Daoguan Zen Temple is located at the entrance of Heshang’ao Village, west of Fenghua City. It is surrounded by mountains and water, with flat fields and green pastures in between. The environment is serene and the landscape is picturesque.
The temple’s predecessor was a Daoist temple. According to the Guangxu ‘Fenghua County Chronicles’, Yuanyuan Daoist Temple, located five miles west of the county, was built by Daoist Zhou Yizhong during the Zhizheng period of the Yuan Dynasty. Now it has been transformed into a Buddhist nunnery. The Yuanyuan Daoist Temple was destroyed during the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the site was changed into a Buddhist nunnery—this nunnery is the Daoguan Temple, which is the present-day Daoguan Zen Temple. Since its transformation from a temple to a nunnery, the incense at Daoguan Zen Temple has been thriving.
