Our answer
Hangzhou’s oldest temple, and free to enter 灵隐寺
A working Chan monastery with a 24.8 m camphor-wood Buddha and hundreds of carvings on Feilai Feng opposite
The short answer
Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺, Língyǐn Sì) is a Chan Buddhist monastery in the hills west of West Lake in Hangzhou, founded in 328 by the Indian monk Huili. Visit for its 33.6 m main hall and giant camphor-wood Buddha, and for the Buddhist rock carvings of Feilai Feng opposite. Entry has been free since 1 December 2025, with real-name booking.
| In Chinese | 灵隐寺 (Língyǐn Sì), usually translated ‘Temple of the Soul’s Retreat’; also called 云林禅寺 (Yúnlín Chán Sì) |
|---|---|
| Where | 1 Lingyin Road, at the foot of the hills west of West Lake, Xihu district, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province |
| Founded | 328, under the Eastern Jin, by the Indian monk Huili |
| Known for | The 24.8 m camphor-wood Buddha, the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats and the Feilai Feng rock carvings |
| Ticket | Free since 1 December 2025 for the whole Lingyin and Feilai Feng scenic area; real-name, timed booking (Xinhua, December 2025) |
| Visitors | About 10.88 million in 2024 (China Daily, November 2025) |
Lingyin Temple history in brief
Lingyin has been rebuilt many times; Wikipedia counts no fewer than sixteen. Most of what stands today dates from the late Qing dynasty or later. For how a Chinese temple is laid out in general, see our guide to Chinese temples.[1][2][3][4]
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 328 | The Indian monk Huili founds the temple at the foot of Mount Lingyin, beside West Lake. It is Hangzhou’s oldest temple. |
| Wuyue kingdom (907–978) | The temple’s high point. In 947 it is expanded to nine buildings, eighteen pavilions and seventy-two halls, with up to 3,000 monks; later in the century, under Abbot Yanshou, it grows to more than 1,300 halls and rooms. |
| Southern Song (1127–1279) | With the capital at Hangzhou (then Lin’an), Lingyin ranks among the ten most important Chan temples of the Jiangnan region. In 1158 a hall with 500 arhat statues is built. |
| 1590 | Abbot Rutong rebuilds Elder Li’s Pagoda, the stone pagoda for the founder Huili. |
| 1689 | The Kangxi Emperor visits and writes the name 云林 (Yúnlín, ‘Cloud Forest’) for the temple; his plaque still hangs on the Hall of Heavenly Kings. The Qianlong Emperor later visits six times, and his poems survive on stone tablets. |
| 1910 | Work begins on the present Mahavira Hall. |
| 1998 onwards | Under Master Muyu the temple is extended; the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats is built in the late 1990s, and two halls at the back of the axis in 2000–2002. |
What to see inside Lingyin Temple
The halls follow the usual order of a Chinese temple, from the Hall of Heavenly Kings to the Mahavira Hall and on up the hill.
- Hall of Heavenly Kings (天王殿): the double-eaved entrance hall, under the Kangxi Emperor’s plaque reading 雲林禪寺. Inside are the Laughing Buddha, the four guardian kings and a statue of Weituo that Wikipedia dates to the Southern Song, about 800 years old.
- Two sutra pillars: octagonal stone pillars on either side of the Hall of Heavenly Kings, carved with Buddhist dharani texts in 969 under the Wuyue kingdom and moved here from another temple in the Northern Song. The eastern one is 7.17 m high, the western 11 m.
- Mahavira Hall (大雄宝殿): the main hall, 33.6 m high, seven bays wide and covering 1,200 m². Its seated Shakyamuni is carved from 24 pieces of camphor wood and is 24.8 m high from lotus seat to halo, which the temple calls China’s largest camphor-wood statue. The back wall carries a clay relief about 20 m high with more than 150 figures.
- Hall of the Medicine Buddha (药师殿): the Medicine Buddha, flanked by twelve heavenly generals.
- Hall of Five Hundred Arhats (五百罗汉堂): built in the late 1990s on a swastika-shaped plan. It holds 500 seated bronze arhats, each 1.7 m tall, around a bronze pavilion 12.62 m high with four bodhisattvas, which the temple says is the tallest solid bronze structure in the world.
- Ji Gong Hall (济公殿): a 2.3 m bronze of Ji Gong, the eccentric Song-dynasty monk of Chinese folklore who was ordained at Lingyin and known for drinking wine and eating meat. He holds a broken fan and dips a foot into a wine jar.
Feilai Feng: the Peak That Flew Here
Across the Lengquan Stream from the temple stands Feilai Feng (飞来峰, Fēilái Fēng), a limestone hill about 168 m high whose craggy shape is unlike the hills around it. Tradition says the founder Huili thought it looked like a peak in India and asked how it had flown here; the name, ‘Peak That Flew Here’, comes from that story.
Its caves and cliffs hold the largest group of stone carvings in Zhejiang: 153 shrines and more than 470 carvings over an area about 600 m long and 200 m wide, of which 338 are relatively well preserved. The earliest dated ones, a Pure Land trio of Amitabha with two bodhisattvas, were paid for in 951. Most are Northern Song (222) or Yuan (96); the Yuan carvings show Tibetan influence alongside Chinese technique.
The best known is the laughing Maitreya on the south side of the stream, the largest shrine on the peak at 9.9 m long and 3.6 m high: a pot-bellied, laughing figure with a sack and prayer beads, ringed by eighteen arhats. Look too for the Guanyin cave, where a crack in the ceiling lets in a sliver of sky called the ‘one thread of heaven’ (一线天), and for Elder Li’s Pagoda, a stone pagoda of seven storeys, more than 8 m high, near the Longhong Grotto, which commemorates Huili.[2][5][6][12]
Festivals and customs at Lingyin
Lingyin’s best-known custom is Laba porridge. On the Laba Festival, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Hangzhou people traditionally go early to the temple to eat the porridge it makes; the monks start cooking in the days before and give it away to the local community. In January 2025 bags of the temple’s porridge ingredients were even handed out at a museum in Beijing.
The temple keeps a monastic day. By a schedule it published in 2014, monks rise at 4:30, with morning chanting at 5:15 and evening chanting at 4 pm, and meditate after the gates close. The gates open half an hour earlier on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month, on Buddha’s Birthday and on public holidays.[14][15][16]
Questions readers ask
Is Lingyin Temple free?
Yes. Since 1 December 2025 the Lingyin and Feilai Feng scenic area, including Lingyin Temple, has been free for all visitors. You need a real-name reservation for a time slot. Before that, tickets were 45 yuan for the scenic area and 30 yuan for the temple.
Do I need to book Lingyin Temple tickets?
Entry is free, but the scenic area uses real-name reservations with timed entry to manage crowds, so book a slot before you go. Foreign visitors are included in the free policy.
How old is Lingyin Temple?
About 1,700 years. It was founded in 328, under the Eastern Jin dynasty, by the Indian monk Huili, which makes it Hangzhou’s oldest temple. Most of the present buildings are late Qing or later, after many rebuildings.
What is Lingyin Temple famous for?
Its age, its 33.6 m Mahavira Hall with a 24.8 m Buddha carved from camphor wood, the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, and the Feilai Feng rock carvings opposite, more than 470 of them from the 10th to the 14th centuries.
What is Feilai Feng?
The ‘Peak That Flew Here’, a limestone hill opposite Lingyin Temple, about 168 m high. Tradition says Huili thought it was a peak from India that had flown to Hangzhou. Its caves and cliffs hold 153 shrines and more than 470 Buddhist carvings, mostly Song and Yuan.
What does Lingyin mean?
灵隐 (língyǐn) is usually translated ‘the Soul’s Retreat’. The temple is also called Yunlin Chan Temple (云林禅寺), from the name the Kangxi Emperor wrote for it in 1689.
How do I get to Lingyin Temple?
Lingyin lies in the hills west of West Lake in Hangzhou. The temple’s site lists city buses Y2 and K7 from Hangzhou Railway Station to the Ling Yin stop; a taxi is the simplest option from elsewhere in the city.
Who is Ji Gong at Lingyin Temple?
A Song-dynasty monk, born Li Xiuyuan, who was ordained at Lingyin with the name Daoji. Folklore remembers him as a kind, wine-drinking eccentric who helped ordinary people. Lingyin has a hall with a bronze statue of him.
Sources
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Brief History · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Wikipedia, Lingyin Temple · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Grand Hall of Great Sage · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Hall of Five Hundred Arhats · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Stone Carvings on Flying Peak · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Elder Li’s Pagoda · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Two Sutra Pillars · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Xinhua, Hangzhou’s Lingyin Temple opens free of charge (1 December 2025, in Chinese) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- eHangzhou (Hangzhou government), Lingyin Feilai Peak Scenic Area launches free admission service (4 December 2025) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- China Daily, Hangzhou offers free entry to popular site (21 November 2025) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), Maps & Info · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- China Travel, Peak Flown from Afar (Fei Lai Feng) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Wikipedia, Ji Gong · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- eHangzhou (Hangzhou government), Laba porridge gift for museum visitors (9 January 2025) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- China Daily (eZhejiang), Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou starts to make traditional Laba porridge (8 January 2019) · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- Lingyin Temple (official site), daily schedule announcement · accessed 1 Nov 2026
- eHangzhou (Hangzhou government), Lingyin Temple · accessed 1 Nov 2026
Update log. 1 November 2026 — reviewed. Next review due 1 February 2027. Suggest a correction