Hualin Temple: Lesser Known Guangzhou

Most people come to Guangzhou 'for business' - attend a fair, meet the suppliers, do some factory hopping. They virtually have no time to get acquainted with the city itself. And even if they do a couple of mainstream temples, a dim-sum restaurant and a river cruise will do it. Fortunately or not, I have more time, so the guidebook quickly runs out of sights. It's time to move further, get off the beaten trail. Here we go - some of the lesser known things come into mind. Some google, some baidu, and i have a destination for the weekend - Hualin Temple (华林寺).

According to the legend (and onsite signs) the temple was established in 5-6 century AD by Bodhidharma himself and was initially called 西来宫 (Xilai gong) - literally 'Temple of the guest from the West' .

Along with most of the religious structures in China it was heavily damaged (actually almost completely ruined) during the Cultural Revolution. Now only two halls survive - one was restored, the other is a replica made from scratch. The former houses giant golden Bodhidharma, the latter statues of 500 arhats - Buddhist saints who achieved enlightenment but decided to stay with the people to help relieve their suffering. One of the statues is said to depict Marco Polo who visited China in 13th century.



Well, nothing special, you'd say. I would have agreed if... if not the atmosphere. The thing is real - grannies come here with their grandchildren to teach them pray, shoppers from the nearby shopping street carry all the bags and sacks to give a quick bow, plump-faced 'serious' men buy giant joss sticks to burn (for some big sins, huh), youngsters with overgeled hair gaze at the flame and seem to think about life.

And it's free of charge! Very rare for a Chinese temple, the only one in Guangzhou that i saw so far.