The Guoqing Temple Ruins Park in Juegang town, Rudong is unveiled. [Photo/WeChat account: rudongfb]

The Guoqing Temple Ruins Park in Juegang town, Rudong, Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province recently opened to the public.

Guoqing Temple is an important site on the East China Sea route of the ancient Maritime Silk Road.

An aerial view of the Guoqing Temple Ruins Park. [Photo/WeChat account: rudongfb]

Founded by the eminent monk Xingman of the Tendai Sect in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the temple has a history of more than 1,200 years.

In a much-told story of the Buddhist cultural exchange between China and Japan, in 838, the 13th Japanese delegation got into trouble off the coast near Juegang town and left the ship to take a rest in the town. The Japanese monk Ennin accompanied the delegation to seek Dharma in the west and his first stop was Guoqing Temple.

In 2017, the temple and ancient river channels from the Tang and Song dynasties (960-1279) were discovered during a salvage archaeological excavation of the Guoqing Temple ruins. More than 1,000 cultural relics, including porcelains, stone sculptures, and building components were found over a 13,700-square meter area.

In 2018, the Guoqing Temple Ruins were listed as one of the applicants along the Maritime Silk Road in China for a World Cultural Heritage designation, and one year later, they were recognized as a cultural relic under the protection of the Jiangsu Provincial Government.