宗教廟宇

Established by Lin Jing-tang of Liuying, the temple was built in 1946 and enshrines Fu You Di Jun (Fuyou Emperor) (孚佑帝君). It was expanded to its present scale and appearance after it began to attract more worshippers. After visiting the temple, a short hiking trip can be enjoyed on Chishan Trail to the rear. The trail is well-marked and flat and has facilities such as viewing platforms and rest platforms along the way; a hidden feature is its Lemon Eucaly grove (檸檬桉林).

Passing Dongshan Bixuan Temple, you will notice the two pure white stone elephants in the front. While temples usually have stone lions outside, this temple has white elephants, the reason being that the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (普賢菩薩)has the image of riding a white elephant as he delivers all sentient beings. It was said that the dragon is the fiercest water creature; the elephant is the most powerful creature on land, able to carry heavy loads and fulfil the task of delivering sentient beings. This is why Bixuan Temple has elephants as the holy beasts in front of the temple.

Dong Shan Fuyou Temple(東山孚佑宮) is located on the 175 Dongshan Coffee Road (175東山咖啡公路), and worships the Lu Dongbin (呂洞賓), one of the Eight Immortals. It is also commonly known as Xian Gong Temple(仙公廟), and is Taiwan's Xian Gong ancestral temple. The 2nd story contains Taiwan's only complete set of Eight Immortals statues. In front of the temple is an exceptionally good view of the Jianan Plain, and every morning tourists come to enjoy the scenery. Behind the temple there is hiking trail, the entrance of which is surrounded by cherry blossom trees.

Situated in the foothills of Mt. Zhentou in Baihe District(白河區枕頭山麓), Dasian Temple(大仙寺) is nicknamed “old temple.” Built during the 40th year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in 1701, it enshrines Sakyamuni, San Bao Fo Zu (Three Treasure Buddha), Guanyin Bodhisattva and Di Zang Wang Ksitigarbha(地藏王菩薩) and also has the ashes of the founding priest for tourists to worship. Dasian Temple is a Municipal Heritage Sites. It is also a temple of one of the nine schools of Buddhism in Taiwan.

Built in 1798, Huoshan Biyun Temple (火山碧雲寺) remains much the same as it looked originally. The ancient temple has a mixed Minnan and Japanese architectural style and has a backdrop of the Pillow Mountain range, giving it a simple and elegant look. There is a hole in front of the temple that has a central role in a legendary story; it is said that just enough rice for the temple occupants to eat used to flow out of “rice gushing hole” every day. One day, a greedy monk wanted to have all the rice to himself and dug down into the hole, after which rice never came out again.

Kanding Fu-an Temple(崁頂福安宮) is the only Land God temple in Taiwan to enshrine the Land God of the Three Worlds (Heaven, the Earth and human world). Due to the belief in his power, more than 40,000 statues of the god Fu De Zheng Shen (Right God of Blessing and Virtue, God of Earth) are spread across Taiwan to share this power. Fu-an Temple ranks alongside Fu-an Temple in Checheng, Pingdong and New Taipei City’s Hongludi Land God Temple(屏東車城及新北市烘爐地土地公廟) in terms of popularity and number of believers.

Avid mountain hikers in the Tainan area are probably familiar with Xianzu Temple(仙祖廟). It is located not far from the trailhead for Tainan’s highest mountain, Mt. Dadong. Enshrining Lu Dong-bin, one of the Eight Immortals, and the founder of Taosim, Li Lao-jun (老子;Laozi), Xianzu Temple covers a large area. The grounds are tranquil and filled with greenery. In the garden, trees grown luxuriantly and flowers bloom and, in the Nine Dragon Pond, nine life-like golden dragons can be seen. The atmosphere in the temple can be described as “A mountain does not have to be high.

Jingzhong Temple was built in 1791 and enshrines Yue Wu Mu Wang (Yue Fei) (岳武穆王(岳飛). It most special feature is its lottery poems, said to all be written by a monk who resides at the temple. The verses of the poems are all seven characters long. To understand the lottery poems, the representative figure and content of the allusion must first be understood. The lottery poems are a real test of people’s ability to understand Chinese ancient poetry. If you are interested, why not visit and challenge yourself?

When you make a turn on Provincial Highway 1 into Jingliao (菁寮), the first thing that catches your eye is the unusually shaped Jingliao Holy Cross Church (菁寮天主堂), designed in 1950s by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Gottfried Bohm. The church’s silver exterior against the background of the green fields in Jingliao creates an especially striking contrast. The inside of the church may currently only by viewed by advance booking, and tourists may not take photographs of the interior. Please respect religious etiquette and do not make excessive noise in the church.

On the Xinying section of National Freeway 1, from far away majestic Golden Santaizi (三太子;Third Crown Prince) can be seen stood on a hot wheel on top of the temple, just like he is racing against the cars of the freeway. Taizi Temple was built in 1688. Every time a major ceremony is held the temple square is packed with people; at other times, the temple exudes the tranquility and slow pace of life of rural Tainan. It attracts quite a few tourists who come to worship and also view the huge Santaizi statue.