Lingying Scenic Area

Lingying Scenic Area

Lingying Scenic Area is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Lingying Scenic Area

Lingying Scenic Area is located on Dai'mao Mountain in Hongmei Town, northeastern Nan'an City. It can be directly accessed from Provincial Highway 305 via the Hong (lai)–Liu (du) Road. To the north, it connects to Nan'an's Lefeng and Luojiang District's Luoxi Town; to the south, it borders Honglai Town; and to the east, it stands in distant view of Shuangji Mountain Scenic Area in Luojiang District.

Lingying Temple is a famous thousand-year-old ancient temple in southern Fujian. A well-known local legend says: “Lingying divinations, Immortal’s dreams, Lingying produces tea leaves, and the Immortal’s Stone yields rice.” It is situated at the southern foot of Dai'mao Mountain in Liudu, Hongmei Town, Nan'an, Quanzhou. Legend has it that during the Later Tang Dynasty, a child prodigy—Li Wenyu—entered nirvana amidst the entangled vines of Dai'mao Mountain’s southern foothills. A local elder named Ke encountered something supernatural and, moved by its spiritual aura, had his body enshrined as a Buddha and worshipped as “Ancestral Master Gong.” A cliff-side shrine called “Zimao Rock” was then built. Throughout the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Zimao Rock underwent multiple renovations and expansions, growing to a grand scale (with six sections). In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the rock shrine was converted into a temple, known as Zimao Temple. By the end of the Daoguang era in the Qing Dynasty, due to consecutive years of drought, the magistrate of Wurong County, Liang Yunqing, prayed for rain at Zimao Temple to Ancestral Master Li and was rewarded with timely and abundant rainfall. The relieved populace rejoiced wildly, and Magistrate Liang, deeply moved by the divine response and grace of Ancestral Master Gong, petitioned the emperor, who then bestowed the name “Lingying Temple.” Since then, Lingying Temple has grown even more renowned far and wide.