Baochan Temple

　　Baochan Temple is situated in the Baochan Mountain to the northeast of Hanshan County. In the 12th year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty (624 AD), the renowned monk Master Hui Bao established a hermitage here and practiced in seclusion for over 20 years. After his passing, his cremated remains yielded several multicolored sarira (relics), which brought the temple widespread fame. In the first year of the Zhihe era during the Song Dynasty (1054 AD), the famous statesman and literary figure Wang Anshi visited the site and penned his immortal essay “Record of a Visit to Baochan Mountain,” making Baochan Temple renowned both at home and abroad.

　　Later, the temple complex was destroyed, and the seven-story stupa containing Master Hui Bao’s sarira was bombed and collapsed, with the relics looted. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, through extensive efforts by the government, the sarira were eventually recovered. After being authenticated by cultural relics experts as a national treasure, they were housed in the Anhui Provincial Museum. Later, the Hanshan County Government had them returned and enshrined once again within Baochan Temple.

　　In recent years, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Hanshan County Party Committee and County Government, reconstruction of Baochan Temple commenced in October 2001. The rebuilding project received strong support from Buddhist communities and devotees in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, as well as from cities on the mainland such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, raising over 5 million yuan in funding. The reconstructed Baochan Temple covers an area of 30 acres, with 127 temple buildings and more than 500 Buddha statues. A national first-class relic—the silver box that once held the sarira obtained after Master Hui Bao’s passing—was also returned to the temple from the provincial museum. With its grand scale and beautiful surrounding natural scenery, coupled with the nearby Huayang Cave, which Wang Anshi once visited, the temple attracted over 10,000 religious followers and tourists from Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhu, and Ma’anshan on the very first day.