A canopy of dense shade once cooled the earth at No. 51 Huarong 3rd Road. The historical banyan tree that gave the Green Banyan Ancient Temple its name has vanished. Today, the Qing Dynasty architecture stands as a cool refuge of blue brick and green glazed roof tiles.

Ming Dynasty villagers laid the first red bricks of the adjacent Carriage and Horse Gate in 1500 to secure their borders. They drew sweet water from the clear well outside, a daily rhythm fossilized in the surviving stone. Inside the temple, early artisans shaped granite brackets into blooming flowers and human figures. Generations of stonemasons left their distinct signatures on the pillar bases, carving them into melon-ribbed, inverted basin, and protruding flange shapes.

The 18.4-meter-wide facade opens into a 14.6-meter-deep sanctuary beneath a flush gable roof and horse-head fire-sealing walls. Two stone lions guard the entrance. Their bases carry a carved dedication from two distant donors, He Ruibang of Panyu and Xie Naihui of Changle, permanently linking their names to this Rongli community shrine.

Five stone steles rest embedded in the interior walls. These markers span from the Hongzhi reign of 1500 to the Guangxu era of 1895. Centuries of humid air and burning incense have smoothed the engraved characters into illegible shadows. The blurred stone holds the lost wages of Qing laborers and the names of forgotten patrons who funded the 1895 restoration.

The temple houses altars to the North Deity, the Earth God, and Tianhou. Designated a Foshan Municipal Cultural Relic in 2006, the site breathes with contemporary devotion. Every May, neighborhood groups gather at the nearby lake. Young men shed their shoes, tie towels around their waists, and plunge into the water to the accelerating beat of drums. They raise the sunken wooden boats from the mud for the annual Shunde Awakening the Dragon ceremony, pulling the ancient spirit of the temple directly into the present current.