Hongfa Temple
Buddhist sanctuary of forty halls and a bell tower, built entirely new during China's reform era.
This guide to Hongfa Temple in Shenzhen begins in 1937, when a young monk named Benhuan set out on a three-hundred-mile pilgrimage to Wutai Mountain, prostrating himself every three steps along the way. Decades later, after surviving Buddhism's suppression and years in prison, he returned to break ground on the first Buddhist temple built from scratch in mainland China since 1949. You'll hear how funding stalled and how Zhao Puchu, president of the Chinese Buddhist Association, helped see the project through to its 1990 opening. Stand in the incense-filled Mahavira Hall and trace the story back to that first, painful walk.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.