This talk will introduce the process of urban temple revival since the 1980s by focusing on the examples of the 8 temples in the city proper of Shanghai and their interactions with state-planned urbanization since the 1980s when they were first returned to religious use after being destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The reopened Buddhist temples are compelled to find new niches when they encounter changed patterns of religious and urban identity brought on by neighborhood changes. It is challenged to find new ways of cooperating in its neighborhood and in the wider city. Under these circumstances, Buddhist revival is chiefly dependent on three key factors: the ability of religious agents to engage cooperatively with local state forces; productive collaboration between religious leaders and commercial interests; and, most crucially, the vision and determination of the temple’s abbot.