Qinglong (Green Dragon) Temple was the leading centre of esoteric Buddhism in the Tang capital, and is best known for being where the Japanese monk Kūkai studied for several years in the early 9th century before returning home to found the Shingon school of Japanese Buddhism. For that reason the temple draws a steady stream of Japanese pilgrims and is much better known abroad than the average Chinese tourist would expect.
The original buildings are gone; what stands today is a tasteful 1980s reconstruction on the original site, paid for largely by Japanese donors. The setting is genuinely lovely — a hilltop garden of cherry trees that explodes into pink for a couple of weeks in late March, when the entire city seems to come up here for photographs.