Shanghai - More Temples Than You Can Count

I have been in China for about two months now. It has been an amazing experience and I have been able to travel around a bit, with more travels to come, but a trend I have noticed at every new place I go to is that there are always beautiful temples in every city, and within these temples are gorgeous statues and figurines for worship. Here are just a few of the stunnnig temples and artifacts I have seen.

Wuhou Temple - Chengdu, China

This gorgeous temple is located in Chengdu. It is called Wuhou Temple or the Temple of Marquis or Wuhou Shrine. It's in the southwest area of downtown Chengdu with bonsai gardens and a lovely park surrounding it.

Collecting Colors - Mount Emei

One of my favorite parts about seeing all of these temples is seeing the decorations in and around all of them. This temple's outside was painted beautifully, telling stories with the painting and also just as decoration. The temples also have gorgeous incense burners and lanterns hanging about it. Seeing all of the color so beautifully crafted onto the side of the buidings is stunning.

Top of The Mountain - Mount Qingcheng

This gorgeous pagoda sits at the very peak of Mount Qingcheng, in Chengdu. After hiking 13.6 miles up to the top of the mountain, coming around the corner of the staircase to see this stunning red pagoda with the sun shimmering behind was breathtaking. Not to mention the view at the top as well was amazing. Well worth the hike!

Temple God - Chengdu

In each temple there are various different deities displayed for worship. All of which are enormous beautifully crafted and perched apon a pedestal overlooking the worshipers. 

Jade Buddha Temple - Shanghai

This is the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai. It sits in the middle of the city and houses two of the largest Buddha satues carved completely of jade.

Giant Buddha - Leshan

Visiting the Leshan Giant Buddha was so amazing. Even though half of his body was covered for renovations it was striking to see the immense size of a 71 meter (233 ft) tall Buddha statue carved into a river cliff face. It is located in the southern part of Sichuan province near the city of Leshan, hence the name. And it sits at the meeting point of the Min River and Dadu River. 

Bottom of the Moutain - Mount Qingcheng

Now this isn't exactly a temple but it looks similar to one from the outside. It is actually gift shops and other touristy things that are located at the bottom of Mount Qingcheng. But, the towering trees and looming mountains in the background of these ornately decorated buildings was just too beautiful to pass by without taking a picture.

Stone Carvings - Mount Emei

Throuhgout Emeishan there are many temples but, the most beautiful, I thought, were the carvings in the rock faces along some of the trails. There were a few of them along this wall depicting the story of Buddhism. The craftsmanship of these carvings were so large and still so detailed that the full story couldn't be appreciated in one picture. But, just a single section of the stone carving photographed could do some justice.

Deities - Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai

Within the temples were statues like these. Some are made of stone or clay, and some like this one are gold. Now there's no telling if its real gold or not but it sure does make for a breathtaking statue. 

Fighting Statues - Mount Emei

These two martial arts statues were placed between a temple and a historical site in Emeishan. You can almost see them moving amongst the bamboo beams, twisting and turning through the movements. 

Mountain Temple - Mount Emei

Emeishan houses hundreds of temples, all of them sitting along the mountainside and strewn throughout the mountains themselves. Walking along the base of the mountain there are many temples similar to this one. And all the temples have the gorgeuos view of the mountain scenery in the background.

So Many Temples - Mount Emei

The architecture of each of the buildings is in the classic Chinese style, but each has its own flare to it. This has beautiful curls and swirls flowing up and off the tip of the buildings. Whereas, some of the other buildings have little figurines of the Dragon's nine babies, or soldiers. They could have any manor of lovely carvings and detail among the tiles and edges of the buildings.

Elephants and Temples - Chengdu

I came across this pagoda and elephant statue after coming out of a park that had a temple within it in Chengdu and thought it was beautiful.

Massive Temple - Chengdu

This temple is among the largest of temples I have ever seen. It stretches much further beyond the little snidbit of picture I captured. The details on such an enormous building was stunning to me, to see how much care was put into each centimeter of the building. And the inside did not disappoint either, it was lovely. The walls were covered in paintings and the roof was tiled with gorgeous lotus flowers and other significant symbols. 

Little Wooden Shrine - Mount Emei

Mountainous Temples - Mount Qingcheng

Hiking up Qingchengshan was an incredible experience. Every temple is built right into the mountain. Tilted at crazy angles and steep inclines, these temples will blow your mind. 

Temples Pilling Up - Chengdu

Everywhere you turn here in China there seems to be a temple just around the corner. Here you can see how these builings are scattered throughout gardens as though they are playing cards on a poker table. Each and every one of them is crafted with such detail and care. And built hundreds of years ago! It is amazing that they are in such great shape.

Park Tower - Chengdu

Not sure if this is an actual temple, but it is a monument of some sort. This is in People's Park in Chengdu, China. Surrounding it there is a little courtyard where people were playing a game similar to hackysack and beautiful tulips surrounding the courtyard.