Located in Longhua Town, Xuhui District, the Longhua Temple is a famous thousand-year-old ancient temple at the south end of the Yangtze River. It has the longest history and the largest scale among Buddhist monasteries in the history of Shanghai. 

The temple occupies an area of more than 20,000 sq.m. with a floor space of 5,219 sq.m. It is said that Longhua Temple and Longhua Pagoda were builtin 5th Chiwu year of King Sun Quan of the Wu State during the Three Kingdoms Period (242 A.D.). 

There are four adjoining halls in the temple: the Grand Hall, The Three Sages Hall, Hall of Maitreya and the Abbot Chamber. On the sides are the bell tower and the drum tower, arhats hall and preaching hall. 

Located by the side of the temple, also built during the Three Kingdoms Period, the Longhua Pagoda is the largest one among the 16 pagodas in Shanghai. It is 40-m tall with 7 stories in octagonal shape, with brick and wood structure. There are eaves on every story and bells hanging on the corners and corridors around the body. The modelling is graceful and appealing and the architecture is magnificent and exquisite, with precious Buddist musical instruments and beautiful landscaping. 

There are a large number of valuable inscriptions written by celebrated calligraphers. Gui Mao of the Qing Dynasty praised the bell chimes in Longhua Temple as 'better than the bell chimes heard at midnight in Hanshan Temple' (The Longhua evening bell chimes on New Year's Day ring in the new and ring out the old.) 

It is now a tourist market. Every New Year Eve thousands of Japanese and Southeast Asian tourists come here to listen to the bell chimes. On the third day of every third lunar month, the temple fair, which has a history of more than 400 years, will be held here as one of well-known folk custom festivities.