Beitou Ci Shen Temple, where we worship God of Shen Nong also call as God of Grains of all kinds, was found in 1669. It was established by the villagers from Tong An and Zhangzhou in Fujian Province.

  The supervisor was Gentry Wang Xi Chi. However the temple was destroyed by typhoon in year Qianlong 40 (1775), and rebuilt in year Qianlong 46(1781) by the temple supervisor Shie Fa Ji.  Again the temple was destroyed by earthquake in year TongZhi 7 (1867), but the rebuilt was delayed till year Kuang Xu 7 (1881) and then renovated in 1969.

     We rode our bikes to our neighborhood Ci Shen Temple in Qi Li An and noticed that the surroundings are tall buildings. But we still could find it’s nature of mountain and river of old Beitou Qi Li An, and the small tracks and its foodsteps from the hard working farmers. It looked so simple and quiet. There was a big ground in front of the temple, normally the elderly and women gather here and talk about their daily life. The traditional festivals were held here as well. The believers of this temple are mostly from neighborhood, there were not much visitors from outside.

    The Center of belief in the Soft Bridge district – Fu Yu Temple, it’s for the local land god. The original status was from Fujien Lai’s ancestors. From the blessing of the god, they used three pieces of stone boards to build a simple temple in year Kuang Xu 10 (1884). Then rebuilt in year Da Zheng 7 (1918) to a decent temple, although the temple was still small, the villagers strongly believed the blessing from the land god, and took turns to worship day and night during their busiest time of harvest.

    After the rebuilt in 1918, the temple needed funds during the birthday of land god or other festivals, therefore they choose a leader every year to raise the fund. The leader only came from the Ruan Qiao area, the leader will ask the Ding Kou Qian (contribute) family to family in the village. Whoever is richer will donate more.

   The villagers in Ruan Qiao district worked very hard in the farms since the end of the Ching Dynasty, they used to farm the lands from landlords till they bought their own lands and increased their wealth. Plus there were serious floods during 60-70’ in Ruan Qiao and most villagers survived. The elderly in the village suggested to renovate the temple as they appreciated the blessing from god. However due to the population from the village is too small, it’s very difficult to raise the fund. Finally they can renovate the temple in 1983 and since then the temple is complete as it is now.

   After 1983, the west part of Wen Lin North Road was still farm village, but the east part of Wen Lin North Road was urbanized, more of apartments were built and many immigrants moved in. This became more difficult to raise the fund for the temple as new residents were not believing in the land god too much. Now we called it Yuan Qian which anyone can contribute as their willingness.   

Photo by Mr. Huang Zhi Li, the head of Jien Ming neighborhood