Erxian Palace

Located on Erling Ridge in Xilimen Village, 14 kilometers south of Gaoping city proper. Legend has it that during the Jin Dynasty, there were two sisters whose birth mother passed away. Unable to endure the cruelty of their stepmother, they often cried bitterly to the heavens. Moved by their plight, the gods sent down two yellow dragons, upon which the girls rode to ascend to heaven and became immortals. They cared deeply about the sufferings of the people, granting rain, medicine, and offspring to those who prayed to them — their miracles were widely spread and deeply revered across the Shangdang region, leading to the construction of a temple in their honor. The exact date of its founding is unknown, but it was renovated during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Existing structures include the mountain gate, east and west corridors, central hall, side halls, and rear main hall. The central hall is the oldest, measuring three bays square with a single-eave, nine-ridge roof. Its front eave corridor extends one bay deep, and the doors and windows have been relocated to the front eave’s golden columns. The columns are square with beveled edges, resting on lotus-petal-shaped pedestal bases. The hall interior has no columns; the main beam and the bracket arms intersect above the front eave columns, showcasing a simple yet sturdy structure that dates back to the Jin Dynasty. Inside the temple is a Jin Dynasty stone stele recording the miraculous deeds of the immortal sisters, and a Qing Dynasty stele from the fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1879) details the natural disaster and the hardships of the people in the third year of Guangxu, serving as an important historical source for the study of China’s disaster history.