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Published: January 12th 2009
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temples and things
Leifeng pagoda which is right on west lake Pagodas and temples abound in the Hangzhou are, Buddism is very much alive and well in some parts of China.
One of the most famous must sees right in Hangzhou is the LeiFeng Pagoda and surrounding temples. This is a short walk from the hostel and can be seen towering in the sky day and night.
It has been rebuilt numerous times, with the last rebuilding in the 1950’s with only the original 977 foundations and bricks left on display. This 6-storey pagoda is climbable with a series of escalators, stairs and lifts to take you to the top, for a fee of 30Yuan. You get an excellent view of the lake and the scenery around it, and each storey has the history of the pagoda carefully carved, painted or written, a different style for each level.
The temples in this area were well patronized with much selling and burning of incense, very devout worship and each temple had carefully set out cushions to kneel on and altars for putting food or gifts as offerings to the Gods.
The Lingyin Temple is slightly out of town you can get there on the Y2 bus run which does
temples and things
A combination of escalators, stairs and lifts take you right up to the 6th level a circuit of the lake and city.
The Y2 run which ends at the temple and the train station can take a while to do the circuit as we found out, 2 hours in fact due to the heavy traffic and abundance of people celebrating the holidays.
Get off when everyone else does at the bus terminal looking place and follow the crowds up the pathway towards the temple. You need to pay and get a ticket, it’s all signposted and easy to find. Once you go through the ticket area, on your left along the walkway to the temples are the stone carvings in the rocks with paths right along side them. There are 470 of these carvings dating from the 10th to 14th centuries including the famous laughing Buddha. Most of them are touchable still; although some are showing signs of wear from the many rubbings of them by visitors and devotees.
The temple itself is a series of many, each to a different looking Buddha, all lovingly looked after by the monks and I suppose an army of helpers. Quite switched on monks with Nike beanies and mobile phones! The day we chose to visit
temples and things
View from the top and The west Lake was THE most important day in the Buddhist calendar when all who came would receive free food from the monks. A special bowl of a soup like dish of rice and beans was being distributed with a line up of an hour to get this. We asked a couple to tell us about the food as we could see it was special.
Behind the temple area are about 400 stone steps up to a series of temples high on the mountain. Those of you who know me know I hate climbing stairs but yes I did climb them, and for another 10 Yuan got to see the temples on this peak.
A small pilgrimage of three ladies was making there way up the stairs when we were coming down. On every third step up they stopped, bowed with hands in a prayer pose holding their lit incense sticks. 3 seems to be an important number, with people bowing three times to the directions of North, south, east and west. This form of prayer was to be seen at each temple, done so publicly but with so much devotion. We felt intrusive taking photos.
There was major rebuilding going
temples and things
Easy to get a view of what is what from up here on at the temples with donkeys used to transport building materials up the steps.
We took a cable car ride to the top of North Peak and another series of temples. When you buy your tickets for the temple, instead of going left to the temple, go right and to the ticket office in the courtyard of a housing area. This is a very long cable ride, quite high, with more steps and more temples at the top, quite chilly and with good views if the day is clear.
I did get very annoyed at the beggars at the top of North Peak, right in the temple area. These were the only ones we saw all day and they really played on people sympathies, showing off their maimed limbs in a very affronting fashion, shrewdly pocketing any money given out of the cup it was put in. Goodness knows how they got up there, climbed up the mountain maybe?
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