Earlier this week I took a "field trip" to Chongming island to visit a Buddhist temple during a fall festival. The day was bright and the scenery beautiful. We toured the temple as the monks were chanting and you actually felt like you had stepped back in time. Chongming is the third largest Island in China where the Yangtze River and the East China sea meet, about an hour outside of Shanghai.
As with most Buddhist temples there is the bell tower, shown above to ring in the new day and a drum tower to announce the end of the day.
The banners inside the temples were beautiful swaying in the wind!
We interviewed one of the resident monks and found them to be very different from traditional Buddhist monks in that they leave their families for life and believe the temple houses their new family.Very isolating but dedicated nonetheless.
Now on to Yellow Mountain for a weekend of hiking and stunning views!
xoxo, Kathy and Phil
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