Longshan Temple | 龍山寺

Longshan Temple 龍山寺 is the oldest temple in all of Taiwan. It's located in Wanhua district 萬華, Taipei City and was built around 1740, during the Qing Dynasty. It was built as a place of worship by Chinese settlers who came over from Fujian province 福建省 in China. 

The temple has been restored many times due to natural disasters or other factors. The Americans even bombed the temple during the Taihoku Air Raid in May 1945 because the Japanese were suspected of hiding weapons in the temple. The temple was then rebuilt after the end of World War II in 1945. 

The temple itself consists of a Chinese traditional courtyard, complete with passageways on the left and right side. Notice carefully and you'll see that the wooden columns are holding up the temple roofs without a screw or needle in sight. 

Longshan Temple also has an artificial waterfall, imitating the natural scenery of mountain waterfalls  commonly seen in traditional Chinese culture. 

This ancient temple also has beautiful, exquisite dragon poles around the temple. Dragons are believed to be very auspicious in Chinese culture, which is why temples are usually filled with dragon symbolism everyone. 

Even though I visited at night (in Dec. 2021), there were a fair amount of people visiting the temple to offer their prayers. People were all masked up and keeping a safe distance from one another. One thing to note, Taipei's annual Lantern Festival was taking place at that time in Wanhua, which I believe added to the hustle and bustle. 

Longshan Temple is extremely easy to reach to. Just hop on the MRT onto the blue line, and get off on Longshan Station Exit 1.

If you're in the area, make sure to visit Huaxi Night Market 華西夜市, which still sells snake meat to this day. Want to find out more about Taipei night markets? Click here. 

Make sure to follow us on Instagram @taiwanexplorer95 for more!