Another well visited sight in Chengdu is the Wenshu Monastery. It is a big Buddhist temple in the heart of Chengdu. Tour group usually visit this place so it would advisable to come early. This monastery is old, it was founded in the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty. It is also noted for its cultural relics.
The monastery is just off a main highway of Chengdu an is very accessible. To enter the ground of the monastery, there is an entrance just along a street off the main road. It is probably the first time I saw a ticket booth that small. I’m sure people will miss it. I wonder if the security guards don’t get tired to pointing to the ticket booth just a ffew meters away.
The Wenshu Monastery grounds as a park like feel to it. Just like the People’s Park in Chengdu, this also seems to be a relaxing place to be. In fact, it would seem that that Chengdu parks are all like this. There is an altar at the entrance of the Wenshu monastery grounds where believers offer joss sticks to Buddha. It feels like the temple scene at Mount Emei again minus the cold.
Further inside the grounds are people just sitting around and talking. Some of them just here to give their pet birds some air. Others were just here for a simple stroll in the park. It is hard not to be taken in by the relaxing atmosphere. Just around the corner was one of those Sichuan tea houses, which has the exactly the same atmosphere as the one in People’s Park.
Deep inside the park is the actual Wenshu Monastery itself. It is a nice and elegant and considering it is an old structure surprisingly well maintained. There is an undergrond passageway to enter the monastery but we didn’t have time to go in. There is a separate entrance fee to the monastery itself where all the cultural relics are kept. It was too bad, I guess we should have allocated more time for the Wenshu Monastery. But we have a schedule to keep.
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