Chengde (2) – Hebei Province – PRC – 2010

Tags

Chengde, Chengde Mountain Resort, china, prc, Puning Temple, Putuo Zongcheng temple

Second day of a weekend in Chengde

Day two in Chengde started after an interesting Chinese breakfast…at that time before I actually lived in China, I wasn’t used to eating green vegetables and dumplings that early in the day, so I found it a little strange.  Over the years I got used to it when travelling…it’s healthy!!!

Our first stop was to the Putuo Zongcheng  Temple which literally means ‘temple of Universal Peace’ and was built in the 1700’s in the Qing dynasty.  It’s pretty close to the mountain resort I had gone to the day before and is said to be modelled after the  Potala Palace in Lhasa.

 

The front temple was constructed in the Chinese style, although the temple complex follows both Chinese and Tibetan architectural styles.

We were very fortunate to see the monks walking to prayer; very serene and wonderful to watch.

Along with being able to watch and listen to a local musical troupe…

Our next stop was to the Puning Temple which is literally the ‘Temple of Universal Peace’ and is a Buddhist temple complex also built in the Qing dynasty.

It really was such a treat to visit Chengde as the scenery was amazing as was the architecture and colours of buildings.

Our final stop was sledgehammer rock (or the thumb of God as it’s also known) which is more than twenty metres high and of course as my friends told me has entrepaneural Chinese selling little models at its base.

 

We took the cable car to reach the top which of course for me was pretty scary; really disliking heights!!

And then my friends walked along the wall to the rock but because it was so steep without any sides to the high walkway, I stayed behind and just viewed the rock from afar.

A fabulous weekend and one I always recommend to my colleagues who live in Beijing.