hangzhou: lord buddha smiles on ling yin temple

Early Saturday morning, we got on a high-speed train and headed to Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang province that I visited when I was a student here all those years ago. At the time, Hangzhou was my favorite city in mainland China, so I thought it would be a great place to take the little lady on our first Chinese excursion.

The train ride was three hours, and was quite uneventful. When we got to Hangzhou, we went first to our hotel and then took a taxi to Ling Yin temple, which is one of the most famous and popular temples in China. It turned out that most of Hangzhou also had the same idea we did, so the traffic was horrible and the crowds were out in full force at the temple. Still, we had a great time. The weather was good and the sights were interesting.

When you get to Ling Yin, the first thing that you see is a number of statues and stone carvings around the area, most of which are depictions of Buddha and/or Buddhist figures.







The area is very green and woodsy, as you’ll notice in many of the pictures.











Notice how the sunlight hits directly on the face of the middle statue? Cool.





We noticed Sanskrit carvings here and there—a testament to the Indian background of Buddhism, and pretty cool looking, even if they were in very random places.







The little lady got hungry at one point, so we got her some of that corn on the cob she’s been so curious about. It turned out to be a lot tougher and blander than what we’re used to in the US, but she was hungry and ate it all.









We were pretty bummed when we discovered that the tickets we had bought to get in didn’t actually get us into the temple; they only got us into the grounds where all the carvings were. So, after shelling out some additional cash, we got into the actual temple area.

People preparing incense:



The first of the main temple structures:



As is typically the case, we weren’t supposed to take pictures inside the temples. However, other people were taking pictures and the monks weren’t stopping anyone, so we joined in the fun.









This was my first time actually getting photos inside the temples, I think so I was pretty pleased with that. There are many intricate carvings and figures inside, so it was nice to be able to get some photos.





Many of the trees growing in the area were bamboo trees, as you can see here.





People stand up coins in part of one of the temples in an attempt to get good luck.



While super busy and crowded, Ling Yin is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Hangzhou. Great scenery and lots of cool stuff to see.