Jing'An Temple

So I ride the metro pretty much everyday. And no matter when I go, it's always packed. By packed, I mean like sardines. There's literally no space to move. If you're lucky, you don't get trapped in the door as it is beeping loudly to warn you you're about to be smashed. Some of us aren't that lucky.

That's not the point. The point is, I'm nearest to the Zhongshan Park stop. Two stops away is the Jing'An Temple stop. Every day, I hear it announced as I continue on my journey to where ever I'm headed. So this weekend, Ashley and I decided to actually stop there and have a look around. Lucky for us, we actually headed out the right exit of the metro station, so we weren't wandering for hours (not really an exaggeration) looking for something that should be right in front of us. Oh yeah, we did actually have a map this go round, and we did actually use it. Go figure.

I don't really know much about this temple, besides it is a Buddist temple. It was just very ornate and very "Chinese". You know, what you think China should be like. So here you go. Here's your free look inside the Jing'An Temple (I already paid the 30 kuai cover charge, so you're good to go!) ;)

 

I really like the juxtaposition of the ancient temple surrounded by shiny, new high rises.  You can only see one high rise in this picture, but I can assure you they are all around the temple. 

 I think that is a lion because of the mane... maybe not? 

No idea what that says, just thought it was very Chinese.

 More lion heads on a pole. They had these gold lion poles in all four corners of the temple grounds. 

 The temple grounds had a wonderful incense smell. When you walked in, there was a little card with bundles of the incense sticks and you are supposed to take 2 and light them in the fire pit (the black thing behind the Chinese guy). Then, the Chinese stood in front of the main temple and bowed a few times with the lighted incense.

Here's Ashley with the main temple. 

I'm not sure what to call this either, but I'll describe its purpose. I think it is like a wishing well of sorts. There were people standing all around it throwing coins. They were trying to get the coins to go into those little window-like openings near the top. It was quite entertaining to watch, since most of the coins just bounced back on the ground.

Each wall around the temple had some sort of unique, intricate wood carving. Below are the highlights of the temple: all of the various Budda statues. In front of the statues were prayer cushions and an alter with fruit and flowers. It was very pretty and ornate to see this.