Yangtai Palace

　　 Yangtai Palace is located at the southern foot of Huagai Peak in Wangwu Mountain, about 30 kilometers northwest of the city area. It gets its name from being situated on Yangtai. In the 15th year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty (727 AD), Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji ordered the Taoist priest Sima Chengzhen to select an auspicious site in Wangwu Mountain to establish a Taoist temple. The temple was completed in the 23rd year of Kaiyuan (735 AD). It featured five towers and three pavilions and was named Yangtai Guan (Yangtai Temple). Emperor Xuanzong personally inscribed the plaque "Liaoyang Palace" and ordered his sister, Princess Yuzhen, to enter the mountain to study Taoism under a master, causing a sensation among the court and the public and leading to a sudden flourishing of Taoist practices. Later, it became the hermitage of the Taoist master Yan Zhenren Yianluozi. In the 2nd year of the Zhenyuan era of the Jin Dynasty (1154 AD), the temple was renamed “Yangtai Wanshou Palace.” It was destroyed by war in the 2nd year of the Zhen era (1214 AD). It was rebuilt in the 4th year of the Zhengda era (1227 AD). In the 6th year of the Yuanyou era of the Yuan Dynasty (1340 AD), the Jade Emperor Pavilion was renovated. Throughout the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republican periods, it underwent multiple restorations.

　　 Yangtai Palace is one of the “Three Palaces” of Taoism in Wangwu Mountain. Nestled against the sunny side of the mountain, it has a strict layout and is arranged in terraced levels across three courtyards. The Hall of the Three Pure Ones is at the front, the Jade Emperor Pavilion at the rear, with corridors and side halls flanking them, and a Taoist courtyard to the west, covering an area of 6,165 square meters. The Hall of the Three Pure Ones (also called the Daluo Sanjing Hall) is five bays wide and four bays deep, featuring a single-eave, hip-and-gable roof with nine ridges and bracket sets of the five-step style. It is the largest surviving wooden structure from the Ming Dynasty in Henan Province, preserving architectural styles and features from the Tang and Song dynasties. The square pillars inside the hall are covered in bas-reliefs depicting Taoist mythological stories, with elegant and lifelike images. The ceiling and caisson inside the hall feature layered bracket sets, grand and majestic in scale, and exquisitely crafted, all being masterpieces of Ming Dynasty artistry. Five meters behind the hall stands the three-eaved, three-story glazed Jade Emperor Pavilion on a high platform, the tallest ancient pavilion in Henan Province, reaching nearly 20 meters in height. Its five-step bracket sets with cloud-dragon motifs are staggered and layered, adorned with cloud ribbons, giving it a grand and imposing presence. The 20 small octagonal stone pillars on the base platform and the eight 11-meter-high vertical pillars inside the pavilion support the entire structure, all remnants from the Ming Dynasty. The stone pillars are carved with dragons, phoenixes, flowers, birds, animals, and stories of immortals, showcasing the refined artistic style of the Ming Dynasty. The palace also houses over ten steles from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, recording Taoist historical data, the rise and fall of the palace, as well as information about peasant uprising armies passing through the area during the late Ming Dynasty.

　　 In 1963, the Jade Emperor Pavilion was renovated. In 1980, the Hall of the Three Pure Ones was maintained and the Jade Emperor Pavilion repaired. In 1981, the eastern corridor building was rebuilt with 8 rooms, and the courtyard wall was reconstructed. In November 1986, it was designated as a Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

　　

　　 Admission

　　 Admission: 12 RMB

　　 Location

　　 30 kilometers northwest of Jiyuan city proper, at the southern foot of Huagai Peak in Wangwu Mountain