Lately I’ve been trying to get better at photography and editing. I own more than a dozen books on photography and visual aesthetics, but I haven’t been getting outside much. Today I finally did. During the day I visited several temples in Guangling County in northern Shanxi. This post is mostly a collection of photos from that trip. They were all taken with my old phone, and I didn’t edit or enhance the images.

In the morning I visited Chaoyang Temple, Shuishen Tang (Water God Temple), Shengquan Temple in the mountains, and Jile Temple. In the afternoon I stopped by a few smaller temples as well, but here I’ll mainly share photos from the first four.

The thing I remember most about Chaoyang Temple was looking down from above and seeing the traditional Chinese dark-tile roofs. They were beautiful. We arrived very early and only ran into one Buddhist nun (master shifu) inside the temple. This temple is still being expanded on the hillside.

Next was Shuishen Tang (Water God Temple). It’s a very old temple. I walked around for a while. The scenery felt gray and quiet that morning, almost a little lonely. People there told me that in spring, when the willow trees start budding and the migratory birds return, the place becomes very charming. They also said the area around Shuishen Tang used to be wetter than it is today.. I’ll share a photo I found online:

Shengquan Temple sits up in the mountains. There’s a winding road leading up to it, and the view along the mountain was nice. I took photos of the Four Heavenly Kings at the entrance. Part of the temple built on the cliff (See Image) looks a lot like the famous Hanging Temple in Shanxi. Unfortunately that part was locked when I arrived, so we couldn’t go inside.

Then there was Jile Temple. If you search “Jile Temple” online, it will probably show the one in Harbin. But the Jile Temple in Guangling is extremely grand. It immediately reminded me of the Forbidden City. I’m not sure whether the structure or the stair design is actually similar, but that was the feeling I had. The Buddha statue inside the main hall was the largest one I saw that day. I’d guess it’s around ten meters tall. The wall reliefs with many Buddhas were also incredibly detailed. Since it’s a temple, taking photos casually isn’t really appropriate, but the visual impact was honestly overwhelming.

At noon I had a vegetarian meal at Jile Temple. The dining hall was very clean. When you walk in, there’s a small Buddha statue. Rows of seats line both sides of the hall, facing toward the center. Women sit on the left side and men on the other. The first row is reserved for senior monks. Lunch was simple vegetarian dishes with steamed buns or red-bean buns. Someone came around and placed the food into each bowl. At the end everyone is expected to finish their food completely. Nothing should be left stuck to the bowl, and especially no leftovers. I heard that if food falls outside and someone doesn’t eat it, a monk will eat it in front of them. But today everyone just ate quietly.

Outside the dining hall there’s a small botanical garden. It has a few tropical plants, which look surprisingly lush during the cold transition between winter and spring. The atmosphere felt very calm and almost meditative.

After lunch, while walking around the temple, I took a few photos of small child-like Buddha statues outside. They were very cute.

While walking down the stairs, I looked up and saw the roof of the main hall. The dark clouds had just opened and sunlight was breaking through. Because my phone camera isn’t very good, the sky tends to get overexposed in photos. I tried my best to capture what I actually saw. When I showed the photos to people around me, they joked that I must have received a blessing from the Buddha.

After that I took a car to a few smaller temples deeper in the mountains. They were in very quiet and remote places, so I didn’t take photos there.

When I got back and lay down to rest, it was already around five in the afternoon. My fitness tracker showed more than 15,000 steps for the day. Even accounting for some tracking error from being in the car, hiking around the temples was still pretty tiring. But I was very happy.

This was my first time visiting Guangling. I’ve heard the local donkey meat, dried tofu, paper-cutting and millet are famous. Since my main goal was visiting temples, I didn’t get out of the car while passing through the town streets. But I’ve heard that Guangling’s paper-cutting is colorful, not just the usual red.

Since the new year I haven’t been intentionally updating my blog. I wanted to try doing something a little different—like improving my photography—and honestly I’ve just been really busy. Next time I visit the temples in Guangling, I’ll bring my new phone. Hopefully the photos will turn out even better.