Avenida do Coronel Mesquita and Pou Chai Temple (Pou Chai Sim Un)

The Pou Chai Temple is located at this avenue, whose founder, Monk Dashan, was a follower of the Caodong School of the Southern school of Zen Buddhism.The Avenida do Coronel Mesquita, measuring 906 metres long and varies from 9 metres to 10 metres in width, is a straight avenue that runs from the intersection of Avenida do Almirante Lacerda and Avenida do General Castelo Branco in the northwest to the intersection of Estrada de Ferreira do Amaral, Estrada de Cacilhas and Avenida de Sidónio Pais in the southeast. It is one of the most important traffic arteries in the central of Macao Peninsula.

In 1918, the Macao government named the newly built road in front of Pou Chai Temple at Mong-Ha district as Avenida do Coronel Mesquita. Its name was already documented in 1925.

Being a Chinese Zen Buddhist structure of unique and spacious layout rarely found in Hong Kong and Macao, the Pou Chai Temple is also one of the history-laden temples of Macao. Gao Jianfu, founder of the Lingnan School of Painting, had painted the “Ink Orchid” for Monk Huiyin, the ex-abbot of the Temple. Gao by then had a dozen of students learning painting with him.