Xu Yun Chan Temple

Xu Yun Chan Temple

Xu Yun Chan Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Xu Yun Chan Temple, located in Yudi Village on the northern outskirts of Shijiazhuang, was originally known as Chongsheng Temple. Built during the Later Zhou Dynasty, it has a history of over 1,000 years. In recent years, the temple has been restored, giving this ancient site a completely renewed appearance.

Inside the mountain gate of Xu Yun Chan Temple, the laughing Maitreya Buddha sits in the center, flanked by the Four Heavenly Kings. Behind the laughing Buddha is the golden-armored Skanda Bodhisattva. In front of the Mahavira Hall is a memorial hall that is 13 meters wide and 24 meters long. The main entrance of the scripture hall faces the back door of the Heavenly King Hall, with a bas-relief above the doorway depicting a Buddhist symbol 0. The main hall enshrines Sakyamuni, seated on a central lotus throne, flanked by Kasyapa and Ananda, with Guanyin to the left and Amitabha to the right. On the east side is also a statue of the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin. It currently serves as a nunnery, housing nearly 10 bhikkhunis.

In the original Mahavira Hall, Sakyamuni was enshrined, seated on a central lotus throne, flanked by Kasyapa and Ananda, with Guanyin to the left and Amitabha to the right. On the east side was also a statue of the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin. Unfortunately, Sakyamuni is wrapped in red silk, making it difficult to see his true form. The statues in the hall were all sculpted during the Ming Dynasty.

The newly built Mahavira Hall this year. In early 2005, when Master from Baolin Temple 0 and Mr. Yang Xun, General Manager of Hong Kong Rising Group, visited Xu Yun Chan Monastery for worship, they noticed the temple lacked a sufficiently large Mahavira Hall. They then pledged to donate funds to construct a new Mahavira Hall that matched the scale of the monastery. The project officially commenced on March 19, 2006, and was completed in terms of both structure and interior decoration by the end of the same year. The newly built Mahavira Hall is a Tang-style building with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof covered in green glazed tiles, covering a total floor area of 640.5 square meters, with a total investment of 2.15 million yuan.

Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei Province and serves as the province’s political, economic, technological, financial, cultural, and information hub. It is one of the cities approved by the State Council to implement coastal opening-up policies and financial openness.

Located in the heart of the North China Plain, Shijiazhuang is bordered by Baoding to the north, Hengshui to the east, and the Taihang Mountains to the west. It is almost equidistant from three major metropolitan areas—Beijing, Jinan, and Tianjin—and enjoys a superior geographical location. The city currently administers 6 districts, 12 counties, 5 county-level cities, and 1 national high-tech development zone, covering a total area of 15,800 square kilometers, with a permanent population of 10.163788 million. The urban area spans 455.8 square kilometers and has a population of 2.862 million.

Shijiazhuang boasts abundant tourism resources. The city is home to 25 national key cultural relics protection units, 141 provincial-level cultural relics protection units, and over 240 municipal- and county-level cultural relics protection units, with more than 1,200 various cultural heritage sites. It also features one national nature reserve—Tuoliang; two national scenic spots (Cangyan Mountain and Zhangshiyan), and two provincial scenic spots (Fenglong Mountain and Tianguishan); one national forest park (Wuyuezhai), and seven provincial forest parks (Xiantai Mountain, Tuoliang, Nansizhang, Chizhi, Longzhou Lake, Xibaipo, etc.).