The Great Buddha slowly said: Once there were four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the eminent monk Tan Guang traveled to the foot of Shicheng Mountain, where he found the environment serene and thus established the Hidden Peak Temple for his cultivation, marking the beginning of the Great Buddha Temple. At this time, it had been only 150 years since Buddhism was introduced to China, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties became the first climax of Buddhist development. Xinchang Great Buddha Temple witnessed the earliest Buddhist climate in the southern region. More than a hundred years later, the monk Seng Hu arrived at Shicheng Mountain, saw the Buddha's light, and vowed to carve a ten-zhang (about 33 meters) stone Buddha out of the mountain. After three generations of eminent monks and more than 30 years, it was completed in the fifteenth year of the Tianjian era of the Southern Dynasties' Liang. After many changes, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Great Buddha was re-gilded and a five-story cave eave pavilion was built around it, and it was renamed the Great Buddha Temple. (Unfortunately, photography is not allowed) Another ancient heritage site within the scenic area, the 'Thousand Buddha Zen Monastery', has 1075 Buddha statues carved into the rock wall, which were created earlier than the Great Buddha. These statues are very small in size, and most of them have become indistinct, but as early Buddhist statues and rare cave art in the southern region, they possess extremely high cultural value and are known as the 'Dunhuang of the Yue Kingdom'. The Great Buddha and the Thousand Buddha statues are collectively listed as national key cultural relics. The Reclining Buddha Hall, built in 2007, is a contemporary cave temple carved into the cliff with seven bays of imitation wooden stone cave eaves, housing Asia's largest reclining Buddha, which exudes grandeur and compassion. It will also be a spectacular ancient site a hundred years from now. Prajna Valley was originally a quarry pit left from the Ming Dynasty, which in recent years has been developed into a landscape combining waterfalls and Buddha statues, a very successful redevelopment project of low-value ancient sites. The cleverly designed route allows visitors to suddenly see the statues after passing through a narrow stone cave, bringing a sense of mystery and solemnity. The stone archway at the entrance of the scenic area uses shuttle columns, one dou and three sheng (architectural measurements), swallowtail-shaped brackets, hip-and-gable roofs without uplifts, and large-radius chiwei (roof ornaments), imitating the architectural style from the Han to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, to reflect the era when the Great Buddha was carved. The scenic area also features open-air Buddha head statues, Qiguang Jingyuan, petrified wood forests, and other landscapes worth exploring in detail.