Zhenhai Temple Transportation Guide: External Transportation

Aviation

Taiyuan Wusu Airport is located in the southern suburbs, about 18 kilometers away from the urban area. There are direct flights to major large and medium-sized cities across the country such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guilin, Nanjing, Shenyang, and Xi'an. There are no fixed civil flights from Taiyuan city to the airport. The easiest way is to take a taxi yourself. It takes about 30 minutes to take a taxi from the city to the airport.

Railway

Taiyuan is the terminal of the Jingyuan and Shitai Railway lines and the starting point of the Taijiao Line, connecting dozens of major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, and Baotou. In the middle city, there are more than 20 express trains passing through and terminating in Taiyuan every day. Taiyuan Railway Station is located at the eastern end of Yingze Street. You can take many buses such as 1, 5, 52 from the city directly to the train station. The train ticket office is at Datong Railway Station, which takes about 5 hours and costs 70 yuan (including a snack). In addition, there are expressways from Taiyuan to Gujiao, Wenshui and other places

On the west side of Qingshui River in the south of Taihuai Town is Zhenhai Temple, 10 miles away from Taihuai Town and 1,600 meters above sea level. The temple is located in the geomantic treasure land of two dragons playing with pearls. The peaks surrounding it on the left and right sides are like two flying dragons falling down the river valley, with their backs bent and moving around. The temple is built on the mouth of a stone mountain surrounded by two mountains, like a two-flying dragon. Orbs with dragons playing. There are old and tall pine trees in the gap of the mountain. Walking on the path among the pine forests and listening to the rustling pine wind will give people a feeling of loneliness and deepness. When you enter the temple and look around, you will see that the mountain peaks on the south side are covered with dense fir and poplar trees, and on the top of the mountain on the north side, thousand-year-old pines emerge from the rocks. This is a scenic spot in Wutai Mountain. The mountain temple is shaded by lush green pines, which is rare in the Wutai temple area.

According to legend, there used to be an eye of the sea at the bottom of the mountain opposite Zhenhai Temple. At any time, the sea water might burst out, destroying the fields and submerging the villages. Manjushri Bodhisattva benefited all the people, so he placed a pagoda on the eye of the sea to calm the flooding of the sea. Later, a temple was built here, called Zhenhai Temple, and the tower was called Zhenhai Tower.

Zhenhai Temple is built on the mouth of a steep stone mountain, close to the front edge of the courtyard. There are flag poles on trees, stone lions squatting on them, and a mountain gate, the Heavenly King Hall and the second bell and drum floor. The inscription on the imperial stele in the temple in the first month of the 50th year of Kangxi's reign reads: The Zhenhai Temple is a secluded grove at the intersection, a beautiful place to embrace, a sacred temple, a hall for Zen-style chanting, a mysterious spiritual area, and a place for Dharma driving scriptures. land. Zhenhai Temple covers an area of ??16,000 square meters and has 100 halls and buildings. The main building of the temple is the main hall upon entering. There are four heavenly kings on the two walls of the heavenly king hall, with Maitreya Buddha in the middle. There are three seated Buddhas in the middle hall, with spiritual lights behind them and a golden body. In the middle of the back hall, there is Manjushri Bodhisattva sitting and reclining lion. There are three golden seated statues on the front side of the statue. There is a courtyard passing through the small door on the west side of the hall. In the courtyard is the tomb tower of the 15th Zhangjia Living Buddha built in the 51st year of Qianlong's reign. On a platform that is 7.9 meters long, 7 meters wide and 1.3 meters high, there is a stone tower that is more than 9 meters high and looks like an algae bottle. The base of the tower has eight corners, each corner is sculpted with a strong man, and the eight sides of the base are carved with figures and colored. There are three seated Buddhas carved in the middle of the belly of the pagoda, and eight standing statues surrounding it. On top of the round belly, there are layers of retracted spires. The tower has a unique shape and fine and gorgeous carvings.

Zhangjia Living Buddha is a Buddhist statue that has been inherited from successive generations in the Yellow Sect. Since Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, it has been respected as a national teacher by successive emperors. The 15th Living Buddha Zhangjia, whose name is Raobu Dalji, lives in Songzhu Temple in Beijing. Every summer, he comes to Mount Wutai to escape the heat and meditate. He saw the beautiful scenery of Zhenhai Temple and often lived here when he came to the mountain. Later, he changed the name of Zhenhai Temple to Huang Temple. Zhang Jiarao was thought to have passed away in Beijing during the Qianlong period. Later, his ashes were transported to Zhenhai Temple and a tomb tower was built. After that, all Zhangjia dynasties always lived in Zhenhai Temple. It was passed to the 19th Zhangjia Living Buddha. Yuan Shikai appointed the leader of the Yellow Sect in charge of Beijing, Xining and Mount Wutai, and gave the cavalry a great power. The Kuomintang government appointed him as a representative of the National Congress, and promoted him as a national counselor and a propaganda envoy of the Northwest Mongolian Banner. He set up an office in Beijing, an administrative office in Zhenhai Temple, and a cavalry battalion alone. This living Buddha has great power in Mount Wutai, and Zhenhai Temple also owns a large amount of property. Based on incomplete statistics in the 25th year of the Republic of China alone, the rent collected was as high as more than 80,000 dan. In the future, the Living Buddha Zhangjia exploited the people, was dissolute and immoral, stayed away from Buddhist teachings, and was despised by the monks. After the July 7th Incident, he left Wutai Mountain and went to Nanjing, and then to Taiwan.