At the entrance to the Foguangyan scenic area in Chishui Danxia, the visitor centre accommodates reception, exhibitions, tea drinking and rest within a narrow gorge. Two groups of spaces respond to its contrasting edges: a gallery extends along the stream, while stone rooms are embedded in terraces at the foot of the cliff. Stepped platforms follow the slope, placing arrival and pause within the landscape.

On the cliff side, seven small stone units combine reception, exhibition and tea rooms with water courts, coloured-light courts and tree courts. Enclosed rooms alternate with open courts, bringing visitor facilities into close contact with places to look and rest. Dense stone columns recall the forest, and undulating roofs echo the mountains. Steps and building forms also retain a ceremonial quality associated with the natural cave, once a place for offerings and Buddhist worship. Landscape and cultural memory become part of an everyday place of retreat.

Rainwater connects roof, court and ground. Roof channels feed courtyard pools, which overflow into branching waterways below, making drainage a visible and audible rain landscape. Coloured roof apertures correspond with coloured glazing in the walls; light enters the rooms and falls onto water, extending colour through reflections. Trees, water sounds and changing weather shape the atmosphere of the courts, bringing the natural changes of the gorge into moments of rest.

The building uses Danxia sandstone carried down from the mountain by floods. Collected from the river, the easily cut stone is sized for paving, steps, columns and roofs, and assembled using masonry techniques familiar to local workers. Material from the landscape returns as construction at the foot of the mountain. Moisture, sunlight and moss gradually alter its surfaces, allowing the new building to continue changing with its setting.