Visit Xianglu Peak

The day before yesterday, I went to Xianglu Peak, the first mountain in Shaoxing, with a few buddies.

Take the bus and get off at the Yuling intersection. Looking up at the mountain, you can see the Siyuan Tower and Guanyin Hall on the top of the mountain. The clouds are steaming and the clouds are dim, and we can only see a rough outline.

After passing through the gate, we walked around. It's a long way from here to Xianglu Mountain. The flowers are fragrant and the trees are green along the way, which makes you feel at ease. There was an observation car that went up the mountain, but we finally decided to walk up.

After about half an hour, we arrived not far from the Lufeng Zen Temple complex at the foot of Xianglu Peak. We could see a cluster of ancient buildings on the left, and another one that is rarely seen in famous mountains in the south of the Yangtze River. The wide and vast eight-sided tower, so I started to encourage my friends to go there and take a look. Later it turned out that this might have been an inelegant choice.

After a few minutes, we finally reached the gate of the mountain. There was a distance in front of the gate of Delufeng Temple. There were shops and restaurants selling goods on both sides, and you could even smell the smell. It smells like stinky tofu.

There is a parking lot on the left side of the main road. Originally there was no road leading to the buildings on the left, but maybe it was the rare tourists like me who made it convenient for us. Step out of the path through the grass. When I got closer, I realized that this was Kuaiji Mountain Tianfu Garden. But not knowing the cause and effect, he walked in.

When I took a closer look, everything was desolate, with only a few wreaths leaning against the walls. Therefore, Yang immediately shouted that this was a cemetery, but it was difficult to step out after already arriving. I had no choice but to walk to the middle road. When I got to the main hall, I looked up and read "Ksitigarbha Hall". Looking inside, I found that the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was enshrined in the hall, and his attire looked rather like Tang Monk. The couplets on both sides read, "Only when all sentient beings survive will they realize Bodhi. I will never become a Buddha until hell is empty." Another couplet reads, "If you don't seek happiness for yourself, I hope all sentient beings can be freed from suffering." We enter the temple and pray sincerely before we leave the temple. I walked to the left of the corridor, probably wanting to see the tower, but I saw a forest of tombs on the right side of the tower, so I was not interested. Hua got to walk around the tower, while Yang and I were waiting on the corridor.

Soon after, we went out together and saw ignorant and uninformed tourists rushing in at the door. We wanted to stop them, but in the blink of an eye, we just thought they were coming to pay homage to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. Nothing is impossible.

After leaving the garden, we walked onto the road that was carved out of the grass. There was a reason why the garden gate was straight out, and the terrain was low, leading to the right side of the road. I only learned about it when I went down the mountain. The road leading to the gate of Lufeng Temple crosses with the road from Tianfu Garden, but the road is up and there is a bridge at the intersection. I forgot its name.

Arrive at the gate of Delufeng Temple and enter from the left. There are two gates, one on the left and one on the left. In the middle is a relatively wide and extremely high Nine Dragon Wall. On the nine dragon wall is written "Yuezhong Buddha Kingdom". When entering, the left door is written with "Qibao Lindi" and the right door is written with "Pure Victory Wonderful Place". We walked around the right side of the release pond and saw goldfish swimming around in the pond. We looked at it for a moment and felt envious. They say that the fish are free, but people are so busy in life that they never have a moment to rest. Walking up the steps, I saw a pavilion in Lufeng Zen Temple. It happened to be under construction in the temple and it was inconvenient to enter, so I just admired it at the door and walked around to the left of the temple. Lufeng Zen Temple is a huge and spacious complex of buildings. Although I have traveled around so far, I can no longer remember everything clearly. The most impressive ones are the Main Hall and Guanyin Hall. In particular, the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha in the Main Hall is more than ten meters high, majestic and admirable. On both sides are the two Bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjushri. The rest of the walls are probably painted with various Arhats.

After leaving the Debao Hall, there are various Buddhist temples on both sides, including the Tianwang Hall, the Three Holy Temples, etc. I can’t remember much of them.

We followed the road on the left and headed up the mountain. Perhaps this is where we really start climbing. The mountain road is steep, with lush green trees on both sides, and the scenery is good. The mountain is said to be 354 meters, but as it winds up, it increases a lot of distance, and the stone steps seem to be 1508, so it is not easy to climb up in one go. Therefore, with many stops along the way, I don’t know at what point we will reach the top of the mountain. After passing the Siyuan Pagoda, Nantianzhu plaque, "Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra" cliff, etc., a few steps further you will reach the building complex at the highest point of the peak, which is probably the Guanyin Hall and the Sansheng Palace. After a short break, we spent noon and had a bowl of Fu Shou noodles at the mountain top vegetarian noodle restaurant before heading back down the mountain.

The journey was much easier than going up the mountain. Talking and laughing, we arrived at the foot of the mountain in a blink of an eye.

After passing Lufeng Zen Temple, I looked to the right and saw that the mountain was covered with a forest of tombs. Just because of the small tree planted in front of each tomb, I was fooled at first, but I also know the beauty of why the entrance of Tianfu Garden does not pass through the main road, but the road leading up the mountain on the right from under the bridge.

It was eight or nine o'clock in the morning when we went there, and the sun was shining brightly, but it was already two or three o'clock in the afternoon when we came back, and it was still raining lightly.