Taoist Dongyue Temple

We wanted to get out and see something new, so on a Saturday when everyone was available, we decided to visit a Taoist temple near Bri's language training center.  We caught some lunch at a fast food counter where Bri likes to buy his lunch sometimes.  It's so cheap--two burgers for 15 rmb, which is about $2.  So we ordered 10 burgers for $11.67.  Great deal and they were good burgers and chicken burgers.

After our bellies were full, we walked to the Dongyue temple.  The pollution and weather were perfect.  We warmed up and took our coats off and enjoyed the blue sky weather.  We still had to wear our masks at the temple though.

The Dongyue temple is over 700 years old, built during the Yuan Dynasty.  This was our first time at a Taoist temple, so it was new and exciting, especially seeing all of the dusty statues in 72 outdoor rooms representing all of the "Departments" in the afterlife.  We thought it was a bit morbid, especially with some of the displays acting out ways people die, etc.  I won't claim to know anything about the religion, and when I try to research it, the info conflicts and is unclear.  But what I did learn from my visit to the temple is that they believe in many different departments that govern different issues in the afterlife.  Here is the department in charge of suffering and distress.

I loved the colors and layout of the temple grounds.  

We think people wrote their prayers on these red scrolls.

Thomas' feet hurt (his orthotics are still imperfect), so he took a rest.

Chinese Kintsugi:  The ancient art of putting broken pottery back together with gold.

This is a wall/gate across the street from the temple that survived the cultural revolution.  When there were no streets or city buildings here, I guess this was the gate used to get to the temple.