九华镇的三面环山、半圆斗状地形、串珠状池塘谷地的花岗岩地形视为第四纪古冰斗遗迹。九华山开山祖寺——化城寺于池塘（放生池）高坡处首建，后有月身宝殿、祇园寺、旃檀林、上禅堂等国家重点寺院，与顺串珠状池塘溪谷两岸线性展布的徽派楼宇民居构成九华老街，建筑庙宇寺院向山顶和平坦盆地周边扩展。这是展现地质地貌与寺院建筑融合的经典范例。

 Toruliform Pond Valley and Architectural Layout of Buddhist TemplesThe granitic landscape of Jiuhua Town is considered to be a relic of the Quaternary paleo-cirque characteristic of mountains in three sides and a semicircular bucket shape with a toruliform pond valley. As the oldest temple here, the Huacheng Temple was built up on the high slope of the pond, which is now a free life pond. Then the national key-protected temples like Huacheng Temple, Flesh Palace, Qiyuan Temple, Zhantan Forest, Shangchan Hall, etc. were built. Jiuhua Old Street is composed of these temples and Huizhou residential houses distributing along the banks of the toruliform pond valley. The temples have been gradually moved from the cirque’s center to the top of the mountain and neighboring terrain. It is a classic example which displays coordinating relationship between the Buddhist temple architecture and geological topography.