Jade Buddha Temple (Yufosi) has an extremely striking restored main hall leading to the remarkable Jade Buddha in a separate room on its own, brought back from Burma by a local abbot. Jade Buddha Temple is situated on 170 Anyuan Road, corner of Jiangning Road, in Putuo District, Shanghai. It is a monastery of great fame south of the Yangtze River well-known both at home and abroad.

The temple was first built during the reign of Emperor Guano XU of the Ding Dynasty, when a Buddhist named Hui Gen from a monastery on Mount Putuo in Zhejiang Province went on a pilgrimage to Burma and brought back five jade statues of Sakyamuni. On his way back to Mount Putuo via Shanghai, he left two jade statues here, one in sitting posture and the other, reclining. He specially built a temple as a shrine for these two statues. The temple was completed in 1882 and named the Jade Buddha Temple. Later, the temple was partly destroyed by fire and in 1918 a new temple was built on the present site. It is a medium-size monastery built in the style of the Song Dynasty with symmetrical halls and courtyards, upturned eaves and bright yellow walls. There are five main buildings, namely, the Heavenly King Hall, the Grand Hall, the Hall of the Reclining Buddha, the Jade Buddha Chamber and the Abbot's Room. The temple's great treasure is its 6.5-ft-high, 455-lb seated Buddha made of white jade with a robe of precious gems, originally brought to Shanghai from Burma. Other Buddhas statues and frightening guardian gods of the temple populate the halls, as well as a collection of Buddhist scriptures and paintings.

In 1952 the temple was given a thorough renovation. Successive repairs and renovations added more solemnity and magnificence to the temple. During the Cultural Revolution, in order to save the temple when the Red Guards came to destroy it, the monks pasted portraits of Mao Zedong on the outside walls so that the Guards couldn't tear them down without destroying Mao's face as well.

The temple gate with three adjoining doors and a horizontal plague above, says "Jade Buddha Temple ". In Buddhist tradition the gate is called the "mountain gate"--san men in Chinese, because temples and monasteries are usually found deep in the mountains (san in Chinese), hence the name. It consists of three doors, symbolizing "the gate of three extrications ", i.e. "the door of emptiness, the door of no-phenomenon and the door of no-action", therefore, it is also called "three gate"(also san men in Chinese).

Address: 170 An Yuan Road
Admission: CNY15