Taipei Xia-Hai City God Temple

This temple is so small it could almost fit into a shop: just 46 ping, about 150 square metres. Yet it is one of the most visited in Taipei. It is dedicated to the City God of Xia-Hai, who judges the deeds of the living and watches over the spirits.

1A statue that fled a battle

In 1821, a group of migrants from Tong'an brought his image from Fujian and installed it in Bangka. In 1853, during the Ding-Xia feud, the Tong'an people were defeated and fled to Dadaocheng with the statue. The temple was completed in 1859. A side altar honours thirty-eight fellow villagers who died in that fight.

2The matchmaking god

The temple's most popular figure is not the main god but Yue Lao, the Old Man under the Moon, worshipped here since 1971.

According to Chinese tradition, the Old Man under the Moon ties an invisible red thread around the ankles of those destined to marry.

Worshippers ask him for a partner, leave him sweets and take home a blessed red thread. Many couples come back later to thank him. The City God's wife, worshipped here since 1893, receives prayers of her own for harmony in marriage.

Every year, on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month, the god goes out in a procession so packed that it inspired a saying: on that day «people watch people».

3What to look for

• The statue of Yue Lao, with a white beard and a book of destinies.
• Worshippers with red threads and jiaobei blocks.
• The size of the temple, astonishingly small for its fame.