The Jade Buddha Temple (Yufo Si) was built during the troubled reign of the Qing Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908) and burned down after having been occupied during the 1911 revolution. The temple takes its name from the original two white jade Buddha statues that abbot Hui Gen brought with him from Burma—a sitting statue about 1.95 meters (almost 6 1/2 feet) in height and a smaller reclining Buddha.

Today's temple also contains a third, even larger Buddha from Singapore. During the 1911 upheaval, the original jade Buddha statues were removed for safety. Between 1918 and 1928, the Jade Buddha Temple we see today was constructed on Anyuan Lu in the architectural style of the Song Dynasty. Composed of several separate buildings—the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Main Hall, the Hall of the Sleeping Buddha and the Hall of the Jade Buddha—it is a working temple in which monks live, study and perform rites.

In addition to serving the faithful on a daily basis, the temple houses the Shanghai Buddhist Institute, in which many ancient statues, paintings, a complete set of Qing-era Buddhist scriptures and over 7,000 other rare scriptures are kept.