 |
| Felai Feng |
The first thing we went to see today was the Lingyin Temple. The weather today was a mixture of fog and rain, but it didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the Temple. The grounds outside the Temple complex consisted of lots and lots of carvings in the limestone rock, in the only limestone hill in the area, known as Feilai Feng (translated to mean ‘The Peak that Flew Here’). The lowest carvings in the rock face were ruined during the Cultural Revolution, but many higher carvings survived after being boarded over by the locals, and the boards painted with portraits of Chairman Mao. Many of the carvings date back to the 10th century, and they’re pretty amazing! Many are of different Gods, others of different manifestations of Buddha. Here we learnt that the fat, laughing Buddha is the Chinese Buddha, whereas the curly-haired slim Buddha came from India. As Buddhism came to China from India, both versions of him are depicted everywhere around China. Apparently if you go to India you will never see fat, laughing Buddha.
Into the Temple complex, we went through a very impressive gateway entrance into a large central courtyard where incense was being burned, and worshippers were lighting sticks, bowing in all 4 directions and praying. There were 3 or 4 large cauldrons in which lit sticks were burning, the smoke rising high above us, the smell wonderful and intense. We walked up large steps to The Great Buddha Hall which was absolutely huge, and the Chinese traditional ‘flying eave’ architectural trait was in full force here! This Temple actually only had one floor, while on the outside it looked like it had three. Inside The Great Buddha Hall was the hugest Buddha I have ever seen – he stands at 66feet high (20metres) made from camphor wood. It was very impressive. On either side of the Temple walls and around the back, there were very large statues (although not as big as Buddha here!) of the students of Buddha also known as Arhats. Around the back was a clay sculpture covering the entirety of the back panel at the back of Buddha, which depicted Buddha’s 500 Arhats.
 |
| Lingyin Temple Complex |
The next one was the Medicine Buddha Hall where there were yet more sculptures of Buddha and his Arhats. The 3rd one we went into was the Heaven Guardians Hall with more impressive and imposing sculptures. Despite the imposing statues, I thought it felt quite peaceful and I personally felt more peaceful in a Buddhist Temple than I do in a Christian Church.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to spend here, and most people would have liked to. We left and walked by Feilai Feng once more, but before we got back onto the coach, we went into the cave inside of which there was an aged sculpture which came out surprisingly well with the use of flash!
On our way to Longjing Village, Aaron told us this is the home of Longjing Tea and the home of his own family. Although it was misty by this point, it was wonderful to be completely surrounded by tea terraces and to see the workers picking them, wearing those conical hats we see everywhere in China. Each tea bush grows for 100 years, and is cut back every 25 years. After the ladies pick the leaved, the men dry them by hand in large pans which are heated up to as hot as 200 degrees C – and they use their bare hands with only the tealeaves between their skin and the hot pan.
Longjing Tea is a Green tea, and not have a bitter taste nor does it contain caffeine. Leaves are picked once a week, and the best tea is picked in the spring, the autumn picked tea is okay, while the summer picked tea is the lowest quality, and this is the tea which goes into the teabags we buy in supermarkets in the UK. Lipton is one company which uses the lowest quality tea from Longjing. This tea burns in the summer sun and cannot be dried properly – it is also caffeinated, whereas the autumn and spring picked tea leaves are caffeine free.
We went into a room to sit down and taste the tea. We were given a glass of leaves into which some hot water was poured. We learnt a few things about tea drinking customs in China, such as pouring the water from the teapot in 3 large, high pours means “You’re Very Welcome!” and hot tea for guests means they are welcome while cold or iced tea means the guests are not welcome at all.
We tasted the tea which was very nice, and then added orange peel and mulberries which changed the taste completely. We were showed how Green tea can cleanse the stomach by seeing a glass of hot water containing uncooked rice and iodine to show the state of the inside of our stomachs! Eeew! When Green tea leaves were added and the glass swirled, the water was clear!! The same was done with a capsule which also had the same effect. Mathew and I bought a tin between us. We were also shown a spectacular tea which was basically a flower – when you put it in a glass and pour hot water on it, it flowers and looks like a great party piece. And of course – you can drink the water as tea.
 |
| Longjing Tea |
Next, we went off to the Liuhe Pagoda, one of the oldest preserved wood and brick pagodas in China. We walked up just over 100 steps to the Pagoda, where there was a huge gate in front of it. Here, Aaron asked if anyone would like to climb the Pagoda inside, - a few did including Mathew. I decided not to, as I was put off by Aaron’s description of the steps! Mathew later told me that I would not have liked it inside, as the steps were uneven, half wood, half stone and very steep. Everyone else was asking me why I wasn’t going up so I had to explain about my clumsiness and frequency of falling over which got Jane slightly worried!
 |
| Liuhe Pagoda |
So Mathew and the others went inside, and I explored the grounds with everyone else who didn’t. Unfortunately we couldn’t go right to the top of the hill and see all the grounds as there was a lot of construction taking place. However, it was nice to explore the bits I did, taking photos of sculptures and pavilions.
 |
| West Lake |
After the Pagoda, we went for a 40 minute cruise on the West Lake, which I am sure would have been absolutely lovely if it had been sunny and clear, but today it was incredibly foggy and damp, and we really didn’t see much in the way of scenery at all. Most of the talk among the group was about how they could have checked the weather this morning and spent more time at the Temple and cancelled the boat trip. We returned to the hotel and rested for a while before having dinner on the 2nd floor. This time, we were split into two side rooms, but we had no idea why...! We realised here that the Chinese don’t really DO cold drinks. According to Chinese medicine, having an ice-cold drink is never a good thing for your body, it is more of a shock to the system. Most water is rarely refrigerated or contains ice. Hot water however is very good for the body. Not many of the Australians were too impressed by being given a beer which wasn’t icy cold!
In the evening, we went to see a show at the theatre. It was only about an hour but it was absolutely amazing. It was called “The Romance of the Song Dynasty”, and it was a cultural show including dancing, acrobatics, singing, drumming and lots of costumes. The production showed the history of China in the Song Dynasty, and also included a mixture of different minority people in China, what they are known for in history and their traditional dancing and costume style. The stage was used to its maximum potential and beyond, with moving graphics projected behind everyone on the stage, alcoves in the corners which revealed flags, decorations, musicians, dancers and little Buddhas. Red lanterns were lowered from the ceiling, water was used on stage and it even began raining a fine mist on the audience!! Overall it was a pretty fantastic feast for the eyes and ears, very spectacular and it made me finally feel like I was definitely in China!
 |
| Romance of the Song Dynasty |
Afterwards we walked around the grounds of the theatres which were lined with market stalls selling everything from food to crafts to tourist tat. It was a little like a theme park / fair ground, but it was nice to walk through because it was dark and all the lanterns were lit, giving the whole place an amazing welcoming and cozy glow. I would have liked to have spent just a little more time exploring here, but we had to go back to the coach and back to the hotel.
Tonight we bade farewell to Aaron our local guide in Hangzhou, and tomorrow we would be heading back to Shanghai where we would stay for the next two days in the same hotel as before.
No comments:
Post a Comment