Jiuhua Street

Lined with old shops and temples, where monks and laypeople coexist and farming is combined with Buddhist practice, Jiuhua Street is a hub of the cultural landscape on Jiuhua Mountain. It is a mountain basin with an average elevation of about 640 meters, surrounded by verdant peaks that encircle the area like a city wall. Covering an area of approximately 4 square kilometers, it is the core scenic area of Jiuhua Mountain and a gathering point for pilgrims and tourists. The development of Jiuhua Street has a long history—dating back to the Long’an era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (401 AD), the eminent Indian monk Baidu established a thatched hut under Furong Ridge, marking the beginning of Buddhist activities on Jiuhua Mountain. During the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, the Silla monk Kim Qiaoque arrived at Jiuhua. Local gentry such as Zhuge Jie built a temple for him at the foot of Tiger-shaped Mountain, which was granted the name “Huacheng Temple” by the imperial court, making it the founding temple of Jiuhua Mountain. After his nirvana, Kim Qiaoque was believed to have become the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha. Monks and devotees later built the “Flesh Body Palace” on Shenguang Ridge, which has since become a must-visit site for Buddhist worshippers paying homage to Ksitigarbha. Key attractions in the area include Huacheng Temple, the Liberation Pond, the Immaculate Flesh Body, the Compassionate Brightness Flesh Body, Qiyuan Temple, Zhantan Forest, Baishou Palace, Dongya Zen Temple, Huixiang Pavilion, and the Flesh Body Hall. Currently, as part of its development plan to achieve 5A-level scenic area status, Jiuhua Mountain has demolished many non-compliant structures on the old Jiuhua Street, and the scenic area’s administrative offices have been relocated to the new Jiuhua District at the mountain’s base, laying the foundation for further development of the site.