Advertisement
Published: July 15th 2015
Edit Blog Post
“Tianning Temple of Jinhua”
With a late start, because we needed to grab breakfast at around noonish,
Terry and myself set off in the light rain to our new destination. We used a taxi since it was safer than navigating the rain slicked roads of Jinhua on an E-bike. The ride felt long to reach Tianning Temple of Jinhua (金华天宁寺) but we soon discovered we were not as far off the beaten path as we thought we were. This temple was definitely inactive. As a typical tourist attraction, it held none of the flashiness other places use to draw in the crowd. It was in disrepair and time had not been kind to this small place. I must admit that at first we ended next door to the temple in the yard of a hotel. The older structures of this area had mislead us slightly but made for good external shots of the area where the Tianning Temple sat.
The front half was clean and appeared tended to for guest visiting the site. It was still time-warned and minor damage was noticeable. The plain austere look of it was natural when considering what it had
been. The bell stood inside with the “Guardian” top-handle unattached to the roof. It was sad for me to see this great bell used only as a door guard now. We walked around the main structures to visit the smaller back building. This is were the neglect of this serene place showed itself fully. Broken widows let us glance into dust covered rooms half filled with the trappings of normal life during the active time of this small temple.
All this history locked away in the dust of building slowly collapsing onto itself was a mild insult in my mind. The rational half of my mind could understand and even grudgingly accept that not everything can be salvaged from the grips of time. But I still felt it was wrong to allow such items to rust or rot away in a building that was falling in upon them. This scene repeated itself twice more in the untouched back and side buildings around the main structure. The small garden area was overrun with weeds and bushes as nature reclaimed it. Stone slabs and other debris from the surrounding buildings piled in uneven lumps in the back courtyard beyond
the garden. From the look, we had strayed into sections not normally viewed by the public. We slowly made our way back down to the lion statue guarded gate house to emerge on the street once more.
“Wuzhou Park”
We had spied a park across the road which now drew our attention fully. With a sense of regret and disappointment, we crossed the rain splattered street. While Terry asked the locals what park this was, I slowly moved forward taking pictures in the misting rain. He informed me, much to his own confusion, that we were in Wuzhou Park (婺州公园). I didn't understand his confusion at first but as we explore the park in the rain, I realized where we were. The Wuzhou park spans the other side of the river by the mysterious tea house I had discovered on my first solo day.
It was a slow walk and not because we were busy taking pictures. The rain had intensified since we had fist entered Tianning Temple and now had both of us feeling weighted down by our slowly soaked clothing. As far as my own rain-gear at this moment
went, the hat was taking the brunt of the rain during this little storm. Most of the photos from that day were blurred by rain and the mist-like wall of the falling rain around us. I did no get as much of a chance that day in comparison to a few day later to take pictures but I still tried my best.
The park itself is not very different from many of the other Yiwu River bank parks I had already witnessed. A good mix of trees, bushes, and flowers lined the multiple pathways. The pathways themselves was the big difference here. Etched stones slabs along the path and on the edges of the benches marked this place as a separate entity than the other parks. The ornate images of animals (both real and mythical), flowers, trees, and scenic vistas gave a feel of wonder to this simple park. Other attractions (such as the fighter plane) in the form of statues dotted the wider parts of this park. Small streams, ponds, and walking bridges gave the more greener sections a good mixture of walking paths. As you approached the bridge that would easily lead us home, the
park thinned out to being mostly wide stone-slabbed walkways.
The rain slowed as we reached the bridge. We crossed under it and continued along the small ending section of Wuzhou Park where lights blazed in the gathering darkness. Our walk ended at a restaurant boat to eat a very late supper and wait out the ending of the rain. It was at this point we discussed my future plans and trips over beer and hot-pot food. I still didn't fully understand why Terry had been confused about finding Wuzhou Park and he seemed unwilling to discuss it at that time. I let it be as I explained what my last two weeks in Jinhua would be (or attempted to be) before I set off for Shenzhen to reach Hong Kong. It was the only problem with having just a Tourist Visa (L Visa). Every 60 days I needed to step out of mainland China for about 4 to 6 hours just to stay in good standing with the government that allowed me to visit their country. I accepted this restriction knowing full well just how much I can visit in 60 days. We slowly made our way
back home: me to my hotel room and Terry to his small apartment. I would have a few days before disappearing with Terry to visit the place he first stayed when he came to China: Wuhan. After that, maybe one last chance to explore Jinhua before I was off on my own again to reach Hong Kong before my limited time ran out on me.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0349s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Terry
non-member comment
yo yo yo
a well written entry, friend. Always looking forwward to see more entries. Arrived safely in my destination and will have some time to finish off the entries i have missed publishing. All is well.