Baolin Temple

Hello again! I'm here to catch up on my Dragon Boat Festival weekend:) This holiday is kind of the Chinese summer solstice festival. It takes place in June usually and is marked by dragon boat racing and eating zongzi (sticky rice with nuts, pork, or beans inside). 

I think the story goes that a famous poet died... and then there was a boat race to retrieve his corpse from whatever remote hermitage he was hiding out at? I could be all wrong...There's also a ton of different stories surrounding this holiday I believe...

It was a three day weekend from work for everyone, but I had just gotten here so I went to some local places of interest... nothing fancy.

Some dragon boat artwork outside my building:)

For my day off I decided to check out Baolin Temple. I took the bus, and it was a-ways away so it was a long ride. But I really like traveling by bus. You get to see so much city and industry and people in their daily life... I just enjoy it.

This was the first golden Buddha. He was flanked by all these magnificent statues. 

This temple was set up on a mountain so it wound up and up and up which was really cool. I loved all the plants. 

Cool dragon- pole thing.

Many, many Buddhas. 

I'm not sure what the heart locks were for, but they were pretty cute. 

So many turtles!

I still love wishing trees.

Awesome dragon carving-thing...

I also love these trees. 

The view just kept getting better the higher you went up the temple.

Ancient turtle god worship as usual.

After the temple I went next door to a big, expansive park. It's one of the biggest parks I've been to so far. It had tons of water too, and I thought they might be racing dragon boats? But maybe I came on the wrong day because I didn't see any. 

A house I'd like to buy one day that was literally next to the water on the park. 

At the end of the park it said there was a temple called, The Dragon Mother's temple. I was intrigued so I walked forever to get there, but when I finally arrived, it was kind of a let down. I think you should probably not start with all the impressiveness of Baolin before going here. 

There were some actual monks doing some chanting and bell chiming which was cool, but I also felt kind of intrusive so I didn't stay long. 

That was Baolin. I'd definitely go again, but I think next time I'd pack more food. There weren't a ton of places to eat around the temple so by the time my long bus ride got me back to Foshan I was starving :/ Well, live and learn.