China's largest imperial Taoist temple site opens to public

China's largest imperial Taoist temple site, the Great Shangqing Palace, officially opened to the public on Sunday at the foot of Longhu Mountain in Yingtan, east China's Jiangxi Province. 　

The Great Shangqing Palace was a place of worship for a line of emperors throughout Chinese history and was the primary location for the Zhengyi Sect of Taoism. The site was awarded the top ten national archaeological discoveries in 2017. 　

According to reports, experts believe that the Great Shangqing Palace site is the imperial Taoist temple site of the Zhengyi Sect of Taoism of the highest grade, with the largest excavation in China so far, the clearest relationship between the exposed strata, and the most abundant unearthed remains. 　

It is understood that in June 2014, the Great Shangqing Palace site was discovered. After nearly four years of archaeological excavations, archaeologists have excavated 5,000 square meters of the palace, and more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties were unearthed. 　

In June 2019, construction work on the site began. In March 2023, the construction of protective facilities for the Great Shangqing Palace site and the exhibition of the site were completed. The project integrates protection and exhibition, which is a new attempt to protect and utilize cultural relics.