang, and the five elements, and fully considers the relationship with the ancient city and other public buildings. In addition, the glazed components, wood carvings, flowers, and bird decorations in the temple also demonstrate superb craftsmanship. Address: No. 275, East Street, Beiguan Street, Jiexiu City, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province.

| A treasure city full of glazed tiles.💫Jiexiu, named after Jie Zitui, a famous minister of the State of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period, is the hometown of Qingming Cold Food Culture and Chinese Glazed Tile. 💞This small city, only about 30 kilometers away from Pingyao Ancient City, is not visited by many tourists, but it is the city with the best experience for me. Jiexiu is really a treasure. I recommend the following places: ✅Hou Tu Temple A Taoist temple of the Quanzhen School, the highest-level ancient building complex in Jiexiu, famous for its well-preserved glazed tile art, known as the "Glazed Tile Art Museum". The main hall of Hou Tu is covered with golden glazed tiles, which are magnificent and dazzling under the sunlight. ✅City God Temple Jiexiu City God Temple, founded during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, faces south. Entering the courtyard, the first thing you see is the offering pavilion under the stage, followed by the main hall. The glazed tiles on the roof of the main hall are particularly beautiful, but there are surprisingly few visitors to the City God Temple. Only the grandpas playing chess at the entrance are lively. ✅Five Sacred Mountains Temple Famous for the "Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl" sculpture on the central pillar of the main hall, but the gate is closed all year round. ✅Xian Shen Lou The only surviving Zoroastrian building in China, the Xian Shen Lou has two floors and a "convex" shape. The lower floor is the temple gate, the upper floor is the music hall, and the center is the shrine. There is a flat seat and railing around the waist, and the upper part is covered by a double eaves roof. Four pillars directly support the upper floor beams, the gate and stage are stacked on top of each other, the roof is a cross-shaped hip roof, and the eaves protrude in four directions. All tile ridges and decorations are made of glazed tiles, magnificent and spectacular. ✅Taiheyan Archway Taiheyan Archway, with a history of over 100 years, is definitely the most beautiful peacock blue glazed tile, no argument. The archway's lintel, brackets, plaque, drip tiles, ridge beasts, and various floral patterns and characters are all made of yellow, green, and blue glazed tiles. The sunlight shines through, creating a dazzling and elegant effect. ✅Jiexiu Museum Jiexiu Museum is adjacent to the Xian Shen Lou. You can spend half an hour visiting the glazed tile exhibition on the lower floor. Other exhibition halls are not recommended. 💗Tips: Except for the Taiheyan Glazed Tile Archway, the other attractions are basically within a hundred meters of each other. You can walk or take the free No. 1 bus to get there. 📷Documentary: "China Image Chronicle" - Shanxi Jiexiu Episode 🚶‍♂️Two-day tour route: 1: Jiexiu Museum → Tianshen Tower → Five Sacred Mountains Temple → City God Temple → Hou Tu Temple 2: Mianshan → Zhangbi Ancient Fort

Shanxi has always been a tourist hotspot in the country. Even though Black Myth Wukong has driven a certain amount of traffic, it is only limited to the few marked attractions. As Jiexiu, the hometown of glass, there are still very few tourists even in the summer. The City God's Temple in Jiexiu was built in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. The existing buildings except the main hall are all Qing Dynasty buildings. After the founding of New China, the Jiexiu City God's Temple was used as a grain station, and the mountain gate, screen wall and glazed lions were all demolished. Reconstructed in 2011. The main hall is currently not open to the public. Taking pictures at the Xiandian (i.e. Xianting) in front of the main hall is more productive. Whether you use the pillars to take pictures of the stage in front or the main hall in the back, it is very impressive. You can focus on the glazed component on the roof of the main hall, which is one of the few surviving Ming Dynasty structures in Jiexiu. Both the color glaze and the shape are perfect and have high cultural relic and artistic value. This scenic spot is relatively deserted, and its beauty is inferior to that of Houtu Temple. Fortunately, they are both within the city and relatively close. No tickets are required. You can enter after registration. It is also very suitable for taking pictures.

The central axis from south to north includes the screen wall, the mountain gate, the ceremonial gate, the stage, the offering hall, the main hall, and the rear sleeping hall. On both sides are the bell tower, the drum tower, the east and west side halls, and the east and west buttress halls. The main parts of Jiexiu Chenghuang Temple are relatively well-preserved, with a high level of structure and clear records of repairs and changes. It is an important example of ancient wooden architecture. The main hall of Chenghuang Temple is a relic from the Ming Dynasty, with five bays in width and three bays in depth. It has a surrounding corridor, double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, and yellow-green glazed ridge decorations. The upper eaves have seven-stepped and three-protruding dougong brackets, while the lower eaves have five-stepped and two-protruding dougong brackets.