The Complex of Mituo Temple

What the listing says

The city's description, as summarised on English Wikipedia: Constructed in the 1850s, this building was one of the four largest temples in Hangzhou. Now only its traditionally Chinese style main hall and bonze’s dormitories are left.

Mituo Temple stands below Xiaohuoshan, also called Mituo Hill, in Songmuchang, Xihu District, now inside Mituo Temple Park. It was a Pure Land Buddhist temple; the Chinese Wikipedia article dates its founding to 1878, while the city's listing gives the 1850s. In the twentieth century it served as a school, a factory and housing, and after restoration it reopened in July 2016 as a cultural park rather than a working temple. Its best-known feature is the Amitabha Sutra carved across a rock face: 24 metres long and about 5 metres high, 2,194 characters of about 15 cm each, written by Shen Shandeng. It is the largest cliff inscription surviving in Hangzhou.

Key facts

Where it fits

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. All the temples and churches on the list.

It belongs to the second batch, announced on 1 July 2005: 47 buildings, including 1920s lanes, university campuses of the 1950s and 1960s, Hangzhou Gymnasium and the villas of Lingyin and Shengtang roads.

What the listing protects

A listed building may not be altered, moved or demolished without approval. Under the regulations in force since 1 October 2013, each listed building has a protection plan and a sign put up by the city, and falls into one of three protection categories, from keeping its main exterior features to keeping its exterior, plan, structure and details.

Its owner, or for a state-owned building its user, is responsible for upkeep and repairs, and a repair plan must be approved first. The listing does not open a building to the public: most listed buildings are still homes, offices, schools or shops.

Next to it on the list

• Shihan Villa: LSJZ2-43, 1920s
• Huai Villa: LSJZ2-45, between 1911 and 1949

Sources and licence

• Description: adapted from the English Wikipedia article List of second batch of declared historic buildings in Hangzhou, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Chinese name, period, address and remarks: Chinese Wikipedia, 杭州市历史建筑 and the building's own article, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Listing: Hangzhou municipal government notice 杭政办函〔2005〕193号 of 1 July 2005.
• Photo: 猫猫的日记本, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons. Photos credited to "hangzhoumemory" or "Laohangzhou" were uploaded by the former heritage portal; Hangzhou Memory is not connected with it.
• The text of this page is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.