Off-the-beaten-path attractions that are worth visiting just for the emojis, Tiantai Mountain's Guoqing Temple

🚫 If you are currently in a low point, feeling restless, uncomfortable, and anxious, go to Guoqing Temple. May you return to walk the earth, still striving for clarity and freedom. ⭕️ Evening drums and morning bells, seeking Zen, spring plowing and autumn harvesting, enriching the soul ⭕️ A Sui Dynasty ancient temple over 1400 years old, Sui plum trees, Sui pagoda, every plant, brick, and tile here records the mottled history, every scene has its own story, with time as the thread, no matter what you are experiencing now, looking back, it may just be a point ⭕️ Entering Guoqing Temple, paddy fields on the left, a distant view of the thousand-year-old Sui pagoda, mountains and forests on the right, babbling streams, ancient trees reaching the sky, all part of the temple's serene setting amidst nature 🧩 Must-see in the temple: 1️⃣ Crossing Fenggan Bridge, the yellow shadow wall bears four big characters 'Sui Dynasty Ancient Temple'. At first glance, the character for 'Sui' seems strange, missing the 'work' radical, but this is just the ancient Sui Dynasty script. 2️⃣ The full name of Guoqing Temple is 'Guoqing Lecture Temple', where 'lecture' is written in traditional characters as '言育', expressing the Tiantai Sect's teaching philosophy of unity of knowledge and action; hence, Tiantai Mountain is currently a 5A tourist attraction. 3️⃣ Seeing the temple gate, the two lions standing at the entrance are made of Han white jade, which were moved from the Forbidden City Museum. 4️⃣ Entering the temple gate, the four characters of the Mahavira Hall are written vertically, in the same style as the royal family, indicating that it was a royal temple in the past; the 'Shengshou Wujing Bronze Incense Burner' at the entrance of the Mahavira Hall was cast by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother's birthday; this place was also a filming location for Jet Li's 'Shaolin Temple'. 5️⃣ The Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, which actually contains 501 statues, try to find Ji Gong. 6️⃣ The Garan Hall, which enshrines not Guan Yu, but the Taoist deity Prince Wang Qiao of the Western Zhou Dynasty. 7️⃣ The authentic single-character 'goose' calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, created with one stroke of his 'Eight Principles of Yong'. 8️⃣ The Sui Pagoda, hexagonal and nine-tiered, the flying eaves and brackets have disappeared over the years and dynastic changes, leaving only the pagoda body; seven Buddha statues discovered from within the pagoda body are now preserved in the temple's pagoda stele room. 🧩 Travel Tips To reach Tiantai Mountain high-speed rail station: 1️⃣ Take bus route 7 2️⃣ Shared electric bikes, about 25 minutes, can ride directly to the entrance of the scenic area 🧩 Accommodation: 1️⃣ Homestays near Guoqing Temple 2️⃣ Hotels near Guoqing Temple: Tiantai Mountain Hotel (strongly recommended building 5, first floor, see picture 17), Tiantai Hot Spring Hotel 3️⃣ To visit the entire Tiantai Mountain scenic area, stay in homestays near the Tiantai Mountain Tourist Center 🧩 Guoqing Temple admission is free, open from 7:30 to 16:00 🧩 Tiantai Mountain 3-day 2-night itinerary: D1: Suggested shared electric bike + taxi High-speed rail station → Guoqing Temple → Chicheng Mountain (7:00~16:00 to watch the sunset) D2: Travel by tourist bus + strenuous mountain climbing Tiantai Mountain Waterfall (8:00~15:00) + Qiongtai Xiangu (8:00~16:00) (ticket 165 includes Huiqiao scenic tour, ticket 80) → Shiliang Waterfall (8:00~16:00, ticket 60) D3: Tiantai Mountain Museum (8:00~16:00 free) → Buddhist City (8:00~17:00 Taizhou Traditional Crafts Museum 10r) → Return to high-speed rail station