Roland's Travelog: Chengde

Next stop, Chengde. Nearly skipped it as I had been feeling a bit "templed out", which I think is the appropriate phrase among Asian travellers' parlance. I found that every temple I went to see recently, whether it was Buddhist or Taoist, was just like every other one in China, no real variety in design, layout, artwork etc. except for Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) which is a little different (round instead of rectangular) and which I revisited as I remember it being fairly interesting last time. But when I went to the train station to ask about train tickets, I found there was one (just 2 in fact) available for next morning and tickets to Datong were not so easily available. So, despite a very early start, I decided to take it, as train tickets were still like rocking horse shit to get hold of at the time with Spring Festival traffic still in full flow.

Well, it turned out to be a good decision.. At last there was some variety in the temples, a breath of fresh air amongst the smog.

Chengde is home to the 'Eight Outer Temples' lying around Chengde. Originally, twelve were built but now only eight remain. Of the eight, one is closed to the public, but I managed to see seven, plus the imperial summer village, a summer retreat for emperors during the Qing dynasty which together filled most of a busy two days.

Left to Right: Pule Si, Anyuan Si, Puning Si.

Pule Si (Temple of Universal Happiness) is shaped rather like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, with a round two-tiered roof, and is located on a hillside, in a remote spot that feels like the the middle of nowhere. Above which is the entrance to the area's park grounds, which seemed very difficult to get into, officially anyway. Numerous women outside kept trying to sell me second-hand tickets, and kept running after me, grabbing at me and shouting angrily when I refused to buy based on the fact the ticket was used, had no stub and were no cheaper than the official price anyway, I saw no point. But, when I reached the gate, the ticket man, took my money and had no ticket to give me anyway, he also pointed out the gates were closed and gave some signals which I did not understand. I eventually gave up, though it would have been quite easy to just walk through the trees into the park area, but by then I was fed up with the hassle.

Anyuan temple was closed, but I found a metal gate pulled to and latched by a metal bracket which I managed to unlatch and sneaked into the grounds at least to see the main building, but could not get inside.

Puning Si (Temple of Universal Peace), a Tibetan temple, which was a little varied from the Yonghe temple in Beijing, very colourful, prayer wheels, prayer flags, plus a temple whose outer and inner railings were completely covered in padlocks, the purchase and addition of one, is supposed to bring good luck. In the main hall is the huge 23m golden statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, with 42 arms and supposedly the largest wooden statue in the world.

Left: Outdoor Buddhas at Puyou Si.

Centre: Main building of Xumifushou temple.

Right: Putuozongshengmiao,the mini Potala Palace.

Puyou Si next door was strange, as you enter the grounds there are rows of buddhas all around, sitting outside and there were no halls. Whether it is always like this or is being reconstructed I don't know.

Xumifushou is a Mongolian style temple modelled on the Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet, with large grounds, a colourful red building and some impressive dragons on top of the main hall. Here, once inside the main building area, my every act was closely scrutinised by a member of the staff. Photos of statues indoors were as usual banned, but I was surprised that when I tried to take a photo of a sign, just to note some details, my escort growled at me and almost took my camera away, amusing.

Putuozongshengmiao (Temple of Potaraka Doctrine) occupies 220,000 square metres and is by far the largest of all the temples and is based on the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Inside the main building you can get a bit lost wandering around the halls, pagodas and terraces, but there is quite a lot of interesting stuff on display as well as murals and of course the Tibetan and Chinese style decorations and some great views of the surrounding countryside from the roof terrace.

Shuxiang temple was also seemingly closed, but somebody spotted me and let me in a side wooden door, next to some buildings where he and some others clearly lived. After haggling over the price, I made it in for an acceptable charge and was shown around. This was home to a trio of Buddhas sitting on ancient beasts.