Huacheng Temple, a key temple in China, locates on Huacheng Hill at the center of Jiuhua Street basin. It is surrounded by hills as if by city walls. Because there is a legend in buddhist sutra saying: “An area pointed changed into a city”, it was named Huacheng Temple built in Mountain Jiuhua and is the best one in China. In 401, a monk named Huaidu from India built a nunnery here. A hermit, Fei Guanqing in Tang Dynasty kept this in his book Huacheng Temple Records. In 756, Zhu Gejie donated money for the construction of the temple, and asked Jin Qiaojue to live there. In 794, Jin died at the age of 99, he was considered Dizang Bodhisttva thus the temple became the palace to hold rites for him. Now it becomes history museum, keeping Blood Sutra, imperial edict, Dazang Sutra, Petta Sutra and other precious historic documents. The temple occupieds 3,500 square meters, constructed to terrain of the landscape. All together it has four palace halls which are built in the traditional style of Anhui. In front of temple is a big square which is used for holding huge ceremonies. At one corner of the square there is the base of queen's tower. Between the square and the gate is the Fangsheng Pool. |