Chengdu Wuhou Shrine

Chengdu Wuhou Shrine
成都武侯祠博物馆

Address: 231 Wuhou Temple Road, Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Website: http://www.wuhouci.net.cn (Chinese)
Hours: 8:00-20:00, 1 May - 31 October (No admission after 19:30)
8:00-18:30, 1 November - 30 April (No admission after 17:30)
Closed days: Closed on Monday (except for national holidays)
Ticket booking: 028-85535951
General admission: 60 yuan

“Though not born on the same day of the same month in the same year, we hope to die so.” The sentiment of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei comes from the Oath of the Peach Garden, an event in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Though it is considered a fictional story, the three men historically were as close as brothers. At the Sworn Brotherhood Shrine of Chengdu Wuhou Shrine, you can learn more about the three brothers.

Wuhou Shrine, located in the south of Chengdu, covers an area of about 150,000 square meters. It has always been reputed as "the sacred land of the Three Kingdoms (220-280)". The temple was originally built in 221 as the shrine for the founding emperor of the Shu Kingdom (221-263) Liu Bei (r. 221-223), since he had chosen the location as the very place of his future mausoleum. More than a thousand years later, during the Ming Dynasty, the shrine for commemorating one of Liu's loyal subject ministers, counselor-in-chief Zhuge Liang (181-234), was moved here. Chengdu Wuhou Shrine is the only place in China built as one temple in honor of both an emperor and his minister. A prominent mandarin of the Shu Kingdom, Zhuge Liang, was granted the title of “Marquis of Wu County (Wuxiang hou)” in his lifetime and the posthumous title of “Marquis of Loyalty and Martialness (Zhongwu hou)”, so the temple of Zhuge Liang was respectfully named "Wuhou Shrine".

The temple is now divided into an area for cultural relics including the Zhaolie Temple (the shrine to commemorate Liu Bei whose reign name was Zhaolie, or Manifest Achievements), the Wuhou Temple and the Sworn Brotherhood Shrine, a park with ponds, rock sculptures and willow trees and Brocade Street, known as Jinli (Brocade neighborhood), the arts, crafts and snacks street adjacent to the temple.