(Hello everyone, I'm alias Lin Zi, a retired post-70s generation, I travel every year, and my small goal is to strive to turn the places I want to go into the roads I have walked.) ）
Among the four famous Buddhist mountains, I have been to Wutai Mountain in Shanxi, Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui Province and Emei Mountain in Sichuan. At present, only Putuo Mountain, Zhejiang Province has not been made because of the epidemic last year. During this time, there was nothing to do at home, and the famous Buddhist mountains that I had been to were sorted out, and Mount Emei and Mount Wutai had written detailed strategies respectively, so if you are interested, you can take a look. Today, I mainly write about the strategy of visiting Jiuhua Mountain.
First, how to get to Jiuhua Mountain.
Jiuhua Mountain is located in Qingyang County, Chizhou City, Anhui Province, you can take the high-speed rail to Chizhou Railway Station first, and then walk to the passenger station next to it, the passenger station has a direct shuttle bus to the Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area, and the traffic is still very convenient.
Second, tickets and accommodation.
The ticket for Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area is 160 yuan, and the scenic transportation car is 50 yuan, which must be bought, and can be purchased online or on-site. After checking the ticket, take the scenic bus first, which takes more than half an hour to enter the Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area. Scenic buses can make a round trip at each stop.
If you are staying, I recommend you to live in the scenic area, when I went in September 2022, the homestay was 150 yuan. Jiuhua Mountain Scenic Area and Wutai Mountain are particularly similar, these temples are located on both sides of the main street, there are many B&Bs in the scenic area, the conditions are similar to the hotels, you can contact the B&B boss to pick up the station after entering the scenic spot, take the luggage by the way, it is more convenient to live in the scenic area to and from the temple.
Third, how to visit Jiuhua Mountain.
Jiuhua Mountain is one of the four famous Buddhist mountains, the dojo of Jizo Bodhisattva. "Hell is not empty, and you will not become a Buddha", referring to the Bodhisattva of the King of Jizo. The story of the Silla monk Kim Qiaojue, who practiced penance in Jiuhua Mountain, is very similar to the Chinese Jizo Bodhisattva. It takes at least two days to visit the entire Jiuhua Mountain.
Half of the temples in Jiuhua Mountain are on Jiuhua Street, such as the Flesh Treasure Hall, Huacheng Temple, etc., and the other half is located in the middle of the mountain or on the mountain, which needs to be reached by car, climbing the mountain or taking the cable car, such as the Hundred Years Old Palace, Tiantai Temple, Worship Table, etc. The following is an introduction to some key temples in Jiuhua Mountain.
1, Huacheng Temple, when you see a flock of pigeons by the crescent pool, you will also come to the main temple of Jiuhua Mountain, the oldest Jizo Bodhisattva dojo Huacheng Temple. This is a white temple, was built in the Tang Dynasty, is built for the Silla monk Jin Qiaojue practice, the temple gate has the plaque of Kangxi and Qianlong imperial book, the temple currently has the spirit palace, the Tianwang Palace, the Daxiong Treasure Hall and the Tibetan Scripture Building ** Palace.
2, Qiyuan Temple, just enter the scenic spot can be seen, a building area is relatively large, the appearance is a yellow temple, there are more than ten halls, the palace style and the residential style building is combined, among which the Daxiong Treasure Hall sits in three gold-spraying Buddhas, 6 meters high, is the largest Buddha statue in all the temples of Jiuhua Mountain.
3, Huatian Temple, located in the north of Julong Temple, not far from the ancestral garden Huacheng Temple of Jiuhua Mountain, built in 1922, is a temple more than 100 years old, the appearance of the white temple, it is said that only more than a hundred years of the temple, the appearance is painted white, the plaque of Huatian Temple is inscribed by Kang Youwei.
4, Tonghui Zen Forest, on the way to the Hundred Years Old Palace, you will pass through the Tonghui Zen Forest, this is a nunnery, in the past was one of the east liao of Huacheng Temple, there is the body of the bhikshuni Renyi Venerable, and it is also the first bhikshuni real body in the history of Buddhism in Jiuhua Mountain.
5, 100-year-old palace, from Tonghui Zen Forest to the cable car ride point of the 100-year-old palace, 55 yuan one-way, 100 yuan round-trip, good physical strength can also walk up slowly from Jiuhua Street, not very high. It is recommended to go up the cable car, hike down, and see many temples on the way down. From the Centennial Palace, you can see the most beautiful flower platform and natural sleeping Buddha in the natural scenery of Jiuhua Mountain.
Most of the main buildings of the 100-year-old palace are white walls and black tiles, the north-south direction, built along the mountain, there is the body hall of the flawless monk in the Ming Dynasty, because it lived to 120 years old before he died, it was named "100-year-old palace". There is also a building inside, the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats is particularly worth seeing, all the Arhats are golden and lifelike. Among the four famous Buddhist mountains, only the 100-year-old palace in Jiuhua Mountain and the Fuhu Temple in Emei Mountain have 500 Arhat halls.
6, East Cliff Temple, Huixiang Pavilion and Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda.
Hike down the mountain from the Hundred Years Old Palace, the first thing to pass by is the East Cliff Temple, "East Cliff Cloud Fang" is one of the ten views of Jiuhua Mountain. The prince of Silla, Kim Joo Kyo, was the first to practice asceticism here, and later invited him down from the mountain after the construction of Hwaseong Temple. Wang Yangming, a psychologist in the Ming Dynasty, also came here to talk about the scriptures.
Dongya Zen Temple continues to go down, not far away is the Hui Xiang Pavilion, the so-called "Hui Xiang", refers to the Buddhists of Jiuhua, return from the Tiantai pilgrimage, to burn incense and worship here and get the name, indicating that the activity is to be successfully concluded by the last ceremony.
Huixiang Pavilion comes out and goes up the steps, which is the Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda, which was built by Cao Dewang, chairman of Fuyao Glass. The pagoda has a total of seven floors, filling the gap of the open-air copper pagoda in our country, the tower is 33 meters high, and only the ground floor is open for worship at present.
Continue to go down the mountain will pass by the upper meditation hall, there is the only dripping Guanyin and Jinsha Spring in Jiuhua Mountain, when I went to the temple master also let me wash my hands and face with water.
The following focuses on the two routes of climbing Tiantai Temple, most tourists take the cable car up the mountain, and then walk for half an hour to reach the worship platform, and then climb from the worship platform to Tiantai Temple, and finally hike down the mountain or cable car down the mountain, Tiantai Temple is also the highest temple in Jiuhua Mountain.
I hiked all the way to Tendaiji Temple that day, and then took the cable car down the mountain. First take the Jingjiao bus to Phoenix Pine Station, start to hike up the mountain, it is said that it is easy to go up the mountain and difficult to go down, it is beautiful to hike all the way up the mountain, after a number of nunnery, there are the most beautiful temples in Jiuhua Mountain, and there are very few tourists. Here are a few of the monasteries along the way.
7. Huiju Temple, is the largest temple in the area of Minyuan, located on the mountainside of Tiantai Peak, backed by the high mountain, facing the bamboo sea, the environment is very beautiful, belongs to the inheritance of Caodong Sect, is one of the "five families" of Chinese Zen Buddhism.
8, worship the scripture platform, all the way up, ten steps a nunnery, a hundred steps a temple, large and small temples as many as dozens. The prayer platform is both a platform and a temple, located on the west side of Tiantai Peak, it is a rare platform in the lofty mountains, the worship platform is named after the golden place to recite the scriptures here, there are the golden scriptures to worship the ruins and sitting statues, there are stepping stones and places to leave footprints for worshipping the scriptures.
9, Tiantai Temple, worship the platform all the way to climb the steps, you can reach the top of Tiantai Peak, the altitude here is 1306 meters, Tiantai Temple is the highest position of Jiuhua Mountain a temple, is the holy place of worship of Jiuhua Mountain, the Bible must go to the place, so the Tiantai is called the main peak of Jiuhua Mountain, there is to Jiuhua Mountain, "not on the roof, equal to nothing" said, there is an ancient cave behind the temple, those who believe in Buddhism can go in to see. The cable car down the mountain goes down one kilometer from the prayer platform, and the one-way ticket is 85 yuan.
10, the body treasure hall, from the Tiantai Temple down, take the scenic traffic car can go directly, here is the most essence and most sacred Jiuhua Mountain, but also tourists and believers must come to worship and check in the place. The earliest name of the Flesh Treasure Hall was "Golden Hidden Pagoda", and the stone tower of the main hall has the Golden Hidden Flesh Pagoda, which is said to be opened only once in 60 years, and there are very few that can really be seen. The whole temple is composed of several parts of the Flesh Treasure Hall, the Tibetan Zen Temple, and the Mida Palace, and the Mida Hall comes out of Jiuhua Street, and it is also the main gate here, basically not going back.
11. Flower Terrace and Dayuan Cultural Park.
Huatai is the core scenic spot of Jiuhua Mountain, and it is also the most beautiful place with natural scenery, it is recommended to play in the scenic area for about a day and a half, and you can take a bus directly to Huatai in the afternoon. It is recommended to visit the cable car up and down, the cost is 160 yuan, after the cable car comes down, climb the steps first, go up to the top of the flower platform, you can have a glance at the mountains, and then go 15 kilometers of high-altitude plank road, beautiful scenery along the way, it is still very comfortable to walk, and the tour time is about 2 hours.
After visiting the flower platform, you can go to the Dayuan Cultural Park, which has the world's tallest bronze statue of the Bodhisattva, this two-day itinerary can be said to be very, very compact.
At that time, I stayed in the scenic area for two nights and outside the scenic area for one night, and I played in Jiuhua Mountain for a total of three days. If you are more interested in Buddhism, or want to visit Jiuhua Mountain in depth, it is recommended to spend three days, so it is not very tiring, I have entered the main temples, although I am an atheist, but I like to go to a place, all more detailed to see it, at that time also took a lot of **, if you are interested, you can look through.