Longzhen Folk Culture Park

Longzhen Folk Culture Park

Located on the western bank of the Yu River in Xiaonantou Village, Shuipo Temple Township, Nanjiao District, Datong City, Longzhen Folk Culture Park covers an area of 60 acres. It was designated as a rural folk culture tourism route attraction by the organizing committee of the 3rd Yungang Tourism Festival.

The park’s architecture includes attractions such as Longzhen Temple, a theater stage, Wolong Park, a village culture exhibition hall, a folk cuisine restaurant, and a square for folk performance activities. The buildings feature a simple, classic style with unique designs that blend harmoniously as a whole. Originally known as Guan Di Temple, Longzhen Temple was first built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The temple currently houses the Mahavira Hall, Sangharama Hall, Guanyin Hall, Eastern Three Saints Hall, Western Three Saints Hall, and the Four Heavenly Kings Hall. All the Buddha statues inside the halls are cast in bronze, featuring exquisite carvings, graceful forms, and solemn expressions. It is the only all-bronze-statue temple in northern Shanxi.

The park is home to “three wonders”: a miraculous tree (the towering Ancient Immortal Tree, over 480 years old, which shades the grounds), a miraculous rock (a century-old meteorite believed to have fallen from the sky), and a miraculous spring (the Qinglong Spring, which gushes forth with clear water at the strike of a shovel). These add an ancient, mysterious, elegant, and uniquely charming appeal to the folk park. Wolong Park is surrounded by clear waters, with serene pavilions and a release pond where fish play — a truly delightful sight.

The folk park centers around the folk activities of northern Shanxi. The folk cuisine restaurant highlights rural charm, with cozy heated kang beds and fragrant homemade farm food, offering city dwellers a chance to experience pastoral life in harmony with nature. Since its opening to the public on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month in 2002, the park has attracted a continuous stream of worshippers and tourists. During the 3rd Yungang Tourism Festival, it hosted foreign guests from Japan, France, Italy, Switzerland, and executives from a hundred domestic travel agencies. The folk performances are rich in local character — forms such as cart lantern dance, stilts, yangge (rural folk dance), waist drum, ba Wang bian (whip dance), nao ge (a raised-platform dance), and han ban chuan (land boat dance) all have deep historical roots. Various folk performances are not only displayed in the exhibition hall but also enacted live in the folk square, where performers dance and celebrate with visitors from China and abroad. The scenes are grand, the atmosphere lively, and the experience uniquely delightful.

Backed by the classic elegance and well-spaced layout of Longzhen Temple, and enhanced by the vibrant and captivating folk traditions, the entire Longzhen Folk Culture Park is filled with the authentic charm of northern Shanxi’s rural culture, making it a place visitors find hard to leave.