Barbers in Beijing: Hongluo Mountain and Temple

Jenny asked us to join her on a day trip to Hongluo Temple. The temple is located on the Hongluo mountain about a hours drive outside of Beijing proper. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and cool breezes. We arrived and began exploring the grounds. The temple is an imperial temple and was once frequented only by the royal family. The first thing we came upon was the bamboo forest which was planted 1000 years ago by the emperor. Bamboo doesn't normally grow near Beijing because of the climate. Usually it it seen in the south of China.

Next we saw the Gold Coin pit. People were throwing coins and trying to hit the bell in the center of the giant coin.

The legend of the temple is that 2 princesses descended from heaven and took the form of red snails. This is a picture of the story...

This is a picture of the princesses' statue.

Here we are in the red snail shell.

We walked a bit further and found the temple. This is a Buddhist temple and the happy reclining Buddha was being worshipped and the smell of burning incense was in the air.

There was a beautiful ancient Ginkgo tree in the temple courtyard that was showing off it fall colors.

Next we found the trail of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. We took this picture along the way of the bunnies. There is a little bunny on my back.

Next we found the pine forest and the 500 Buddhas. This was pretty neat to see all the statues scattered around the woods. They all had on red capes.

There was one giant Buddha among all the smaller ones. Here we are in front of him.

We decided to Climb the mountain trail to check out the view from the top. The hike was a moderate incline with a paved trail and stairs. The forest on the mountain was showing off its fall colors.