Shanghai's historic temple on the move

PHOTOS: XINHUA
PHOTOS: XINHUA
PHOTOS: XINHUA

Work has started on the delicate task of moving the main hall of Shanghai's famed 135-year-old Yufo Temple, also known as the Jade Buddha Temple, as part of a years-long renovation project. Over the next two weeks, the 18m-tall building - together with the three huge Buddha statues it houses - will be moved 30.66m northwards, Xinhua news agency reported. The project will more than double the size of the main square to 1,000 sq m to accommodate more worshippers as well as address fire and other safety concerns. Built in 1918, the wood-and-brick main hall was expected to be moved by 2m by the end of yesterday, the first day of the shift, and by about 6m daily afterwards. The hall will also be raised by 0.3m every day to a total of 1.05m for "security reasons", Chinese media reported. The temple, which is named after two jade Buddha statues shipped from Myanmar, is one of Shanghai's most popular attractions with 1.5 million visitors a year, a third of them from abroad.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on September 03, 2017, with the headline Shanghai's historic temple on the move. Subscribe