Hangzhou Historic Temples and Churches on the City's List

In brief

Hangzhou has been a centre of Buddhism for more than a thousand years, and the list includes former temple sites, nunneries and halls as well as a Protestant church of the 1920s. Many of these buildings lost their religious use in the twentieth century and served as schools, factories or homes; the listing protects what survives of their halls and courtyards.

Five to know

• The Former Site of Xianning Temple: founded in the Five Dynasties period at the foot of Banshan, paired in an old saying with Lingyin; one hall of 1930 survives, and the temple reopened in November 2019 after restoration.
• The Former Site of Manao Temple: founded in 946, destroyed in the Taiping war and restored at the end of the Qing dynasty; the listing calls it Hangzhou's representative temple garden.
• The Former Site of Zhaoxian Temple: founded in the Tang dynasty, destroyed at the end of the Yuan and rebuilt from 1676 by the monk Qigang.
• The Complex of Mituo Temple: a late-Qing Pure Land temple whose Amitabha Sutra, carved across a 24-metre rock face, is the largest cliff inscription in Hangzhou; a cultural park since 2016.
• Sichengtang Church: a Protestant church built 1924–1927 on a cross-shaped plan with Chinese eaves, seating about 1,800.

All 13 on the list

Sources

Hangzhou Memory groups the buildings by type from their names and descriptions; the city's lists do not classify them. Names and descriptions come from English Wikipedia's batch lists, and Chinese names, periods and addresses from 杭州市历史建筑 on Chinese Wikipedia, both CC BY-SA 4.0.