Temple of history inspires the future

The local government has attached great importance to the protection and promotion of the temple. Guo Kuo, Party secretary of Yixian, says they have been especially cautious in developing and protecting the surrounding areas of the Fengguo Temple, trying to maintain their original features instead of allowing excessive commercial activities.

They plan to build a museum to show more cultural relics of the temple that have been kept in storehouses and step up efforts in fire prevention as wooden structures are vulnerable to fire.

Local people have actively participated in promoting the temple. For example, Li, also a livestreamer with more than 450,000 followers on short-video platform Kuaishou, has been actively introducing cultural heritage in Yixian, especially Fengguo Temple. More people have volunteered to contribute to these efforts.

With these endeavors, the temple welcomes more and more visitors. In the past four months this year, the temple has received 203,000 visits, generating tourist revenue of more than 2 million yuan ($276,500), a 451 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to county authorities.

"Protection takes precedence over development and profit. If I have the opportunity to make it better, that would be wonderful. But if that's not possible, the priority is to avoid causing any damage and not let our ancestors' cultural legacy be destroyed," says Guo.