Cultural Exploration of Beiyue Temple in Quyang
The Third Baoding Tourism Industry Development Conference will take place in Fuping County, Tang County, and Quyang County. As a key site for observation during the conference, the Beiyue Temple Scenic Area in Quyang County has found an excellent intersection between cultural heritage preservation and tourism development. It has retained its original historical appearance while also being endowed with new ideological meaning and cultural image.
Beiyue Temple is located on the west side of Quyang County town, Baoding City, covering a total area of 174,000 square meters. It was first built during the Jingming and Zhengshi eras of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty (500–512 AD), and underwent repeated renovations in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Beiyue Temple is not only a scenic and sacred place for worshipping the deity of Mount Heng (Northern Sacred Mountain), but also a richly endowed hall of culture and art. It brings together ancient architecture, painting, calligraphy, stone carving, Ding ware ceramics, and other artistic flowers in one magnificent setting, shining brilliantly. It is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a national 4A-level tourist attraction.
The architecture within Beiyue Temple is exquisite, with carved beams and painted rafters, and majestic in scale. It includes a stele gallery, stone carving hall, museum, and more. The layout is organized along a central axis, with the main hall, 'Dening Hall', at the northern end of the axis. To the south, buildings follow in order: the Flying Stone Hall, Three-Mountain Gate, Lingxiao Gate, Imperial Incense Pavilion, Chaoyue Gate, Meridian Gate, and others. Flanking the main hall on the east and west sides are the Zhaofu Gates.
Dening Hall faces south, covering a floor area of 2,009.8 square meters, and is built in a palatial style. The most spectacular feature of Beiyue Temple is the mural inside Dening Hall, which covers a total area of 504 square meters. The hall contains the 'Heavenly Palace' mural painted by the Tang Dynasty master Wu Daozi, and on the back of the northern gable wall is a large colored mural titled 'The Northern Sacred Mountain Deity's Inspection Tour'.
Beiyue Temple houses over 200 stelae, tablets, and stone pillars (jingchuang), with a stele corridor and stele pavilion, making it one of the largest collections of stelae in Hebei Province. Inscriptions date from every era: Northern Wei, Northern Qi, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and the Republic of China. Most of the inscriptions record the repairs of Beiyue Temple through the ages and sacrificial texts to the Northern Sacred Mountain deity, while others include poems, lyrics, songs, and rhapsodies expressing visitors' impressions. Calligraphically, the stelae display a variety of scripts, including cursive, clerical, seal, and running script.
A sculpture art gallery within Beiyue Temple preserves over 100 ancient carvings. These include figures, animals, Buddha images, stone pillars, and more, with highlights such as the 'Western Han Stone Tiger', 'Northern Wei Stone Lion', 'Northern Wei Thousand-Buddha Backlit Stele', 'Tang Dynasty Stone Lantern', 'Tang Dynasty Great Buddha', 'Laughing Monk Stone Buddha', and 'Jin Dynasty Stone Pillar'. The works are gracefully shaped, with delicate carving techniques and clear, flowing lines, fully showcasing the distinct styles and characteristics of northern Chinese stone carving art across different historical periods.
There is also a museum inside Beiyue Temple, built in a classical courtyard house style. It features three exhibition rooms displaying bronzes and pottery, Ding kiln ceramics, and stone carved statues, with over 200 exquisite cultural relics on display.
In recent years, Baoding City has closely integrated the inheritance and protection of cultural heritage with tourism development, creating a virtuous cycle where culture enriches the meaning of tourism, elevates its level, and enhances its appeal, while tourism transmits and exchanges culture, drives cultural industries, and promotes cultural prosperity. The convening of this tourism development conference is beneficial for Baoding in building a new type of cultural-tourism industry system and promoting the transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development of the sector.
