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Explore the region
About Yongle Palace
The Sanqing Hall's Chaoyuan painting presents a great procession of deities, while Chunyang Hall turns to the life of Lü Dongbin through narrative scenes. The experience is less about a single iconic building than the relationship between timber halls, painted walls and carefully organised religious storytelling.
Yongle Palace, originally the Palace of Great Chunyang and Longevity (大纯阳万寿宫), was built between 1247 and 1358 to commemorate the Daoist immortal Lü Dongbin (吕洞宾), and is one of three Great Ancestral Courts of the Quanzhen school. Rediscovered in 1951, its Yuan-dynasty murals caused a sensation among scholars, and the palace was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in 1961.
Because its original site, near Yongle town at the foot of Emei Ridge (峨嵋岭) by the Zhongtiao Mountains (中条山), lay within the flood zone of the Sanmenxia reservoir project, the temple was moved about 30 kilometres to its present site, on the ruins of an ancient walled city, between 1958 and 1966. Because large-scale mural removal was unprecedented, workers eventually cut the plaster layer from the side of each wall in sections, completing the process in October 1959.
The temple's main buildings follow a 'one gate, three halls' plan along a central axis, running from the Wuji Gate, or Hall of the Dragon and Tiger (龙虎殿), through the Sanqing, Chunyang and Chongyang halls, with the frontmost hall and its courtyard the largest and each successive hall and courtyard smaller. The design draws on Song-dynasty building methods and the Liao-and-Jin-period reduced-column technique (减柱法).
What to look for
- The Chaoyuan mural in Sanqing Hall, with its processional arrangement of Daoist deities.
- The narrative wall paintings of Lü Dongbin's life in Chunyang Hall.
The surrounding area
Southern provincial base for Guandi culture, Yongle Palace and the salt-lake landscape.
Location & getting there
Getting to Yongle Palace
Go to 78 Yongle North Street in Ruicheng County for the relocated palace complex. Follow the site's conservation rules for lighting and photography inside mural halls.
Combine your visit
Suggested order within this visit:
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Wuji gateway hall
Read the approach to the temple axis.
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Sanqing Hall
Study the great assembly of deities.
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Chunyang Hall
Compare the processional murals with narrative painting.
This sequence is an editorial suggestion based on the features described in the sources. Access to individual buildings or areas should be checked locally; no travel time or shared admission is implied.
Find Yongle Palace
永乐宫 · 运城市
The pin marks the area, not the entrance.
More places nearby
Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.
Guan Di Temple (Haizhou) 解州关帝庙
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View guide →Sources & visit information
The sources below support the place-specific description and arrival information. Suggested combinations are editorial planning ideas; confirm current opening, entry arrangements and transport services for your date.
Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 92021395.
Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikivoyage contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 5203476.
Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "永乐宫", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 92021395.