Ayuwang Temple, in the hills fifteen kilometres east of central Ningbo, is one of the five great Buddhist temples of the Song dynasty and one of the oldest continuously operating temple sites in China, with a history claimed to stretch back to the third century CE. The temple is named for Ashoka, the Indian Buddhist emperor whose missionaries reportedly brought relics to China; the stupa in the main compound purportedly contains one of those relics.
The temple complex is substantial and extensively forested, with old camphor and ginkgo trees in the approach avenues. The main halls are active and the resident monastic community is large enough that the monastery feels genuinely inhabited rather than curated. Ayuwang and Tiantong Temple together can be visited in a full day by renting a car or joining a local tour — the two temples are about eight kilometres apart in the same mountain range east of the city.