Ciyou Temple – Beautiful Temple in Taipei’s Songshan District

By Alec On April 4, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Just beside the east entrance of the old Raohe night market in Taipei’s Songshan District is the beautiful Ciyou Temple. This temple is a Taoist temple dedicated to the deity Mazu who is the Goddess of the Sea. It was built in the 1750′s which make this a very well preserved historical landmark in Taipei city.

The temple is easily noticeable the moment you reach the eastern entrance of the Raohe night market on Raohe Street. Marked by the intriguing and elaborate designed roof with intricate ceramic dragons, it is a very great place to admire the detail that went into the design of this temple. It is a great stop over for a quick look before heading next door to Raohe market.

Look at the remarkable styled roof on the temple!

Inside the temple, it actually has 6 floors! Very pretty indeed.

If you look up inside the temple, you will noticed the intricate wood carvings on the ceiling, coloured with gold paint.

Close up view of the intricate wood carvings on the ceiling.

Stone carvings depicting various deities and fairies in traditional Taoist stories. Very intricate and life like.

Front entrance to the Ciyou Temple.

Closeup of the ceramic dragons on the roof.

So in a nutshell, this is a great starting point to check out before heading into the Raohe night market in Songshan District. If you actually calculate it, the Ciyou Temple is over 200 years old, so its pretty cool to see such an old landmark still nicely preserved.

Visitor’s Information to Ciyou Temple:

Address: No. 761, Sec. 4, Bade Rd., Songshan District, Taipei

Nearest MRT station: Houshanpi MRT station (but you will need to walk about 15 minutes). It is just a 5 to 10 minute walk north from Wufenpu Garment District (see location map below)

Opening hours: Daily, but temple closes around 5:30pm or so…

Admission: FREE

Location map to Ciyou Temple.

Area highlighted in Green is the Houshanpi MRT station

Area highlighted in Blue is the Wufenpu Garment District

Area highlighted in Red is Ciyou Temple.

Have you visited other cool temples before? Please share your experiences below!

Tagged with: ciyou temple • songshan district

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