Unique Xibe ancestral temple opened to public  

中国唯一锡伯族家庙向社会开放 历时2年修缮改造

由辽宁省沈阳市和平区政府斥资，历时2年修缮改造的中国唯一锡伯族家庙，7日正式面向社会公众开放，当日恰逢锡伯族西迁纪念日。

Shenyang (CNS) -- The only existing ancestral temple in China for the Xibe minority was officially opened to the public on June 7 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, after a two-year renovation funded by the local government.

This day is also the anniversary of their movement westward in the mid 18 century. In the Qing Dynasty, 1,018 officers and soldiers of the Xibe, a group known for their archery skills, and some 2,257 of their family members were deployed by the government to station themselves in Xinjiang. The temple was where the group moving to the west bade farewell to the ones left in the northeast.

The Xibe ethnic minority today amounts to a population of 100,000 or more distributed over northern China from the Ili area in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the west to the northeast provinces of Jilin and Liaoning.

The temple that figures so prominently in the group's history is also known as the Taiping Temple. It was first founded in 1707 by Xibe people and survived several conflicts that left it damaged. The first overall renovation by the government was started in 2003.