This was my official visit. I had visited previously, in 2006, when my camera failed.

Finally, after learning about the 142 Key Temples, I made my official visit in November of 2010. I was carrying two cameras (as usual), my DSLR and a point-and-shoot.

And guess what? First, the DSLR's auto-focus failed. I had to shoot everything manually (so some of my pictures are a little "soft"). Then, after visiting the nearby Guangxiao Temple, I either set my point-and-shoot down somewhere, or it fell out of my pocket in a cab! That was the replacement for the one that had broken at this temple in 2006.

This temple and I have bad camera Karma!

But nice things happened here, too. The best (as always) was a kindness shown. There was a monk doing calligraphy in the covered portico behind the Sixth Patriarch Hall (acing the pagoda). I asked him if I could enter the area marked "Platform" on the map, actually a dharma lecture hall. No, he was sorry, that area was closed. I must have looked disappointed as I walked a way, because he called me back and started digging through his desk until he found a gift: A book about Dharma in English! Written by one C. T. Shen, a shipping executive who was then vice-president of the Buddhist Association of the United States, it's called What We Can Learn From Buddhism, and is based on three talks given by Mister Shen from 1969-1972 in  New York and New Hampshire.

That monk made my day! The book is fascinating, a window into another way of seeing--literally. One of the talks was called "The Five Eyes," and can be read in full here.  It talks about changing our perception to see things in a new way. (The title talk, "What We Can Learn From Buddhism," is also available.)

Take a look and enjoy!

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NOTE: A brief "Visitor's Guide" is available for free by writing to me. Allow a day or two for response.

Read more about Liurong Temple, including directions on how to find it.

When I arrived at this sweet little country temple, I was exhausted.Early that morning I had left for Jingye Temple, uncertain as to how much of a climb there'd be--and there was a big one. After coming down from that temple, I waited for a bus to Caotang Temple at the crossroads.

While I waited, a "gypsy cab" driver came over and offered to take me to Caotang Temple for 30rmb. What am I, a sucker? I patiently explained that the bus would be one or two rmb. He laughed, and shouted this fact to the other drivers hanging around under a tree nearby.

Bad sign.

Then he patiently explained that it was a l-o-o-o-ong walk from the bus stop to the temple.

No worries, I said. I'm strong.

Laughing, he walked away.

I should have listened.

It was about 1.5km, or nearly a mile, from the bus stop to the temple. Not so bad, except I had gone up and back down a very rough mountain trail that morning.

Anyway...

The temple was nice enough. A few things you should know about the temple at the time I was there:

• the road out front was under construction
• the "Sleeping Buddha" was in a temporary shed, just outside the main compound
• the library was under construction, north of the temple wall
• I could not locate the room of former abbot Hong Lin (房林, 1918-2005), which has been set up as a shrine to him. You can read more about it under "Monks' Dwelllings" here. It was probably closed, as my visit was on a weekday.

Otherwise, everything was smooth--until I tried to get back to town.

I had seen a local minibus saying "Huxian" (Hu County) not too far from the gate on my way in. I didn't want to walk all the way back to the bus stop where I had arrived, so I sat down and waited for the minibus. And waited. And waited...

When it finally came, it wasn't so bad. Just me and the conductor, a few school kids off and on. Then we got to a yard, and things got a little confusing. I THOUGHT I was getting on the bus to Xi'an. But when the conductress said "one yuan," I knew I was in trouble.

Sure enough, it dumped me at a big bus terminal. There was only one more bus going in to Xi'an, and It. Was. Packed. Standing room only, with people's parts sticking into mine. When we finally got going, we picked up more passengers. No one was getting off anywhere. The ride seemed liked hours (and may have been; I lost track of time). For a while we were on washboard road and I thought I was going to be sick. A college-aged kid was sitting in front of me in the "courtesy seat," and I tried every way I could (short of speaking to him) to make him vacate: sticking my elbow in his ear, breathing on his hair, etc.

Well, we finally got to the city--and ANOTHER transfer. This time, the kid offered to show me the way to the bus I wanted. He was uber-friendly, and even paid my way onto the bus. Outright kindness--or a guilty conscious? I'll never know. We chatted a bit (he spoke low-level English) and I got off at the Bell Tower. Mercifully, he went on.

Another exhausting, exciting, fulfilling, exasperating day.

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Read more about Caotang Temple, including directions on how to find it.

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.

This was my first visit, an "unofficial" one, before I knew about the 142 Key Temples.

Back in 2006, I needed to go to Guangzhou (the provincial capital) to pick up my new passport at the American consulate. While there, I decided to take a look at this temple.

I had plenty of time, so I paid my fee and climbed the pagoda, snapping pictures all the way. When I got home I discovered, to my horror, that my camera had failed. It appeared to be shooting, but there was nothing on the memory card! So I got rid of it and bought another.

Read about my "official" visit to learn "the REST of the story."

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NOTE: A brief "Visitor's Guide" is available for free by writing to me. Allow a day or two for response.

Read more about Liurong Temple, including directions on how to find it.