Xuanwu Mountain is located in Jieshi Town, Lufeng City. Yuanshan Temple is located at the southern foot of Xuanwu Mountain, covering an area of ??15 hectares. It is a religious activity site integrating Buddhism and Taoism; it is also a long-standing and famous place in eastern Guangdong. There are places of interest at home and abroad, especially in Southeast Asia, and it is the center of belief for the Hokkien people. It is now listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong Province.
Yuanshan Temple was originally the Xuanwu Temple. It was built in the first year of Jianyan of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 AD) and has a history of 870 years. The temple is dedicated to the "God of North Pole Zhenwu Xuantian" and is in the same line as the Ancestral Temple of Wudang Mountain in Hubei and the Ancestral Temple of Foshan. Additional statues of Buddha including Sakyamuni, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Maitreya Buddha, Patriarch Bodhidharma and others are enshrined. In the 22nd year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1389), Jieshi built a guard and later built a city. Because there are 7 huge strange-shaped rocks in Xuanwu Mountain, the arrangement looks like the Arctic Ursa Minor.
Xuanwu is the god of the North Pole, and was originally named Xuanwu Temple. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the temple was greatly expanded (to its current scale) and renamed Xuanshan Temple. The temple has a reasonable layout and rigorous structure. It has a mountain gate, front hall, middle hall, main hall and side halls, as well as 99 halls and monks' rooms. At the same time, a stage was built in front of the temple, Fuxing Pavilion (today's Fuxing Pagoda) was built behind the temple, and a Jian Pavilion (today's Simei Pavilion) was built on "Qilongyan". The entire building group is in the courtyard style, with large scale, rigorous structure and colorful decoration. It has the grand northern style of high-ridged cornices and vertical buckets and overlapping arches, as well as the delicate southern features such as carved beams and painted buildings and Chaoshan traditional porcelain tiles. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, in order to avoid the taboo of Xuanye's name, "Xuan" was changed to "Yuan", and it was called Yuanshan Temple. Starting from the first generation of monk Jingming, Yuanshan Temple has been passed down to 27 generations (generations), and all generations have been authentic Buddhists. During the heyday of Yuanshan Temple (the Qianlong and Jiaqing dynasties of the Qing Dynasty), there were hundreds of monks in the temple. There are more than 70 pagodas (tombs) of monks such as "Xiangshi", "Kama", and deceased monks and novice monks located about 2km north of Yuanshan Temple.
There is a couplet on the gate of Yuanshan Temple: "The whole body has achieved ninety-nine incarnations, and the jade wish for longevity is thirty-three." It means that the third day of the third month and the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar are the two birthdays of "God Yuantian" every year. There are many historic sites at the foot of Xuanwu Mountain, such as the ancient Acropolis ruins, Qian'ao ancient fort, Guangde Zen Temple, etc. This is because Jieshi is located between the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong, and is at the entrance of Huizhou and Chaozhou counties. It has become the coastal defense hub of Guangdong East Road. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty built an acropolis here, which is as famous as Tianjin Wei and Shenyang Wei. Therefore, Xuanwu Mountain is not only a religious holy place in Fujian and Guangdong, but also the military command center for coastal defense in eastern Guangdong.
Currently, the Xuanwushan Tourist Area has Xuanwushan Hotel, Longquan Hotel, Jieshiwan Hotel, Xuanwushan Vegetarian Restaurant, Restaurant and other service facilities. Recently constructed are the Museum of Historical Relics and the Art Museum of Culture and Crafts; in the Houshan Garden Community are scenic spots such as "Nanchang Heritage", "Taixu Fantasy Land", and "Yuanshan Youhuang".