The Huishan Temple is located in the Xihui Park at the foot of the Huishan Hill in western suburb of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Huishan Hill, also known as Huiquanshan Hill (Hui Spring Hill), is also called Nine Dragon Hill because it has nine mountain ridges, looking like a moving dragon. The Huishan Hill is reputed as the first hill south of the Yangtze River. The Huishan Hill is famous for its springs, among which the most famous one is the second spring under heaven. This spring is divided into three pools: the upper pool, the middle pool and the lower pool. The lower pool is at the entrance, dug in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), with water flowing down from a hole above and then out of the mouth of a stone dragon to the ground. A hall named Qilan (ripples and billows) Hall stands beside the spring, with a Kwan-yin stone erected in front of it. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),Shanghai Travel, the stone was moved here from the villa of Gu Kexue, a senior official of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In the back of the hall is the well-known Erquan Pavilion. The upper pool and the middle pool situate inside and in front of the pavilion respectively, dug during late Dali year (779) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The upper pool has an octagonal shape, with the best water quality among the three pools. The middle pool has a shape of asymmetrical square, with its water seeping though the Ruobing Hole. According to legend, the pool was discovered by a monk named Ruobing in the Tang Dynasty, hence the name Bing Spring.
11/24/2009
Shanghai Travel - Xizhimen Wai in Haidian District of Beijing
The Five-Pagoda Temple is situated at Xizhimen Wai in Haidian District of Beijing. Its original name was the Temple of True Awakening (Zhen Jue Temple), which changed to the Temple of Great Righteous Awakening (Da Zhengjue Temple) after renovation in 1761. Today, however, it is popularly referred to as the Five-Pagoda Temple because there are five pagodas in the temple. ¡¡¡¡ ¡¡¡¡The structure of the Five Pagodas is known in Buddhist terminology as the diamond throne pagoda style, wherein five small pagodas stand on a large square foundation known as the throne. This architectural form was introduced to China by an Indian monk around the year of 1413, and the Temple of True Awakening was constructed here in 1473. The entire temple complex, including numerous wooden buildings, was renovated and renovated in 1761, but in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) it was looted and burned to the ground,Shanghai Travel, first by the Anglo-French Allied Armies in 1860, then again by the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900. Today, the only extant relic is the monumental diamond throne pagoda. Altogether, China only has six diamond throne pagodas nationwide, of which three are located in Beijing, namely, the Five-Pagoda Temple, the Temple of Azure Clouds and the Yellow Temple; and of the other three, one is in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, one is the Miaolian Temple in Kunming City of Yunnan Province and the last one, the Guanghui Temple in Zhengding County of Hebei Province. Among all the six,China Pictures, the Five-Pagoda Temple in Beijing is the most beautiful one.