Irreverence Enlightenment In Yangzhou
3 min readYangzhou’s two major and most well-known tourist sites, Slender West Lake (shou xihu) and Daming Temple(daming si), are located mercifully close to each other and are best taken in one fell swoop. Providing most of Yangzhou’s tourist draw, they can be unbearably crowded on weekends yet out side of the peak hours they provide a marvelous window into Yangzhou’s fabled charms. It’s do it in style (and pay for it) there are tour eas ist b oats linking the sites. Modeled after to walk from one site to the other, but to dragon boats and replete with plush yellow interiors, they will cruise you up the lake and drop you off at the temple entrance.for peaceful strolls.(shou xihu) Modeled after the much larger and more famous West Lake in Hangzhou, the Slender West Lake makes up in charm what it lacks in size. Winding through a stretch of park area, it’s filled with water scenes and weeping willows.
Whimsical structures, meticulously crafted bridges and replicas of historic sites will keep your hands full for at least a few hours. There’s a white dagoba modeled after the one ng’s Beihai Park. are the park’s bridges, the most famous of which is the Five Pavilion Briabetter known are) built in 1757. Its imposing triple arches and yellow tiled roofs are one of the most often photographed sites in the park. A short stroll along the bank of the lake lake leads you to the dazzling, though relatively new, Twenty-Four Bridges(ershisi qido), named after the24 4 posts used in the bridge’s’ designo ese arches culminate in an apex so high that they nearly create a circle for boats to ass under. Though most of the ancient bridges are now replaced by new concrete ones, the bridge and canal atmosphere remain. favorite spot for photo-ops- is replica of Emperor Qianlong’s old fishing platform, which is located nearby. Local tales hold that Qianlong’s servants would dive into the canal and hook fish on his line so that he thinking Yangzhou had brought him luck, would allocate more funding to the town. Close by is the Happines Terrace(chui tai), with three moon gates each framing different scenes.
For those more concerned with eternity than with life’s fleeting joys, 0 6 mile (1 km) north of the Slender West Lake stands the Daming Temple. Perched on a hilltop and occupying vast grounds, this temple was originally built in the 5th century AD. Nowadays, it’s Deriencing a boom of patronag chom Japanese Buddhists. Its centerpiece is a massive memorial built in 1973 to honor Chinese monk Jian Zhen, a famed Tang dynasty scholar who uced Ritso Buddhism to Japan.hen was invited to teach in Japan and made five failed attempts at the crossing from China to Japan, each time being blown back to China by storms and gale force winds. On the sixth attempt, he successfully crossed, never to return. That he’s still highly revered in Japan can be seen in the Japanese funding of two stone lamps.
If you find all this whetting your appetite, there’s a wonderful Buddhist vegetarian restaurant on the temple grounds. Ask one of the monks to point you to it. The vast temple compound can be explored for the better part of a morning or afternoon. Not to be missed is the Fifth Spring Under Heaven(tianxia diwuquan), series of parks and gardens built in 1751 and located to the north of the temple itself. Surrounding a natural spring, its clear waters run through the grounds, interlacing the sites. Here you can sample waters from the spring or opt for a cup of local tea brewed with the same ethereal waters. Airy teahouses dot the grounds, beneath which lie pools filled with brightly colored fish.
