The pagoda is twenty-one kilometers southeast of Fuzhou on Luoxing Mountain at the confluence of the Minjiang and Wulong rivers. This is Mawie Port. The water is deep and flows slowly, thus it is suitable for ships to anchor, but the port area was also strewn with reefs and it was therefore necessary to build the towering pagoda to serve as a lighthouse for ships coming into and going out of the port.
The pagoda, first built in the Northern Song Dynasty, was destroyed in an earthquake and rebuilt between 1621 and 1627 in the Ming Dynasty. The present pagoda is the rebuilt one.
The octagonal, seven-storeyed stone pagoda is 31.5 meters high. It towers over the port. A lot of lantern niches still remain on the outer walls of the pagoda. They indicate that the pagoda served as a beacon for ships. No indication of a role in Buddhism has been found.
The pagoda underwent more repairs in 1964, Luoxing Mountain Park has been opened, adding grandeur to the pagoda.
