Worth-visiting temples in Sichuan, China

Sichuan is one of the most beautiful provinces in China, and also has deep historical roots in both Buddhism and Taoism. Here are the province’s most gorgeous and venerated places of worship.

Wenshu Monastery

By far one of the best preserved temples in Chengdu, the Wenshu Monastery is located in the heart of Chengdu and is still home to 80 monks. Initially built during the Southern Dynasty, this temple covers a sprawling area of more than 60,000 square meters (close to 65,000 feet), with five complexes of buildings and gardens and more than 180 different rooms. You’ll also find more than 300 different Buddhas from several different dynasties, along with other precious artifacts, including Buddha scriptures written in gold and a 300-year-old monk robe woven by a royal concubine from the Ming Dynasty. At the very least, the teahouse is a great place to sit and drink tea before visiting the vegetarian restaurant in the back.

Baoguang Temple

Set in the far northern suburb of the city, this beautiful Buddhist temple is made up of a stupa, five halls and sixteen courtyards. On top of that, it is surrounded by ancient trees and verdant greenery. Often, this temple is quite busy, full of tourists drawn to the legend that their wishes will come true after praying at this temple. In fact, in the front square, there’s a big wall inscribed with the character for “Good Fortune.” The long queue of people in front are waiting to walk forward to touch the wall with their eyes closed for a chance at good fortune for the year. The rest of the temple is just as fascinating. Be sure not to miss the precarious leaning pagoda that continues to defy gravity.

Zhaojue Temple

Nestled near the Chengdu Zoo, Zhaojue is a key Buddhist temple in China and an important place for Buddhist practitioners. With more than 1,000 years of history, this monastery has been host to a number of renowned monks, who went out to establish temples in Japan and Southeast Asia. It was also once the home of Mr. Zhang Daqian, one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Here, he devoted himself to the study of painting and created a great number of famous works. The temple itself features lovely grounds and a welcome respite from the city’s hubbub.

Mount Qingcheng

A 45 minute train ride from the center of Chengdu will drop you near the foot of the verdant Mount Qingcheng, known as one of the four original birthplaces of Taoism in China. Its fame draws not only from the beauty of its 36 peaks, but also from Taoist mythology. The founder of Taoism, Zhao Daoling, thought the serene natural landscape of Mount Qingcheng was the perfect home for the development and prosperity of Taoism.

During the Jin and Tang dynasties, many temples were built on the mountain. It became an important intellectual and spiritual center for Taoism in the seventeenth century. Today, the mountain is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and you can see more than a dozen Taoist temples built into the front of the mountain (the back part of the mountain is better for natural scenery). The temples were built to represent the traditional architecture of Western Sichuan, including the Erwang Temple, the Fulong Temple, and the Changdao Temple.

To get there, take a train from Chengdu to Qingcheng town center (about 45 minutes) – there you’ll see an army of tuk tuks that will take you to the base of the mountain (Qiánshān, 前山).

Mount Heming

Set just 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Chengdu is beautiful Mount Heming. The mountain is widely known as the birthplace of Taoism after Zhao Daoling founded the “Way of the Celestial Masters” sect of Taoism here in 142 AD. This was when Laozi was said to have descended and ordered Daoling to establish a new covenant between the true gods of Taoism and the people. At its height, the movement controlled a theocratic state in Sichuan.

The mountain itself spans more than 120 kilometers (75 miles), and is so named because it looks like a crane that is about to take flight. In addition to the beautiful natural scenery, the mountain is covered in a variety of temples and halls tucked into crevasses and perched on vistas. The most famous is probably Wenchang Palace (文昌宫), a peaceful place that’s perfect for reflection and rest.

To get there, take a train from the center of Chengdu to the town of Heming. From there, you can take a short taxi ride to the foot of the mountain.

Emei Mountain

The beautiful Emei Shan (Éméi shān, 峨眉山) is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China, featuring incredible natural scenery and breathtaking vistas. It also houses eight fantastic temples that still hold important Buddhist artifacts. One of the most magnificent is the Wannian Temple (Wàn nián sì, 万年寺), which translates to English as “Ten Thousand Year Temple.” Built during the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD), it is nationally renowned for housing an amazing Buddha statue. It is still the largest temple in China, weighing more than 62 tons and standing eight meters (26 ft) tall.

See more: Top Sichuan street food to try in Chengdu, China

Source: Internet

Explore 4 great cuisine of China

There are many styles of cooking in China, here is 4 culinary traditions as the best. These have set the course of how Chinese cook food, and are looked to as models. Each of these schools has a distinct style and different strengths.

Guangdong

The great joke about Guangdong, or Cantonese, cuisine is that the Cantonese will “eat anything that has four legs other than a table, anything that flies other than an airplane, and anything that swims other than a submarine.” However, do not let this deter you.

Cantonese cuisine is lauded for its focus on bringing out pure flavors, the result being bright, crisp vegetables, steamed fish, and elaborate, lightly sautéed dishes. Cantonese cuisine is also well regarded for its roasted meats, like lacquered barbecue pork, burnished golden pigeons, and crisp, flavorsome goose. Perhaps most famous of all is the dim sum that hails from the region, elaborate and delicate steamed dumplings, custard buns, radish cakes, and more eaten in the mornings with tea.

Yue Cuisine

Yue Cuisine, also known as Cantonese cuisine, originates from Guangdong Province in South China. Yue Cuisine is especially skillful in techniques of stir-frying, frying, stewing and braising. Special attentions are paid to the heating temperature and duration. The tastes feature pure delicacy, freshness, tenderness, and crispness.

An emphasis on preserving the natural flavor of the food is also the hallmark of Yue Cuisine. A Cantonese chef would consider it a culinary sin of the highest order to produce a dish that was overcooked or too heavily seasoned. Special care is taken to make sure that the tastes are light but not tasteless, fresh but not vulgar, tender but not raw, oily but not greasy.

Sichuan

Sichuan cuisine is one of the most popular in China, famous for its brash flavors, mouth-tingling pepper, and sweat-inducing heat. The province is characterized by the iconic numbing and spicy characteristics, but Sichuan cuisine should not be judged by the pure power of its spiciness alone. The cooking here is as diverse and exuberant as the complex topography (and population) from which it springs.

In fact, chilies did not even make it to China until the 16th century from the New World, and Sichuan cuisine quickly picked it up as a way to balance the effect of the prickly ash, which was already iconic in its cuisine. Today, its capital (Chengdu) buzzes with foodies who delight in everyday eating, and the city houses chefs who are both rooted in tradition and some of the most innovative in China, who are buoyed, not shackled, by its deep-rooted history.

Lu Cuisine

Featuring freshness of materials and salt flavor, Lu Cuisine is derived from the traditional and historical cooking methods of Shandong Province. It is considered the most influential and popular in China. Modern day schools of cuisine in North China, such as those of Beijing, Tianjin, and Northeast, are all branches of Shandong Cuisine. However, it is not so popular in South China and even in the all-embracing Shanghai.

Lu Cuisine consists of Jinan cuisine and Jiaodong Cuisine. Jinan Cuisine is particular about being bold and unconstrained with thick color. Moreover, it is characterized by using soup and utilizing soups in its dishes. The use and making of clear soup, milky soup and superior soup all have strict stipulations. Jiaodong Cuisine, which includes dishes in Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai, is characterized by seafood cooking, with light tastes. The cooking method of Jiaodong Cuisine is particular about freshness, liveliness and insipidity though its flavor gives priority to tenderness.

See more: Challenge yourself with top 5 Chongqing spicy dishes

Source Internet