Religious Culture Tour

　　Tianjin is a city of multi-ethnic groups, multi-religion and culture tolerance. Itboasts many religious and cultural places, the most renowned religious placesincluding:

　　Xikai Church：Located at Dushan Road, Heping District,it was built in 1916 by French Catholicism,a France style romantic building. It’s 45meters high with a building area of 1,585m2, and its plane is long cross shape. Atits front and back stand three green towerbuildings with round roof, taking a shapeof tripod. Inside the hall are three corridorsconnected with each other, with beautifulwall paintings on its surrounding walls.Now it’s the Roman Catholic center ofTianjin.

　　Wanghailou Catholic Church：Located beside Shizilin Bridge (LionsGathering Bridge) of Hebei District, it wasbuilt by the French Roman Catholics in1869, with original name of Church ofOur Lady of Victories, and was renamedWanghailou Catholic Church for it wasbuilt on Wanghailou, the site of temporaryimperial palace of Qing Dynasty. TheTianjin Church Event in 1870, famous inChinese modern history, took place here.Now it’s a key national cultural protectionunit, and also the only well-preservedGothic building in Tianjin now.

　　Wesly Church of Zion：Located at 62 Shanxi Road, it is the largestChristian church in Tianjin till now. The former is Wesly Church on Binjiang Road. Itwas established by the Methodist Episcopal Church priest Da-jerry in 1872. In 1913,it became a new church at Fuxu Jiangjun road (now it is Binjiang road) in the Frenchsettlement. The new temple is also named Bajiaolou building. The building can seatmore than 800 people. Wesly Church is the earlist church which furbished the party. In1996, Wesly Church moved to Shanxi road.

　　Dabei Temple：Located at northeast of middle section of Tianwei Road, Hebei District, it’s the largesttemple with the longest history that has been kept well till now at Tianjin. It was built atthe end of Ming Dynasty and beginning of Qing Dynasty, and rebuilt in the 8th year ofKangxi Period of Qing Dynasty (1669), occupying an area of 56 Mu. Later upon yearsof ups and downs and waste, only the west yard was left. Tianjin Buddha field invitedTanxu, the 44th master of Tiantaizong, the great modern monk to be in charge of the rebuildingand expansion of the whole temple. Lasting 5 years, building complex includingHeavenly King’s Palace, the Mahavira Palace, the Great-Mercy Palace, and the west andeast palaces etc., were completed at east of the temple, totally over 8,000 m2 together withthe park.

　　Jianfu Kwan-yin Temple：Located at 27 Dazhiguzhong Road, HedongDistrict, it has a floor area of 8,400m2. In the temple there are TianguanMaitreya Hall, Hall of Universal Understanding, Three Easten Sages Hall and ThreeWestern Sages Hall, etc. There is an old pagoda tree of over 600 years old, a thousandhandfigurine of Kwan-yin around its four sides, and a five-ton bronze clock hanging inthe clock tower. All three are titled the Three Treasures of the temple.

　　Guajia Temple：Located at 1 Weidi Road, Hexi District,it was named Qingguo Temple in ancient China. It has more than 1,300 years’ history.The legend of the name has two parlances. The first is that it is named after TangTaizong (one Empire of Tang Dynasty) who had a rest in this temple. The second isthat the one who had a rest here was Yuchi Gong, who was a famous general in TangDynasty. The construction group in the temple is magnifent and elegant. It consists ofthe gate, decorated archway, the main temple, Kuan Yin temple, Yu Fo tower, etc. Inevery Kuan Yin birthday i.e., lunar 19th Feb., there will be a temple fair.

　　Hongqiao Muslim Temple：Located at west of Dafeng Road, Hongqiao District, its buildingfeatures Arabian style. The Religious Service Hall is 33 meters highwith two storeys, and can accommodate one thousand persons atthe same time. 47 meters minarets stand at its two ends, and youcan climb up to attic along stairs and overlook scenes surroundingit. The temple has exhibitions on brief histories of Muslim NorthTemple, Xiaoyangzhuang Muslim Temple, Yanglou Muslim Templeand Nun Muslim Temple, presenting the literary histories collectedby various temples, whose scale is the largest in north China. To thesouth there is a star level Muslim restaurant, providing both foodand accomodation.