A portrait of a door god is seen at a restaurant, Hong Kong Cuisine 1983, in Hong Kong, China, May 30, 2012. [Photo by Yin Ganjiang/photoint.net]

Ancestral temples and door gods are special symbols of the traditional lifestyle of the Chinese people and the carrier of their spiritual culture.

Ancestral temples are a place where Chinese people pay respect to the surname lineages of families in Chinese traditional religion. They are closely linked to Confucian culture and focus on filial piety.

In Chinese history, Shenshu and Yulu are known as the first two "door gods". As figures of myth in ancient China, they served as guardians of the house and brought people prosperity.

Since the Song Dynasty, people tended to worship heroes in popular fiction as their door gods. Since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Qin Qiong and Yu Chigong, two famous generals from the Tang Dynasty, were worshiped as the most popular door gods with the most diverse images ever around the country.

In modern times, once the night before China's Lunar New Year draws near, people will put up a new portrait of the door gods on their door, hoping that the bad is taken away and the good is brought in.

Yin Ganjiang, a member of the China Photographers Association, has spent several years in regularly observing and photographing ancestral temples and door gods in his hometown, Dongguan city in South China's Guangdong province, and the surrounding areas.

His photographic work, Door Gods, displays the charm of such unique cultural relics and presents the nature of Chinese traditional culture.