Guandi Temple

Entrance to the temple

The Guandi Temple on Communist Youth League Street (Chinese: 共青团路关帝庙; pinyin: Gòngqīngtuán Lù Guāndì Miào) is a historical temple dedicated to Guan Yu in the Tianqiao district of Jinan, Shandong Province, China. It is one of the three best-preserved Guanyu temples in the area of Jinan, the other two are Guandi Temple in the Water Lily Street and in Xianxi Alley (县西巷).

Layout

The Ximizhi Spring (Chinese: 西蜜脂泉; pinyin: Xīmìzhī Quán), the 35th spring in the list of Jinan's "seventy-two famous springs" and a member of the Five Dragon Pool spring group is located in the courtyard of the temple. The building complex consists of two structures, the Mizhi Hall in the north and the Guandi Temple proper in the south.

History

According to the tradition, the grand eunuch An Dehai, a confidant of the Empress Dowager Cixi, was beheaded near the Ximizhi Spring on 12 September 1869 on orders of the governor Ding Baozhen, who followed an edict of the Empress Dowager Ci'an. The execution for falsely claiming to be on an imperial mission was likely part of a power struggle between the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong.

Location

The temple is located on Communist Youth League Street, to the west of the Five Dragon Pool.

See also

• List of sites in Jinan