Guiyuan Temple
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The Guiyuan Temple was established during the Qing Dynasty in 1658. "Guiyuan" means "the properties of the outcome of things are having the corresponding origins", which is a concept in Buddhism. The temple has more than 200 Buddhist halls. A new section of it was built in 1922. This is a great treasure of the Guiyuan Temple, it has a large collection of ancient sutras, Buddhist statues and religious articles, as well as gifts from foreign dignitaries. In this section, a big Chinese character "Buddha" is made of 5424 characters of the texts from the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra.The structural layout of the Guiyuan Temple is divided into three portions, i.e. South, Central and North Courts. At the Arhat Hall in the South Court, you will see 500 arhats demonstrating many kinds of lifelike gesture. The statues incarnate the mastery of ancient Chinese sculpture. In the Central Court, there is a pool for releasing the captured fish and tortoises and two bell-drum towers on the both side of it. Further northwards, the majestic Da Xiong Bao Dian (The Hall of Great Hero) is in front of your eyes. When you are in the Sutra Hall of the North Court, you will find about 7,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures written in Chinese, Hindi and Thai, which are the great treasures in Buddhist history. The vegetarian cuisine in the Guiyuan Temple is delicious, it is worth to sample it !
