This temple was quite a "find."
My first visit of the day (in fact my first visit of the trip) was to Xingjiao Si, further down the same road (and bus route). With full confidence, and the backing of a Google map, I jumped off the return bus and started venturing up side streets to look for the temple I knew to be somewhere about 2 or 3 kilometers north of the road.
But it wasn't.
People I kept asking kept replying "Meiyou," the all-purpose Chinese word for "We don't have any" or "There's no such-a-thing and I've lived here all my life." Finally, some old men playing cards told me it was about "three kilometers thataway." And by "thataway" they meant west, along the highway, not in the hinterlands to the north.
When this was confirmed by a local cop, I was back on the bus. The driver and conductress were quite kind about steering my the right way, and dumped me off in front of an elementary school.
Now, I thought, now the trek north begins. I went to a little market to load up on water, and asked if they possibly knew where the temple might be. They gestured vaguely northward and said, "There." Aiya.
It wasn't until I turned and looked in the direction that they were pointing that I saw they meant "Right there," because a pagoda was peeping out just above the elementary school. I nearly leapt for joy. I nearly wept.
It was right there.
So, after slogging up a muddy road, I arrived at the muddy compound. The lay workers were kind enough to guide me onto some narrow brick "paths" to minimize shoe damage. And another layman haunted me as I moved from place to place around the temple. I never did figure out what he wanted, but I think he was trying to keep me from stealing anything.
After about 40 minutes or so, I was on the bus back to the city.
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Read more about Huayan Temple, including directions on how to find it.