It is located on a small island south of the central stretch of the Slender West Lake Scenic Area near the Five-Pavilion Bridge and is primarily known for its Tibetan-style dagoba.

[2] Chinese paintings of Yangzhou during the 18th century make it clear that the temple complex's main entrance shifted from its east side, where it was more convenient for the city's foot traffic, to the west, where the island's main wharf was located, showing the increased use of boats on the Slender West Lake after it was thoroughly dredged for the Qianlong Emperor's repeated visits.

[9] In a third, the merchant Jiang Chun (江春, Jiāng Chūn) voluntarily paid one or more of the emperor's attendants to get a sketch of the Beijing dagoba, enabling his workers to erect a full replica overnight.

[9][10] Most fancifully, historians of the 1920s combined local legends with passages from Marco Polo's Travels to claim the "wine bottle" pagoda was a thousand years old and had been erected by the Iranic Alans.

[15] The temple's White Dagoba was inscribed along with the nearby Five-Pavilion Bridge as the 533rd Major Cultural Heritage Site under National-Level Protection added during the 6th round of nominations on 25 May 2006.