Shaolin Temple is situated at Shaoshi Mountain in the west of Songshan Mountain ranges, in Dengfeng City, Henan Province. Against the backdrop of Wuru Peak of Shaoshi Mountain, it is surrounded with forests and hills as its natural defense. The “Shao” in “Shaolinsi” refers to “Shaoshi Mountain”; lin means “forest” and si “temple”. The name of Shaolin Temple literally means “temple in the woods of Shaoshi Mountain”.
White Horse Temple (Baima Temple) is located 12 km away from Luoyang City. Established by the Han Dynasty in 68 AD when Buddhism started to spread, this temple is believe to be the first Buddhist temple built by the government in China.
History & Story
According to historical records, Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty dreamed of a golden man flying above the courtyard. After he woke up, the emperor sent Cai Yin and Qin Jing as envoys to western regions to invite Buddha and learn Buddhism. The two envoys underwent much hardship and met two eminent Indian dignitaries She Moteng and Zhu Falan on the way. Cai Yin and Qin Jing came back to Luoyang City with the two monks, and a white horse carrying the sutras.
Emperor Ming ordered the construction of the temple to the north of the imperial road outside the Xiyong Gate of Luoyang City. The White Horse Temple, built after the style of Indian temples, was the place for She Moteng and Zhu Falan to translate Buddhist sutras and write sermons. In order to memorize the white horse for its carrying back of the sutras, the temple was named the White Horse Temple.
White Horse Temple was regarded as the “originating court” and the “cradle of Chinese Buddhism” by the Buddhist disciples. Since its establishment, White Horse Temple has experienced vicissitudes of centuries. It was rebuilt for several times, in which the restoration during the reign of Emperor Wu Zetian was especially notable in its large scale.
Features
White Horse Temple is a rectangle courtyard facing south. The gate of the White Horse Temple was built in Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and it is three arches side by side. Covering a total area of 40, 000 square meters, the temple mainly consists of Tianwang Hall, Great Buddha Hall, Daxiong Hall, Jieyin Hall, Qingliang Terrace and Pilu Pavilion, which are all distributing along the north-south central axis.
Visitor Information
Cost: RMB35/person
Opening hours: 7:30 am-17:30 pm
Longmen Shiku, or Dragon Gate Grottoes, commonly called the Longmen Grottoes, are a series of caves carved out of the mountainside along the Yi River that house tributes to Buddhism. The grottoes and niches of Longmen contain the largest and most impressive collection of Chinese art of the late Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties (316-907). These works, entirely devoted to the Buddhist religion, represent the high point of Chinese stone carving.
History
The construction of the Longmen Grottoes began in 493 during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen and continued through the successive six dynasties, including Tang and Song, for a span of over 400 years.
Sadly, most of the smaller Buddhist statuary, many inscriptions and murals were stolen by Western visitors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is estimated that some 800 of the finest pieces were carried off in the 1930s alone. There are still some very impressive sculptures remaining but today¡¯s visitor will shudder at the hundreds of beheaded Buddha sculptures one passes during a visit.
Features
Altogether there are 1,352 caves, 785 niches, more than 97,000 statues of the Buddha, Bodhisativas, and Arhats, and 3,680 inscribed stone tablets along the 1-km-long cliff of Mt. Longmen on the west and Mt. Xiangshan on the east of the Yihe River south of Luoyang.
One third of these cave sculptures belong to the Northern Wei Dynasty and two thirds to the Tang Dynasty. The style of sculpture, the design of clothing and the facial expression on statues, as well as carving methods exhibit the pinnacle of development of Chinese grotto art. The 11 Buddha statues in the Binyang Cave, typical Northern Wei carvings, represent a style in transition from the simple and compact depictions in the Yungang Grottoes of Datong, Shanxi Province, to the vigorous and realistic Tang Dynasty sculptures.
While the cave sculptures of the Tang Dynasty are of a vigorous, elegant and realistic style, the stone statues in Fengxian Cave, carved under the edict of Empress Wuzetian (reigned 690-705), can be considered as the most typical of the period. These are composed of a 17.14-meter-high statue of Vairocana Buddha, and a series of pairs of Bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, protectors and worshippers. The huge statue of Vairocana Buddha is today praised as being the quintessence of Buddhist sculpture in China.
Visitor Information
Cost: RMB 120
Opening Hours:
07:00 to 19:50 (March 1st to October 31st )
07:30 to 18:50 (November 1st to February 28th )
Guandi temple is one of the temples distributed most widely in ancient China. It was built to commemorate Guan Yu, , a famous general of the Shu State during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). also a fighting hero, who was subsequently reputed as immortal.
The Guandi Temple is located in the Zhenxi Pass of Xiezhou in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. It is said that Changping Village, located 10 kilometers southeast of Xiezhou, is the hometown of Guan Yu.
History
Built in 589 during the reign of Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the Guandi Temple was burnt down in 1702 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and later went through 10 years of restorations.
Features
The temple can be divided into two major sections: the Jieyi Garden, where mainly shows the life of Guan Yu, and the temple section where is mainly for the sacrificial activities.
About Guan Yu
Guan Yu was a general during the Three Kingdoms era. He served under the warlord Liu Bei and played a major role in the war that led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty. The famous historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms glorifies Guan Yu as a righteous and loyal warrior, and he is viewed as the epitome of loyalty and righteousness. As a result, he was first deified in the Sui Dynasty and is, somewhat unusually, revered in the Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian religions. This popular god, often called the God of War in the West, is often also referred to as Guan Di (“Emperor Guan”) or Guan Gong (“Lord Guan”). Traditionally portrayed as a red-faced warrior with a long beard, Guan Yu is still widely worshipped in China and other parts of Asia , particularly by policemen.
Visitor Information
Cost: RMB91
Opening Hours: 08:30- 17:00
Traffic: Buses No.11are available to get to Guandi Temple of Xiezhou, and it takes about 40 minutes and costs 2 yuan to this destination.
Dang Jia Cun, home to 1,400 residents living in 320 households, lies in the northeast Hancheng City, about 9 kilometers (km) away from the downtown, and 3.5 km from the Yellow River to the east. sixty percent of the inhabitants of this ancient village are surnamed Dang, and about 30 percent, Jia.
History
Though over 670 years have passed since the village was built, things don’t seem to have changed very much, with most of the courtyards dating back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties.
Features
Besides all these courtyards, there are also another 12 ancient buildings of the same period, including ancestral halls, temples, ancient stages, pavilions , and tablets. Japanese architectural experts refer to the village as “the living fossils of the traditional residence of ancient oriental people”.
In Dang Jia Cun, brick, wooden or stone carvings can be seen almost everywhere. Brick carvings are used to decorate the lanes, the doorways or the screen walls . Wooden carvings are often found on windows, doors, gateways and furniture, while things made of stones, such as memorial arches, horse-mounting stones and tethering stakes, were usually carved with care and precision.
Visitor Information
Cost: RMB40
Opening Hours: Whole day
Transport: Hire a taxi from Hancheng to this village directly, about 9 or 10 kilometers.
The Hukou Waterfall, the second largest waterfall in China, is located 165 kilometers to the west of Fenxi City, Shanxi Province, and 50 kilometers to the east of Yichuan, Shaanxi Province. The water speeds up with increasing waterpower. Then it rushes down from the narrow mouth, forming a grand waterfall of 15 meters high and 20 meters wide, as if water is pouring down from a huge teapot. Hence it gets the name Hukou (kettle spout) Waterfall.
Features
Visitor Information
Cost: RMB91 (Mar. 1 to Nov. 30); RMB46 (Dec. 1 to end of Feb.)
Best Time for Visiting: Summer or autumn
The Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City or “Gugong”, was the imperial residence and center of the kingdom during the reign of 24 emperors. 14 in the Ming and 10 in the Qing dynasty resided and ruled from this palace for 491 years until Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty and of China. It is now the largest and best preserved ancient architecture in China.
History
In the early 1400s, the third Ming Emperor, YongLe, moved the capital of China to Beijing. In 1406, he began construction of a new ‘Forbidden City’ that would include an imperial palace complex of vast proportions – a grand design.
Features
• Surrounded by10mhigh walls and a 52m wide moat
• Measures961mfrom north to south and 753k from east to west, covering 720,000 square meters
• Each side has one gate. Tourists today enter through the southern Meridian Gate (Wu men) and exit through the northern Gate of Spiritual Valor (Shenwu men).
• 70 halls and palaces, totaling 9,999 rooms comprise the palace which spans a north-south axis
• Multiple galleries displaying portions of the imperial treasure trove
Opening hours
Daily all year.
Oct 16 – Apr 15 8:30am – 4:30pm
Apr 16 – Oct 15 8:30am – 5:00pm
