Chiwan Tianhou Temple, Taoist temple in Chiwan, China

Chiwan Tianhou Temple is a Taoist worship site with multiple halls featuring red wooden columns, decorative roof ornaments, and detailed carvings of maritime scenes. The interior spaces contain altars, statues, and religious furnishings arranged throughout the connected prayer halls.

Founded in the Song Dynasty, the temple was repeatedly restored under the Ming and Qing. In the Kangxi reign it was renamed Chiwan Tianhou Temple from Chiwan Tianfei Temple. Ming envoys to Southeast Asia stopped here to sacrifice, and Zheng He's voyages made it a key stop. Demolished in the 1950s, it was rebuilt in 1992 and repaired in 2010.

Fishermen and sailors come here to make offerings and burn incense, seeking the sea goddess's protection for their voyages. This tradition continues today and shapes how locals and visitors experience the temple.

The temple stands on Chiwan Sixth Road in Nanshan, Shenzhen, beside Chiwan Xiaonanshan Park, and is reached by metro at Chiwan station. The main festival falls on the 23rd day of the third lunar month, when believers from across Shenzhen and Hong Kong fill the halls; at other times the grounds are visited without ceremony.

The temple was one of only three Tianhou temples in Chinese history to receive imperial consecration, alongside those of Tianjin and Quanzhou. At its height it was the largest Tianhou temple on China's coast, with ninety-nine doors. The Ming scholar Huang Jian recorded the "Cisha" rite, in which envoys sacrificed on the beach sand before sailing abroad.