The Golden Temple, located at the top of Mingfeng (Singing Phoenix) Hill, is also called the Taoist Taihe Palace (Hall of Supreme Harmony), which is the largest copper temple in China. Its alteate name is the Tongwa Temple (Bronze Tile Temple) or Golden Temple.
The Golden Temple was built during the Ming Dynasty, in 1602, during the reign of the Emperor Wanli. Then, the goveor of Yunnan Province was a devout Taoist who built this temple to honor the Taoist hero-god Zishi. However, 35 years later, in 1637, the entire temple was moved to Jizu (Chicken Foot) Mountain in weste Yunnan. Then in 1671 during the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui, the goveor of Yunnan Province, built an exact duplicate in the same original location. Then during the Muslim rebellion of 1857, the Golden Temple suffered some damages. Emperor Guangxu had it fully repaired in 1890 with 250 tons of solid bronze. Except for the marble staircases and balustrades, the walls, columns, rafters, roof tiles, altars, Buddha statues, wall decorations and banner (near the gate tower) are all completely made of copper. The copper gleams like gold giving it the name, Golden Temple. Today, the Golden Temple is a popular place of worship for Chinese Taoists.
