Beijing Bai Yun Guan is honored as the chief temple of the Three Ancestral Temples of the Quan Zhen(Complete Reality) Taoist tradition. It was originally called Tian Chang Guan (Heavenly Eternal Temple) and built in the twenty-ninth year of Kaiyuan (741A.D.) under the regime of Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty in which Tai Shang Lao Jun is enshrined who was incarnated as the philosopher Laozi. It was renamed Tai Ji Gong in the Song Dynasty.
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the Master Qiu Chang Chun was summoned by the emperor Genghis Khan to preside over all the Taoists in China and to live at this Temple so it was renamed Chang Chun Gong. After Qiu Chang Chun ascended to heaven as an immortal, his disciples built a deity hall (named Chu Shun Tang) to conceal his physical body, and enshrine him beside Chang Chun Gong in the east. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Temple was ruined by battles and nothing remained except the Chu Shun Tang, so the imperial government issued orders to rebuild the temple several times and renamed it Bai Yun Guan. The rebuilding expanded around the center of Chu Shun Tang.
In the eighth Zhengtong Year (1443A.D.) under the regime of Emperor Ying Zong in the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor ordered to renovate and rebuild it again and conferred an iron placard inscribed with the words “Chi Jian Bai Yun Guan”, which meant the White Cloud Temple was built by imperial order. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, every Spring Festival, most local people come here to enjoy the temple fair, worshiping one’s destiny deity, touching stone monkeys, hitting the golden coin’s eye, etc.
At present this temple covers an area of approximately 60,000 square meters, including all the constructions which cover about 10,000 square meters. It consists of an east area, a middle area, a west area and a rear garden. There are 19 deity halls well laid out in the east, west and middle sections. It has been listed as a historical site under the protection of the Chinese government and it houses the Chinese Taoist Association, the Institute of Chinese Taoist Culture, the Chinese Taoist College and the Editorial Department of The Journal of Chinese Taoism.