The Temple was originally situated in the "Xingchang Block" within Chang'an city of the Tang Dynasty. The remains are at Tie Lumiao Village in the southern suburbs of today's Xi'an city. The temple was first built in 582 A.D.

According to the written records, Hui Guo, a disciple of the Indian monk lived in the temple and vigorously spread "the true great teachings". During the period 794-1192, Japan sent “learning monks" and "help-seeking monks" to China to study Buddhism. Six of the "eight famous monks sent to Tang China" were initiated into monk hood in the Qinglong Temple. Kukai, a famous monk, was one of them.

The monk Kukai studied Buddhism at this temple. Master Hui Guo gave him the Buddhist title Bian Zhao JInGang (Buddha's full-time warrior attendant). Kukai thus became the eighth master of Tantra Sect. Hui Guo also had the newly translated Buddhist scriptures and pictures of Tantra Sect masters copied for Kukai. He also had special religious instruments of Tantra Sect made for him. Monk Kukai made a great achievement in Buddhism, poem, Sanskrit, calligraphy and other aspects. After he returned to Japan in 806 A.D., he built Diamond Temple and, on the base of Chinese Buddhism, founded the Japanese Tantra sect.

Monk Kukai also brought back with him Chinese painting and drawing, sculpture, architecture, medicine and farming techniques, enriching the cultural exchanges between China and Japan. Having possessed remarkable talents in all the five script forms of Chinese calligraphy (regular script, cursive script, running script, clerical script and seal script),Kukai was thus called the “five-styled monk”. Referring to the Chinese cursive script, Kukai invented the system for the Japanese language ------Hiragana, which is still in use today.

The present temple was reconstructed in 1963. Memorial halls for the earlier monks and exhibition halls with some excavations displayed are all built in the Tang architectural style.
Green Dragon Temple is a place where the cherry blossoms can be enjoyed. Every year during May and June, an endless stream, of tourists comes to appreciate its beauty.