Pan Yunduan, the official who built Yu Yuan, had this Buddhist temple built to honor his mother in 1600. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) it was all but destroyed and abandoned. In 1989, restoration began, culminating in its reopening as a Buddhist nunnery and small Old Town tourist attraction in 1994. The centerpiece is an altar with a golden statue of the Buddha. The Buddha's vault is adorned with images of 384 disciples, created since 1990 by a single master craftsman. Guanyin (the Goddess of Mercy) is highly venerated here as well.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Shanghai, 5th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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