Hangzhou forests

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Unfortunately my second day in Hangzhou was rained off. I spent the day shopping and enjoyed a cup of tea in one of the many tea houses around the lake. In town I spotted a film crew for some reason filming a tea house with the traditional tea pouring ceremony, metal tea pots with long spouts that are placed on the head and then poured into a tiny cup.

The weather fortunately improved to dull with light drizzle, good enough for sight seeing around the lake. I ambled across the "broken bridge". It is one of the poetic scenic spots. The bridge is not broken. It is called the broken bridge because the snow melts here first giving a broken appearance. The bridge leads to the Bai causeway and Gushan Island. On the island I most enjoyed the seal engravers society which is spread out on the hillside. Nature and the calligraphy were pleasantly mixing along with a pagoda and pavilions. A little further around the lake is the mausoleum of General Yue Fei. He was famous in the 12th century in the Song dynasty. Although the displays were mostly in Chinese I could tell that the battles Yue Fei was involved with have become legendary, perhaps a little like our 1066 and all that. Yue Fei was betrayed and there are bronze kneeling statues of the four betrayers near the tomb looking very forlorn behind iron railings.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Lingyin Temple is in a large forested area. In the area near the temple there is a collection of caves with Buddhist sculptures from the Song and Yuan dynasties. The statues are also carved on the rock face on the route to the temple. These felt like real caves, damp, dark and with creepers and moss. The statues on the rock face were also merging with nature with sprouting green everywhere. The photo shows one group of the statues - the laughing Buddha.Nature was also a big feature in the Lingyin temple with large trees and tall bamboo. The guidebooks mention the 20 metre Buddha statue in the temple. It was impressive, but for me the surprise in the temple was that it had a genuine feeling of spirituality, rather than just being a tourist site. There was a huge hall full of arhats, not just the usual eight, but five hundred! The hall is modern and the sculpture very special, but it was the sheer number of arhats, each with its own name and symbol that was very memorable. Another surprise, not mentioned in the guidebooks were two old (960) marble pagodas (second photo). They are carved to resemble a wooden building (eaves). As well as the spiritual side of these forests I also enjoyed an energetic climb up the hill beyond the carvings, but no good viewas from the top.

Supper was at a very pleasant Taiwanese restaurant/tea house (cod).

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