Baiyun Chan Temple

Baiyun Chan Temple

Baiyun Chan Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Baiyun Chan Temple is located on the mountainside of Baiyun Rock. When taking a bamboo raft ride through the Nine Bend River and looking north, you can see this ancient temple of the same name built on Baiyun Rock north of the stream. The temple is constructed next to the cliff and above the stream, resembling a hanging monastery. To visit the temple, you need to cross Xingcun Bridge, then walk northeast along the mountain path for five li to reach the foot of Baiyun Rock, and then climb the steps to get there.

Originally named Baiyun Nunnery, Baiyun Chan Temple was once used as a study retreat by the Song Dynasty scholar Lü Zuqian, and later occupied by Taoist nuns. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Monk Cijue traveled here and converted the nunnery into a Buddhist temple. The temple was ingeniously built against the mountain rock, integrating with the landscape so that from afar it looks like a cloud nestled in the waist of Lingfeng Peak. Inside the temple are the Maitreya Hall, the Three Treasures Hall, the Guanyin Hall, and the Patriarch Altar. The rear halves of these halls are built inside caves, while the front halves are supported by fir wood frames that follow the contours of the mountain—giving them the appearance of pavilions in mid-air. From within the temple, looking south toward the upper reaches of the Nine Bend River, you can see Dao Yuanzhou stretching across the middle section. Opposite stands the striking Flame Peak. Looking down, the buildings of Xingcun Town are densely arrayed, offering a uniquely beautiful view.

For nearly a century from the temple’s founding monk, Cijue, to the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era when Monk Bingri presided over the temple, it enjoyed flourishing incense offerings and continuous streams of worshippers. Over its several hundred years of existence, the temple has undergone cycles of prosperity and destruction.

On the rock wall inside the Guanyin Hall is a cliff inscription from the Qianlong era that reads "Grand View." At the end of the temple, a perilous path leads to a cave containing the stupa of Master Liang Shandong Cave Mystic from Zhangpu, erected in the 38th year of the Kangxi reign (1699). Outside the cave, on the sheer cliffs, there is a cliff inscription from the Qianlong era gifted by devotees to the abbot, Monk Bingri, that reads "Pure Land." Baiyun Chan Temple currently has three monks and is gradually being developed as a new tourist attraction.

Source: Fujian Provincial Tourism Development Commission