China Religion Tour Blog

Jeffery Soel had not expected that the 75-kilometer journey from Jiegu Town, a seat in the Yushu Tibet Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, would take more than two hours.

When he finally reached the little Tibetan village hidden deep in the mountains by the Tongtian River, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, the policy director of the American Planning Association (APA) opened his eyes wide.

At the sight of the village, Soel says the exhausting journey along the rough road became “really worthwhile.”

“I simply could not believe there should exist a village so well planned in such a remote area,” says the experienced planner, who has been to many famous cities around the world.

With a population of 657 in 186 households, Raston, the biggest village of Rabu Town in Chendo County of Yushu, features several dirt thoroughfares crisscrossed by lanes — a unique pattern among Tibetan communities.

The straight thoroughfares and lanes are flanked by tall, lush poplar trees, and villagers’ houses are built right behind the trees.

At the entrance of the village is a large area of dense woods, which is the village links or park, according to Choe Chung, a local Tibetan teacher of English.

Across a small river by the linka is the Rabu Monastery, a temple of the Glupa or the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.

“That is a perfect conception of zoning,” observes Liu Yuan, a Chinese consultant with APA, noting the river separates the monastery from the secular world of the village.

This separation, in addition to the definition of the roads by trees, distinguishes it from most others in Tibetan areas that have been built around a monastery.

The mastermind behind the village planning and tree planting was Jamyang Losong Kyanco, the 13th incarnation of the Living Buddha of the Rabu Monastery, after it was built by Dama Rergin Rinpoche, the first disciple of Tsong Khapa, the founding father of the Yellow Sect of Lamaism, in 1419.

According to a local legend, says Qiuying Lanze, a Tibetan official of the prefecture government of Yushu, Dama Rergin Rinpoche had the temple built to fulfill one of Tsong Khapa’s dreams.

“He dreamed of a village to the east of Lhasa with colorful flowers around it,” she says. “Following the revelation of the dream, Dama Rergin Rinpoche trekked 750 kilometers to the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to Yushu. There he found a village named ‘Ra,’ where the shape of the mountains and the two clear brooks flowing by the village as well as the flowers struck him to be the scenes his master said he had dreamed of.”

Dama Rergin had the Rabu Monastery built and renamed the village Raston, meaning “place with flowers in bloom.”

Time passed. In 1902, Jamyang Losong Kyanco, the 13th incarnation of Dama Rergin as the Living Buddha of the Rabu Monastery, decided to expand his learning of Buddhism and made a trip to Beijing.

The 13-year-old Living Buddha was impressed by the wide roads, electric lights and vehicles in Beijing.

“But what struck him the most were those green, tall trees, which were missing in his hometown,” says Qiuying Lanze.

When Jamyang Losong Kyanco returned to Rabu in 1904, he brought with him 2,000 poplar saplings he had got from Huangyuan County near Xining, capital of Qinghai. He hired 500 yaks to carry the saplings, with each sapling wrapped in yak wool felt and its roots covered with earth.

“The caravan moved during the daytime and at night they would place the saplings in ditches to keep the moisture before camping,” says Losong Dawa, governor of Yushu and a native of Raston. “It took the Living Buddha and his entourage more than three months to cover the 800 kilometer-plus distance from Xining to Rabu.”

But only one-third of the trees survived the severe winter in Yushu, which usually lasts more than eight months.

“It nevertheless was a great success, as until then, there had not been a single tree in Chendo and most parts of Yushu, which covers an area larger than two Austrias, with most parts at an elevation of over 4,000 meters above sea level on the ‘roof of the world’,” says Losong Dawa.

The following year, the living Buddha had another 1,000 poplar saplings carried from Huangyuan in the same way. He also ordered each of the lamas in the Rabu temple to plant 15 trees every year.

“To guarantee the survival of the saplings, he named each of them after a sage so that no one dared to do any harm to them,” the governor says. “He also told people to protect the saplings with clay walls from attacks by wind, snow and animals.”

While planting trees, Jamyang Losong Kyanco also drew a plan for the monastery and the village. He had the course of one of the rivers straightened and had it separate the monastery from the village.

He also told the villagers to widen the roads to allow for the movement of something called a “car” in the future.

“He had the roads divided into lanes for cars and pedestrians, and defined the roads with trees,” says Losong Dawa. “He even planned where the electric lines should go and where a transformer should be placed, although electricity at the time was far away from Yushu.”

The innovative Living Buddha also had his type of “telephone” installed, Losong Dawa says. “He had a bell fixed in each lama’s room and connected the bells with a string which he could pull in his room. When he pulled the string the bells would ring. He defined the meanings for the different number of rings. For instance, one ring meant to summon a certain monk and three rings meant a grand gathering.”

The Living Buddha was not obeyed without complaints, says Qiuying Lanze.

Losong Dawa said: “Some lamas grumbled at the time that other Living Buddhas brought back to their temples gold, silver and other treasures, while Jamyang Losong Kyanco returned with nothing but firewood. Not until decades later did people come to realize what he had done for the later generations. We are now grateful to him for his wisdom and foresight. We are also proud of him.”

Soel, who has been to Yushu as part of a study tour into the ecological situation of the source areas of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang/Mekong rivers, sees the village and monastery as an unusual and admirable “green legacy,” which should be treasured.

Losong Dawa agrees. “We should take inspiration from this green legacy and have our development projects well planned and sustainable to benefit later generations, just as Jamyang Losong Kyanco did.”

Most people who travel to China for pleasure go to a travel agency who offers packaged tours. When choosing a travel agency, it is wise to do some research to ensure that the agency you select has an excellent foreign travel reputation and offers first class package China tours. Check to see if they have an affiliation with China Professionals-Workers’ International Travel Service Head Office. CPITS is located in Beijing and runs a network of over (150 local and regional branch offices in major cities as well as the tourist regions in China.

Popular tours include the Yangtze River that is truly one of the world’s most amazing natural wonders. The gorges of this famous river climb thousands of feet on both sides, and it is truly breathtaking to witness. While cruising along the river, you will look at life in places like Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Suzhou and Chongqing. This tour offers shore excursions including ancient cliff coffins at Shennong Stream and exploring the historic temples of Shibaozhai. These quaint locations offer some of the best natural and historical sightseeing China has to offer. This is one of our most popular tours and no matter what agency you go with, departure dates fill up quickly every year. This tour makes it last stop in Beijing where you will see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City of China.

Beijing is the last stop on your journey through China, where you explore Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden CityFree Reprint Articles, and the Great Wall.

During my stay I was lucky enough to participate in a trade fair celebrating continued diplomatic relations between Germany and the People’s Republic of China entitled ‘30 years and the future.’ Attendance was excellent, partly due to timing, as vast crowds of people from all provinces visit their capital on October 1 to enjoy the national day festivities. The Goethe Institute’s contribution to the fair was a stand that gave a foretaste of German language and culture — a highlight in the otherwise economically focused exhibition. Together with a fellow intern I was assigned the task of devising a German crash-course in the form of a brochure that taught every visitor a few words of German.

Famous places of historic interest apart, I was fascinated by the Chinese people’s fundamental love of food and took great delight in China’s night markets and the regional specialties offered there. Where else could one enjoy scorpion or crunchy frog on a stick? As a committed devotee of Chinese cuisine I decided to follow the local example and make eating an essential and ritualistic aspect of my spare time. I particularly enjoyed eating in the animated company of other students from Germany, Japan and China. We would order vast amounts of hot and cold meat, fish and vegetable dishes, and conclude with a glass or so of erguotou.

In addition to teaching and eating, I also took particular pleasure in riding my Flying Pigeon through the urban maze. After a little practice one grows familiar with routes, rules and other vehicles and learns to glide trough heavy traffic. I was never in a hurry when bicycling. I would ride along the streets, stop to take pictures and ride on, only to stop again to look at a store or market, or eat. This is how I came to know what I know of Beijing. I immersed myself in its microstructures. The more I learned the more questions I had and the more my curiosity grew.

Beijing has such a mix of contrasts. I was charmed by the almost rural tranquility of the siheyuan in the hutong area surrounding the Forbidden City, only to be brought sharply down to earth when confronted head on with futuristic multileveled superhighways roaring with traffic. At times I felt like I was not moving at all, and that the metropolis was growing and changing around me at the speed of light.

My internship in Beijing was a wonderful experience, and I felt sad at leaving after only two months. When I think of Beijing, I always recall the odor of its streets: a mixture of exhaust fumes, restaurants and cooking. This distinctive scent - exotic, raw and redolent of adventure almost held a taste-like quality, not unlike that I experienced when smoking the last of my Beijing cigarettes. I know I shall miss it dearly…

This article series are from a foreigner who write down his good experiences in Beijing:

We reached cruising altitude shortly after St. Petersburg. The last impressions of Europe faded — lights of lesser cities, rivers and factories — bringing us to the vast extent of Asia. There remained six hours of flight time pending Beijing: my adventure would start at the crack of dawn.

It was early morning, August and Beijing, as Dutch writer Cees Noteboom might say, when I was forcefully reminded of the meaning of the phrase “continental monsoon.” On this day in late August temperatures soared. It became so hot that despite convictions stemming from past experience I took a taxi from the airport into the city. Through tinted windows I watched glide by the metropolis that was to become my home for the next nine weeks. A year previously, inspired by a vacation in Beijing, I had applied for an internship at the Goethe-Institute in China’s capital. As a student of German Studies I was interested in discovering ways and means of disseminating the German culture and language abroad. A week’s vacation had fueled my enthusiasm for this giant city. But would it last for two months of working and living within it?

No master of the Chinese tongue, I attempted to follow this costly taxi’s passage through urban space on a map. Via the Third Ring Road, we traveled to Beijing Foreign Studies University in the Haidian District. Adrenalin stimulated by apprehension and anxiety, and the overwhelming, sometimes surreal impressions of this metropolis, with its masses of people, cars, skyscrapers, and glass-facades, effectively canceled out any possibility of jet-lag.

The taxi-driver left me and my luggage on the university campus known to international students as ‘Bei Wai’. Looking at the Third Ring Road, carbon monoxide and deafening traffic noises clouded my senses, but I could hear behind me the murmuring of a fountain.

The Goethe Institute where I conducted my internship was at that time situated on the eastern rim of the Beijing Foreign Studies University. I started work there the day after my arrival. I was employed in the language department for most of my stay, but diverse occupational opportunities, such as the chance to observe the work of departments dealing with the cultural program and pedagogic development, also arose. After a week of supervision I was allowed to teach independently. I was pleasantly surprised at the success of my first attempts to teach German as a foreign language: I enjoyed myself and my students proved motivated and very likable. My lessons were memorable for their affluence of laughter, springing from intercultural and lingual misunderstandings and misinterpretations. I believe the true value of an internship lies in the person concerned’s encountering the limits of his/her expertise and learning how to deal with them professionally. Misapprehensions and communication difficulties are everyday occurrences when teaching a foreign language. To me, a student of German Studies, our discussions were rewarding for revealing to me the Euro-centricity of my views.

In different season, Zhangjiajie will show you a different landscape. All things are recovered in the spring; the summer with lush trees; blue sky and fresh air in autumn; in winter, Zhang jia jie will give you a unique feeling that all montains and tree are covered with white snow. What a spectacular sight!

In recent years, some of the newly developed area are becoming the favorite of winter visitors. Forwording from the Zhangjiajie Wulingyuan scenic spot about a few hundred meters, then look up and you could see an unparalleled majestic elevators (326 meters tall), which is called “Eiffel Tower of China”, is built along the cliff. The modern architecture will give you a heartquake. As long as you go into the transparent elevator, it will move up with 3 meters per second. And it will only take 116 second to go to the top - Xian jie of Yuan jiajie.

In winter, you could enjoy the absolutely beatiful sight “Red maples match white snow” at the newly developed scenic spot of Zhang jiajie by Bailong Stairs. After the end of November each year, the mountain tops of Yuan jiajie will be covered by a thin layer of white snow, just like wearing white hats. Comparing with the few red maples at the forane mountainsides, the senic will absolutely impact your vision.

Tips: 3-day traveling in Zhangjiajie is a better choice. On the first day, you could visit the traditional scenic spot - Jin Bian Brook. On the second day, you could go to Yuan Jiajie. And if you have time, you could visit Tianzi Mountain to enjoy the spectacular snow sight. On the last day, you could visit Dragon King Cave and Tianmen Mountain.

BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) — More than 178 million Chinese traveled within the country during the National Day holiday week, up 22.1 percent on the same period last year, according to the China National Tourism Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics.

The holiday, known as a “golden week”, ran from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Tourism revenue during the week amounted to 79.6 billion yuan (11.65 billion U.S. dollars), up 24.2 percent. Per-capita spending averaged 448 yuan.

The revenue of the aviation industry reached 3.93 billion yuan, up 33.8 percent, and that of the railways 1.99 billion yuan, up 35percent.

Figures from the National Tourism Administration (NTA) showed the country’s 119 major tourist destinations received more than 18.29 million visitors, an increase of 13.2 percent from a year earlier.

The NTA said Beijing and Olympic co-host cities like Qingdao and Shanghai witnessed a surge of tourists.

Beijing municipal bureau of tourism said on Sunday that the city had 35 percent more tourists, many of whom visited Olympic venues.

At least 8.02 million people visited Beijing from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, including 2.35 million overseas visitors, bringing 5.25 billion yuan in tourist revenue, up 27 percent from the previous National Day holiday.

The Olympic Park, home to the Bird’s Nest National Stadium and Water Cube Aquatics Center, attracted more than 2.82 million visitors.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said the country’s airlines carried 4.33 million passengers during the Golden Week, up 14.8 percent, on 33,416 flights, an increase of 8 percent.

Not everyone enjoyed the week off. The NTA said tourism authorities across the country received 279 complaints from tourists.

Four tourist-related accidents were reported. Two tourists died and four were injured.

Another two tourists are missing after they swam without permission in a no-swimming area off the southern Guangdong Province on Oct. 4.

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — More than 4,000 people from the mainland traveled to Taiwan during the National Day holiday, a Taiwan affairs official said here Wednesday.

That’s twice as many when compared to the 2007 holiday.

“The average daily number of mainland tourists to Taiwan was 270 before the Golden Week,” State Council Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesman Yang Yi said. “The number reached 576 a day between Sept. 29 to Oct. 5.”

Under an agreement signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, mainland residents from 13 provinces and municipalities are permitted to visit Taiwan via weekend charter flights.

A maximum of 3,000 mainland tourists are allowed to travel to Taiwan every day. Both organizations set the quota in accordance with Taiwan’s accommodation capacity.

Yang said the mainland has been actively promoting Taiwan tourism and is considering opening cross-Strait travel to mainland residents in places other than the 13 chosen provinces and cities.

Last year, about 16 million Chinese mainland residents visited Hong Kong and 12 million visited Macao, Yang said.

“Judging from these figures, I am very optimistic about the future of cross-Straits tourism cooperation, especially the number of mainland tourists going to Taiwan,” he said.

The 15th of the eighth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, is the date for the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The reason for celebrating the festival during that time is that it is the time when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.

The Mid-autumn festival is one of the two most important occasions in Chinese calendar (the other being the Spring Festival or the Chinese New Year) and it is an official holiday. It is a time for families to be together, so people far from home will gaze longingly at the moon and think about their families.

The traditional food for mid-autumn festival is the moon cake which is round and symbolizes reunion.

A much-told story about the beginning of the Mid-autumn Festival celebration comes from Niuzhu (a place in ancient Nanjing). As early as 1,600 years ago, Nanjing which was called Jianye served as capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. On a Mid-autumn night when Xie Shangyue, the governor of Niuzhu, was boating on a river he met Yuan Hong, a poor, frustrated but gifted scholar who had to earn his living by renting boats. Admiring his ability, Xie made friend with him and Yuan had a rise to fame with the help of Xie. Later on, having heard of the story, many refined scholars from all over the country followed suit to boat in the river, climb up the towers, and watch the moon. Famous poets like Li Bai and Ou Yangzhan were all touched by the story, and then wrote numbers of poems about it. Because of this, the tradition of watching the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival gradually came into being.

Today I will introduce you the Temple of Heaven. It is also a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves ‘The Son of Heaven’, they dared not to build their own dwelling,’ Forbidden City’ bigger than a dwelling for Heaven. It is the largest group of temple architecture in China and also the largest heaven- worshipping building in the world.
The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of ‘The heaven is round and the earth is square’.
Built as a place of worship, the temple is different from any other imperial structures. There are two parts in the temple zone - inner part and outer part. The main buildings of the Temple lie at the south and north ends of the middle axis line of the inner part. The most magnificent buildings are The Circular Mound Altar (Yuanqiutan), Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu) and Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) from south to north. Also, there are some additional buildings like Three Echo Stones and Echo Wall.Almost all of the buildings are connected by a wide bridge called Vermilion Steps Bridge (Danbiqiao) or called Sacred Way.
The Circular Altar has three layered terraces with white marble. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 A.D. - 1911 A.D.), the emperors would offer sacrifice to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. This ceremony was to thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in the future. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is a big palace with round roof and three layers of eaves. Inside the Hall are 28 huge posts. The four posts along the inner circle represent four seasons-spring, summer, autumn and winter; the 12 posts along the middle circle represent the 12 months; and 12 posts along the outer circle represent 12 Shichen (Shichen is a means of counting time in ancient China. One Shichen in the past equaled two hours and a whole day was divided into 12 Shichens). The roof is covered with black, yellow and green colored glaze representing the heavens, the earth and everything on earth. The Hall has a base named Altar for Grain Prayers which is made of three layers of white marble and has a height of six meters.
The Vermilion Steps Bridge connects the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest and the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The south end of the Bridge is lower than its north end. The emperors in the past believed that they could go to heaven through this Bridge, which is why this bridge is also called Sacred Way. A Yu Route and a Wang Route are on two sides of the Sacred Way. The former one is only for the emperors to walk on and the later one is for the princes and the high officials to pass.
Another interesting and famous place for you to visit is called Echo Wall owning special feature. The wall encloses the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Its perimeter is 193 meters.
If you and your friend stand at the east and the west roots of the wall respectively and you whisper a word, then your friend will hear clearly what you say. Isn’t it interesting? The phenomenon utilizes the theory of sound wave.

This article is from a private blog: sabrina1012.blogspot.com.

The last scenic spot of Beijing I want to share with you is the Summer Palace. It is a typical Chinese garden, and is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. It is also a monument to classical Chinese architecture, in terms of both garden design and construction. Borrowing scenes from surrounding landscapes, it radiates not only the grandeur of an imperial garden but also the beauty of nature in a seamless combination that best illustrates the guiding principle of traditional Chinese garden design: “The works of men should match the works of Heaven”.

The Summer Palace landscape, dominated mainly by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, three quarters of which is under water. Centered on the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Foxiangge) the Summer Palace consists of over 3,000 structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors. The Summer Palace can be divided into four parts: the court area, front-hill area, front-lake area, and rear-hill and back-lake area.
Front-Hill Area: this area is the most magnificent area in the Summer Palace with the most constructions. Its layout is quite distinctive because of the central axis from the yard of Kunming Lake to the hilltop, on which important buildings are positioned including Gate of Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Moral Glory, Tower of Buddhist Incense, the Hall of the Sea of Wisdom, etc.
Rear-Hill and Back-Lake Area: although the constructions are fewer here, it has a unique landscape, with dense green trees, and winding paths. Visitors can feel a rare tranquility, and elegance. This area includes scenic spots such as Garden of Harmonious Interest and Suzhou Market Street.
Court Area: this is where Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu met officials, conducted state affairs and rested. Entering the East Palace Gate, visitors may see the main palace buildings: the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity served as the office of the Emperor, the Hall of Jade Ripples where Guangxu lived, the Hall of Joyful Longevity, Cixi’s residence, the Hall of Virtue and Harmony where Cixi was entertained.
Front Lake Area: covering a larger part of the Summer Palace, opens up the vista of the lake. A breeze fluttering, waves gleam and willows kiss the ripples of the vast water. In this comfortable area there are the Eastern and Western Banks, the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, Nanhu Island, and so on. On the western bank float six distinct bridges amongst which the Jade-Belt Bridge is the most beautiful.
In the end, some tips I will tell you. One is the best season to come here is April to October. The other is The Summer Palace is now under large scale restoration and refurbishment. Attractions such as Foxiangge (the Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrant) and Paiyunge (the Pavilion of cloud) are also under renovation. So you should adjust your traveling schedule

All the 5 scenic spots that I introduced these days are all the best famous spots in Beijing. Next I will introduce another charming city – Nanjing, where I live in.