Thursday, June 5, 2008

Putuo Shan - Beaches



Putuo Shan has nice beaches also. We didn't see anyone swimming but the scenery was nice.

More Putuo Shan Sights





Top Right: A 1,000 year old camphor tree that is 20 meters in height and two meters in diameter. Trees of this size are rare.
Top Left: (Lt to Rt) Mark Van Loan, Hannah Czehatowski and Michel Czehatowski in front of the character "xin" or "heart" carved in a large rock.
Center: The characters for Buddha (top of picture) blending into the character for "heart" bottom of picture. This was carved in stone.
Bottom: A balanced stone.

Putuo Shan sights






As with the other areas of China that we traveled in there is an abundance of temples to see. The pictures are highlights from our travels.
Top Right: Metal bell
Top Left: Fish
Center: Characters carved in stone.
Bottom Right: Detail of characters carved in stone. Hai Tian Fo Guo
Hai means "sea", Tian mean "heaven", Fo means "Buddha", and Guo means "Country".
Bottom Left: Dragon wall






Behind the statue of Guan Yin there are temples and a huge stone wall covered in Buddhist art. Here are some of the highligts.
Top right: Picture of the wall which gives you an idea of the size.
Other photo's are details from the wall.

Putuo Shan - Guan Yin



























Putuo Shan is considered the place of enlightenment for the bodhisattva Guan Yin.

For more information on Putuo Shan see this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putuo_Shan

Top Right: 100 foot tall (33m) statute of Guan Yin.
Top Left: Close up of Guan Yin.
Bottom Right: Statue found at the entrance to the temple.
Bottom Left: View taken from the base of the Guan Yin statue looking out to sea.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Putuo Shan





Putuo Shan is known as the place of enlightenment for the Bodhisattva Guan Yin. It is a small island in Zhejiang Province whose main industries are tourism and fishing.
Top: Scenic Island views
Bottom Right: Temple.
Bottom Left: Detail of stonework window at a temple.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Leaving Jiuhua Shan

We left Jiuhua Shan in the afternoon and headed to Tongling. Once there we had lunch and then headed to the train station. We took a soft-seat train to Shanghai. Fortunately for us the boarding wasn't as crazy as in Beijing. The trip was uneventful but did take a long time. We arrived in Shanghai late at night and taken to our hotel. We got up early the next morning to drive to the harbor where we could catch a fast boat to Putuo Shan Island.
Getting on the boat was a little crazy also. People like to get on all at once even when the boat is bouncing heavily at the dock. We found our seats and got set for a three hour trip to Putuo Shan. Unfortunately the ocean area was misty so there wasn't much of a view.
We arrived in Putuo Shan and were met by our new guide, Michael, who ended up being a very fun guide.