Buddhist and Taoist temples

7/26/2008

The next day in Hangzhou we started out the day going to a Buddist temple. It was so interesting to see people lighting incense and bowing down to a golden statue. It made me stop and worship God- so thankful that He is real and alive- not just a statue to bow before. I don’t know a whole lot about Buddha or the religion though. There were 3 Buddha halls with past, present and future and then a hall with 500 Buddhas to represent all the different sides of life. Apparently Buddha is whatever you want him to be so they make statues for everything.

There were some cool carvings in the mountainsides that we got to hike around and see. I'm still so amazed to see the Chinese women hiking up 100 stairs in their spike heels. That will be a sight to miss!

We then went to a Taoist park- Yellow Dragon Cave. We saw square bamboo and traditional Chinese music and an opera. This is a picture of the Temple of the Matchmaking God. Apparantly if you pray before this statue and stick your hand in one of those round things in front, you will get your fortune. For a measly 10 yuan you can be told when and where your love will happen. I was so tempted but I decided to leave it up to God and wait and see :)