Guanghua Temple, Meizhou Island..

Guanghua Temple, built in 1400 years ago!
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Up at 6.00 am when day was still dark and chilling, we were busying in packing some stuff and having a quick breakfast before beginning our journey to another well-known city of Fujian Province, Putian. As revealed by the map, Putian was situated at about 100 km away from Yongchun, so we assumed that we would only reach there by 9.00-10.00 am as we departed at 7.00 am.

En route to Putian, the road was hilling up and down most of the time, as well as winding us through a verdant landscape of farms and hills, which appeared extremely scenic after dawn. Nevertheless, since it was pretty misty that day, such great view was slowly hidden and shrouded in mist… After passing by all the hilling roads and Xianyou County, we arrived in Putian at about 9.30 am and we had our first leg at Guanghua Temple, which was one of the reputed Buddhists temple built at the foot of Nan Mountain. Once stepped into the temple courtyard, what I could feel was the peace and holiness filled in its surrounding. Looking at the meticulous layout of the variety of flowers and trees planted at the courtyard, the ancient beauty of the temple was enhanced. Within the halls, a few metal-made statues were on display, each with its own unique feature and name. As told by a monk staying there, Guanghua Temple had been built nearly 1400 years ago! Being a historical relic, it had attracted an increasing number of pilgrims coming in every year.

The SPLENDID Mazu's Stone Grand Statue!!
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After this, we made our way to another famous spot of Putian, Meizhou Island (80km away from Guanghua Temple). Meizhou Island was the home to Lin Moniang, a girl of high stature who used to live there thousand years ago. She was famous because of her boundless kindness and special caring for those who needed help. Although her life ended when she was only 27, her heartstrings on everyone living in Meizhou were left forever. To commemorate Lin Moniang, she was given the goddess name ‘Mazu’ or ‘Goddess of the Sea’ as it was claimed that her spirit had reappeared on the island to safeguard the ships of local people. Besides, a temple had also been built at Meizhou Island to worship Mazu. Knowing little about this island’s background further stirred my craving for visiting it as soon as possible! Sharp at 10.30 am, we together with a throng of people flocked into a ferry (RMB10/person), which would take us to the island. On the way there, we were pleased to see beautiful seagulls soaring over the sea!!

At the rock park called 'E Wei Shen Shi Yuan'.
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In about 20 minutes time, we were at Meizhou Island and we decided to first visit the Mazu Ancestral Temple. This temple was built in large-scale and consisted of a few main places, namely Prince Temple, Lingchi Temple, Heavenly Queen Temple, Shunji Palace, Heavenly Queen Square, and Mazu Cultural Park. At the summit of this temple – Mt Meifeng, it boasted the 13m tall Mazu’s Stone Grand Statue and it was believed that this was the place where Mazu ascended to heaven and became immortal. Mazu’s statue looked really splendid and no one including us would forget to snap an excellent photo of it before leaving;) Since Mazu Ancestral Temple of Meizhou was the ‘Ancestor Temple’ of all other Mazu Temples distributed around the world, it was common to see a significant number of Mazu worshippers crowded the temple to burn incense, pay their respects to Mazu and pray for Mazu’s blessings…

The gorgeous rock view..
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Then, we headed to the island’s south part to visit a rock park called ‘e wei shen shi yuan - é¹… å°¾ 神 石 园’ (RMB 15/person). This park gained its popularity from the massive rocks it had, which under the erosion by wind, ocean waves and movement of earth’s crust that had naturally shaped them into a wide variety of sizes and shapes, which looked vivid and enthralling. To make the tour in this park more interesting for tourists, local people had used their imagination to name the rocks accordingly based on their appearance like ocean’s door, depot of Mazu’s books, thumb’s rock and etc… Being a nature lover, I had a great time there as my eyes were feasted on the glorious scene!!!