Listen to advice, listen to advice, listen to advice! I will never come to Huayan Temple again

📍Datong·Huayan Temple Travel Guide⚠️ Datong Huayan Temple, a millennium-old temple steeped in the civilization of the Liao and Jin grasslands, faces west and east, reflecting the Khitan people's custom of 'honoring the east and dwelling towards the sun'. As the western capital of the former Liao and Jin dynasties, Huayan Temple served as the ancestral temple of the royal family, 'enshrining stone and bronze statues of various emperors'. The Great Buddha Hall in the upper temple is the largest existing Liao and Jin Buddhist hall in China; the lower temple's Baoji Scripture Hall resembles an aerial pavilion with its intricate and elegant architectural form of pavilions within pavilions and wall niches, a masterpiece of Liao dynasty wooden structure, acclaimed by the famous architect Mr. Liang Sicheng as 'a unique treasure within the country'. Inside the hall, a statue of a 'smiling bodhisattva with clasped hands and bare upper body', plump and with smooth lines, is a treasure of colored sculpture art, exclaimed by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo as the 'Venus of the East'. Every timber in Huayan Temple authentically records the local history and ethnic customs of the construction period. The magnificent colored sculptures and the layered arches are a history, a sentiment. Standing in front of the ancient hall, one feels the breath of ancient wood and imagines sharing the same roof with the ancients... as if returning to the era when Buddhist pagodas stood tall and the city was prosperous and inclusive. Huayan Temple is divided into the upper and lower Huayan Temples. The upper Huayan Temple is centered around the Great Buddha Hall, with the two temples adjacent to each other, and the lower Huayan Temple is located to the south of the upper temple. The upper and lower Huayan Temples are ancient sites, while the others are newly built. 🌟Highlights: Entering Huayan Temple, the first hall that catches the eye - Puguangming Hall, is majestic and houses exquisite Buddha statues. Most importantly, the large murals surrounding the four walls completely stunned and amazed me. The exquisite Buddhist murals in Datong Huayan Temple use traditional techniques of separating and connecting landscapes with mountains, rocks, flowing water, clouds, trees, pavilions, and terraces. The colors are mainly azurite and malachite, supplemented with gold leaf, making the colors vibrant and the craftsmanship fine. The Huayan Pagoda is the second-largest pure wooden mortise and tenon structure square wooden pagoda in the country after the Ying County Wooden Pagoda, with a total height of 43 meters, a golden disc above, and a lotus pond below, glittering in gold and jade. The lower Huayan Temple was also built during the Liao dynasty. The highlight here is the statues, including the legendary smiling bodhisattva with clasped hands. 📝Tips: When visiting Huayan Temple, you can first tour the upper Huayan Temple to the north, then enter the lower Huayan Temple to the south through the small gate in the temple, and both can be toured along the central axis. It should be noted that the two central axes of Huayan Temple are different from the 'north-south direction' of most temples in the Central Plains of China. Both the upper and lower Huayan Temples have 'east-west direction' central axes, and the main halls all face east, which is related to the Khitan people's custom of worshipping the sun and regarding the east as superior. 🕙Opening hours: 08:30-18:00 🎫Admission fee: 50 yuan 📍Detailed address: No. 459, Xia Si Po Street, Pingcheng District, Datong City