Panoramic view from the temple towards Genting Highlands Resort.

After completing the building of Genting Highlands Resort, in 1975, which at that time was just a hotel with a small casino, Lim Goh Tong began construction of the temple. The late Lim began by gathering a group of friends many of whom were from his own Anxi clan and ancestry village of Penglai in Fujian Province of China and established the Chin Swee Temple Society. Leading by example, the late Lim began a donation drive by contributing a 28-acre land for the temple's construction. His companies Resorts World Bhd and Genting Berhad made a cash donation of RM8.1 million for the building fund.[1] The late Lim was elected as the Chairman of the society while his son, Lim Kok Thay was appointed as its Deputy Chairman.

The temple which was officially opened on 29 March 1994 by Ling Liong Sik (then the Malaysian Minister of Transport), overlooks lush green slopes of virgin forest with a view of the winding road ascending to Genting Highlands.[1][2] Construction of the temple was both arduous and dangerous due to the steep and rocky terrain, which made it impossible to utilise modern machinery for fundamental work such as piling.[3] As a result, the late Lim who acted as the planner, architect, designer, contractor and supervisor used manual labour for the digging of the foundation for the temple. He and his team manually dug holes of 80 to 100 ft in-depth for this tricky hill slope development. After all this tedious and time-consuming work the temple was completed in 18 years.[3] Despite adopting such a manual approach in challenging situations and risky environment, there were neither casualties nor work-related accidents reported during the whole construction period.[4]