Chenxiang Pavilion

Chenxiang Pavilion (沉香阁, Chénxiāng Gé) is a small Buddhist nunnery on Chenxiangge Road, in the Old City of Huangpu District. The name means roughly “aloeswood pavilion”, after a Guanyin statue carved from fragrant wood that the temple was built to hold.

The story starts in 1600. Chinese Wikipedia, citing the Tongzhi-era county gazetteer, says a Ming official named Pan Yunduan built a pavilion at his own residence for a Guanyin statue of aloeswood, said to have been fished from a wrecked boat. English Wikipedia simply says he founded the temple that year. The Ming pavilion fell down before the dynasty ended.

The temple you can visit is an early-19th-century rebuilding, and the sources disagree on its dates. Chinese Wikipedia gives 1801 for the first rebuilding, with Pan’s descendants giving the front land in 1805 and the Mahavira Hall following in 1814. English Wikipedia says the present temple was founded in 1815 as Ciyun Chan Temple (慈云禅院). Both agree the Qing-style layout survives: a stone gateway, then three courtyards on one axis, running through the Four Heavenly Kings Hall and the Mahavira Hall to the Guanyin hall at the back. The site covers 2,378 square metres.

In 1943 the monk Yingci began lecturing on the Huayan sutra here, and he stayed to write and teach; a memorial hall to him stands beside the central axis. The Cultural Revolution did the worst damage. The statues, including the original aloeswood Guanyin, were destroyed and the buildings became a factory. Worship resumed in 1983, and the temple was named a national key Buddhist temple that year. A new Guanyin statue went in during 1992, when it became a nunnery, and restoration was finished in 1994. English Wikipedia says the present carved Guanyin, about a metre high, was given by Hong Kong devotees.

The temple has been a Shanghai municipal protected site since 1959 and was listed nationally in 1996, grouped with Yu Garden. No official page for hours or tickets was found, so check before you go. It is a working nunnery, so keep voices low.