The Imperial Garden was dedicated to growing flowers for the emperor. Along the westbound route of Bauhinia Road, there is a Flower God Ferry Bridge connecting the two ends. Under the bridge is Flower God Lake. A stone tablet by the lake is engraved with the words "Since the Ming Dynasty established the capital, gardeners from all over the world have gathered here."

This is the inscription that the royal family cultivated famous gardens and precious flowers, which were extremely prosperous for a while."

This passage records the origin of Huashen Temple Village and its status in history as a royal garden.

According to Xia Bingliang, an old man who once lived in Huashen Temple Village, many people in the village knew that planting flowers in Huasheng Temple Village was an order given by Zhu Yuanzhang. He said that after Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing, he wanted his palace to have flowers all year round.

After decorating the palace, people were sent to find a place to cultivate flowers for the palace. The hilly area more than two kilometers outside the Zhonghua Gate in the south of the city was selected because the soil quality, climate and terrain were more suitable. This became the Huashen Temple Village.

However, the Huashen Temple Village had not yet received its name at this time. It was just a base dedicated to supplying flowers to the palace compound.

The name of Huashen Temple Village comes from a Flower Temple built here during the Qing Dynasty.

Future generations have been cultivating flowers for a living. The old site of the Flower Temple is now nowhere to be found. Ying Yang of Nanjing said in an article titled "The Earliest Flower Cultivating Village" that the old site of the Flower Temple was next to the Huasheng Temple Primary School.

Su Hongquan, an expert on literature and history, found records about the Flower Goddess Temple in the "Jianning County Chronicles". The county records say that the Flower Goddess Temple was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and covers an area of ??about 5 acres. There is a main hall and more than 10 side halls in the temple to worship the Flower God.

There are more than a hundred statues dedicated to the good deeds Bodhisattva with three heads and six arms.

In the square outside the temple gate is the most magnificent "Phoenix Stage" in the south of the city. Every year on Baihua's birthday on February 12th of the lunar calendar, opera is performed here for three days.

There are two wells behind the stage. Whenever singing, the reflection of the water surface and the sound of the well mouth make the actors' voices particularly beautiful. It was called "double well lining sound" at that time.

Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang assigned the task of growing flowers to their ancestors, the villagers of Huashen Temple Village have been cultivating flowers for a living for generations.

Later, although the flowers they grew could no longer be supplied to the palace, the flower farmers in Huashen Temple Village established a brand in Nanjing City. During the Qing Dynasty, Nanjing City began to smoke tea with fragrant flowers, and girls in the city also used to put a flower in their hair braids.

The fragrant flowers of the Flower Temple are fashionable.

Teacher Zhou Yuanyuan, who retired from Yuhuatai Middle School, said that during the Republic of China, the flowers at the Flower Temple were still very famous.

Later, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in 1952, flower farmers at the Flower Temple donated money to purchase an airplane to support the front line.

Ying Yang said in his article that the Flower Temple is famous for cultivating five traditional fragrant flowers: white orchid, jasmine, zhulan, gardenia, and Daidai. It also produced Rui, Xu, Mao, Zhai, Yin, Xia, and Wang.

, Li Bada comes from a family of flower farmers.

"Ma Xiangxing" started its business in the Huashen Temple. According to Mr. Yu Wen, a Nanjing writer, Nanjing's time-honored "Muslim Ma Xiangxing Restaurant" with a history of more than 150 years started in the Huashen Temple.

The founder of "Ma Xiangxing Restaurant" is Ma Sifa. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, Ma Sifa fled famine in Meng County, Henan Province and came to Nanjing. When he first came to Nanjing, he had no way to make a living, so he set up a stall on the roadside of the Huashen Temple. The stall specialized in porridge and other foods.

Most of his customers are flower farmers who go to the city early in the morning to sell flowers.

At that time, soldiers from the Taiping Army often came to his stall to eat porridge. Ma Sifa's porridge stall was called "Ma Hui Hui Rice Stall".

After Ma Sifa passed away, his son Ma Shengxiang inherited his father's business. After many years of business and savings, he opened a restaurant and named it Ma Xiangxing.

After the Revolution of 1911, Ma Xiangxing Restaurant moved to Mishi Street outside Zhonghuamen, then to Drum Tower, and in 2003 to its current location on Yunnan Road.

Selected as one of the "Forty-Eight New Jinling Scenes". From the day it became the Royal Garden, the Flower Temple has been closely associated with flowers. The colorful flowers not only bring income to the flower farmers, but also make this area famous far and wide.

Attractions.

The Nanjing Municipal Garden Bureau and many media organizations in Nanjing held a general vote to select the "Forty-eight New Jinling Scenes", and the Flower Goddess Temple was listed as one of the scenes.

Although today's "Flower God Jingyan" does not have so many flowers, walking in this area can still make people feel the indissoluble bond between this place and flowers. The roads here are named after flowers, and the curbs are flower patterns.

The bridge piers, bridge railings, and bridge body are also carved with flowers.

On the Flower God Ferry Bridge, there are four graceful "Flower Gods of the Four Seasons" lined up on both sides.