Jinshan Temple locates on the top of Jinshan Hill in the center of Jinshan Park. Jinshan Park is a national 4-A tourist attraction and gains its fame mainly because of Jinshan Temple, which enjoys a history of more than 1,600 years and has the most places of interests with beautiful scenery as well as legends and stories. The most famous legend about Jinshan Temple is the "Tale of White Snake". In the tale the white snake changed herself into a beautiful girl, named Bai Suzhen, after thousands of years' asceticism and married a man Xu Xian. A monk named Fahai tricked Xuxian to become a monk to separate the couple but Xu Xian escaped from Jinshan Temple. Fahai then confined Baisuzhen under the Jinshan Temple and caused a big fighting as "Water wraps Jinshan Temple". Now the story goes on and spreads widely.
Jinshan Temple literarily means Gold Hill Temple, because gold was found in the mine of the hill 1,600 years ago. Now the Jinshan Temple has been the symbol of Zhenjiang. It is believed that the temple was built in Western Jin Dynasty and called Zexin Temple. The temple initially achieved its popularity in the Tang Dynasty, and has since then been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.
Jinshan Temple is a holy Buddhist place. The architectures there are harmonious with its surroundings as halls, palaces and pavilions built in layer on the slope of the hill. Travelers can see rows of temple halls and houses in the temple's enormous compound connected together. So the local people say that "the temple wraps the hill".
In Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi visited the temple and scripted the name of the temple, which made the temple more prestigious.
Jinshan Temple can be visited anytime of the year with the Mid-Autumn Festival as the best, which attracts most tourists from home and abroad.