Day 5 part 1: Welcome to Hangzhou and Temple

Hangzhou is a city of about 8 million people and is one of the richest provinces in the country. Throughout the history of China Hangzhou got to be the capital city twice, from 908 – 979 AD and again from 1121 – 1179 AD. Today it is a very privileged area to live in. Everyone is very well educated, our guide told us that it’s common for even the street sweepers to have college degrees. A cheap apartment in Hangzhou is easily $5 million dollars (dollars, not yuan). It is also one of the safest cities in the country. The police have set up over one thousand micro cameras on the streets so they can see everything….EVERYTHING. Kind of freaky but just don’t think about it. Also, they have zero crime so it works. Their buildings are much better maintained as well. I didn’t see the piles of rubble that lined the streets of Suzhou.

That morning we visited one of the largest Buddhist temples in China, the Lingyin temple. It was built in 300AD by an Indian monk trying to spread Buddhism. It stands along a mountain and as you walk up to the front gate there are statues carved right into the side of the mountain side rocks. It is gorgeous.  The temple has several buildings with massive statues and used to house more than three thousand monks. Monks still live there and learn and teach, many of the monks have university degrees and are well educated.

The place was crowded with people and the courtyards were filled with smoke from the incense burning. The ritual for prayer, our guide told us, was to take three incense sticks. Three to represent the past, present, and future. Then bow three times to pay respect to the three levels of Buddhahood in each of the four directions to symbolize that the spirit of the Buddha is everywhere. There were people with big stacks of incense sticks in their hands. Our guide jokingly referred to them as the “one day Buddhists”, the people who only go to the temple when they have a problem and act like the more incense they burn, the faster their prayer will be answered. He said right before exam time the temple will also get filled up with students praying for good results.

There were many buildings with statues. We weren’t supposed to take pictures inside of the temple but we could stand outside and take them through the door. I thought the most interesting building was The Hall of 500 Arhats. It houses 500 life sized sitting solid bronze statues, each of which weigh two whole tons, and the shape of the building was in a giant swastika. We actually saw lots of swastikas in religious settings while we were there because it was a symbol of peace back in the day.