White Cloud Temple Picture

White Cloud Temple is one of "The Three Great Ancestral Courts" of the Complete Perfection Sect of Daoism in China. It is titled as "The First Temple under Heaven", also the center of Taoism in north China. The temple is located among the smokestacks of southern Beijing. Monks are still in residence. The White Cloud Taoist Temple is the chief temple of the Quanzhen Taoist sect and the center of the Longmen sub-sect. Today it is more or less the same as it was after renovation in 1706. In addition, in terms of temple in Chinese, Taoist temples are not actually called temples, but Guan. Guan means something like to look at or observe. This is a reflection of the Taoist belief that understanding the Tao comes from a direct observation of nature, rather than scholastic theological studies…