The Palace of Matsu, located at Xindong Street, Liuhe Town (Liujiagang in ancient time), Taicang City, Suzhou, faces old Liu River and boarders Lucao Pond on the west. Its full name is Palace of Tianfeilingci, which is commonly known as Niangniang Temple. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by the State Council of China in 2013.
The Palace of Matsu was built in the twenty-third year of Zhiyuan Period of the Yuan Dynasty (1286) and rebuilt in the second year of Zhizheng Period (1342). The survived two-floor bedroom hall, at the rear of the Palace, has gable roof with multiple eaves. It is 12.5m high, 21.8m wide and 16.3m deep. There are porches with Phoebe Zhennan columns at the front and back verandas of the 5-purlin beam hall. On the architrave of the porch, Drama Scripts of the Three Kingdom was carved, while on the pediment of the eastern and western doors, there are bricks carved with “the sun rising from the waves” and “the dragon playing in the water”. In 1985, in order to celebrate the 580 anniversary of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas, the bedroom hall was rebuilt, and also a new gate was built at that time. And later a new stele corridor was built in the southeast of the courtyard, inlaying 13 original steles into the wall to set up a new monument. And now it is the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum.
