Xuanzhong Temple

Xuanzhong Temple is located in Shibi Mountain 10 km northwest of the county seat. It is the ancestral chamber of Japanese Buddhist Pure Land Sect, the oldest existing structure of such kind in China. As a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national 4A-level tourist scenic spot, it was recognized as a key Buddhist and Taoist temple in Han nationality region by the State Council in 1983. 

Xuanzhong Temple is the only ancestor chamber of the Pure Land Sect built in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Among the four ancestral masters of Pure Land Sect, Tan Luan, Daochao and Shandao have resided here successively. Quite a few Emperors from the Tang and Yuan Dynasty had either visited the temple or given royal order to protect it. In the 1950s, Xuanzhong Temple was cared for by Premier Zhou Enlai and Liao Chengzhi and other senior state leaders. After the Pure Land Sect was introduced into Japan during the Song Dynasty, the Japanese Pure Land School took Xuanzhong Temple as their ancestral chamber, which occupied a very important position in the Pure Land Sect Buddhism Temple of Southeast Asia. Over the past hundreds of years, although it has been plagued many times, there are still quite a few national treasures and attractions remained for people to explore.