A Peace of China: Laojundong Taoist Temple

An hour from where I live, just outside of downtown Chongqing, is the Nan'an district. Part of this district is the beautiful mountain top area of Nanshan where pcv Christine works at the University of Posts and Telecommunications (I love that name and I love the area!). From her apartment, we walked to Laojundong Taoist Temple, which sits on it's own mountain.

The temple stands on the top of Mt. Laojun in the Nanan district of Chongqing city. It was built in the Tang dynasty, originally as a Buddhist temple, which was called the Temple of Universal Salvation by its old name. During the Ming Dynasty, the temple was converted into a Taoist temple; aside from changind denomination, the temple was also renamed "Temple of the Supreme Ultimate". It was subsequently renovated during the Qing dynasty, when the temple's nine hall partitions came into shape, namely, the Hall of Three Pristine Ones, the Civil and Martial Hall, the Hall of Compassionate Salvation, the Hall of Patriarch Lü, the Hall of the Perfect Warrior, the Hall of Sanfeng, the Hall of Patriarch Qiu, the Big Dipper Hall11 and the Jade Emperor Hall. The total structure of the halls was based on the geographic characters of the mountain, creating an incomparable sense of subtlety.
Historically, the temple and the relics inside it underwent severe damages. In recent years, a series of renovations have been undertaken in a bid to preserve this historic site. In 1988, the temple was reopened to the public. Since then, it attracts an increasing number of pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad year after year. (from: http://www.echinacities.com/chongqing/listing/laojundong-daoist-temple.html)