South Putuo Temple
South Putuo Temple is an ancient temple with a lot of glory in Xiamen. South Putuo or Nan Putuo is located in the southeast of Xiamen City, Fujian Province, adjacent to Xiamen University and the Lujiang River. It is surrounded by the graceful sea and the Wulao Peaks behind the temple. Wulao peaks is a small mountain range, which rises on the island. It has a very good reputation for its picturesque view of Xiamen and the surrounding district of Haicang, Gulangyu Island and Zhangzhou Prefecture Level City. South Putuo Temple also has many deep caves and surround by lush forest.
The temple were called South Putuo referring to Putuo Mountain, which is one of the four major Buddhist Mountains in Zhejiang province. South Putuo Temple was firstly built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The construction of the temple continued over the next dynasties, and was rebuilt in the twenty-third year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Other attractive feature of South Putuo Temple is a vegetarian diets. All vegetable dishes are in strict accordance with the vegetable food standards-setting and change the tradition of cooking vegetables in a similar way of cooking meat dishes. These vegetable dishes are well known abroad. Great attention is paid to color, flavor, smell, shape, charm and goods from all foods.
The South Fujian Buddhist Institute is located to the left of the South Putuo Temple. Established in 1925, it enjoys great prestige among Buddhists in China.