Dong Nai City · VN

Buu Phong Temple

Perched on Bình Điện mountain in the Bửu Long quarter of Dong Nai City (historic Bien Hoa), Buu Phong Temple—Bửu Phong Cổ Tự—is one of the oldest Vietnamese Buddhist pagodas in the Dong Nai region, a moss-roofed ancient monastery credited with marking the very first presence of Vietnamese settlers on this southern land. Reach it by climbing a stone staircase of roughly a hundred steps through trees and sculptural boulders, a climb that has made the hillside a quiet pilgrimage and sightseeing destination for centuries. What makes it special is the meeting of two cultures in brick and tile: founded by legend as a humble thatched hermitage in the early 17th century and rebuilt by Chinese refugees around 1679, the temple fuses Hoa (Chinese) structural tradition with Nguyen-era Vietnamese decorative art. The main hall, its porcelain-mosaic facade, the stupa enshrining Buddha relics, giant open-air Buddha statues and the storied Gia Long well together give visitors a compact journey through southern Vietnam's religious and pioneering past.