words from the world

From the Dongzhimen bus station, you can reach the northwestern destinations of Beijing. Not easy to find the way between the minibuses, local buses and long-distance buses. Hookers offer a day trip to the China Great Wall ; a young Chinese explains us the Chengde bus leaves in half an hour and we must wait. It's a minibus which stops several times to fill all the seats up, consequently delaying the journey. The 4-hour initial journey get longer to 3 hours. When we arrive in the afternoon, our time is precious since we planned to go back the next day to step on the Great Wall. We choose a hooker that offers a cheap downtown hostel and inside the taxi, we arrange with the driver to take us to the outer temples of Chengde.
The imperial gardens and the outer temples in the suburbs of the city concentrate the tourists. We opt to sacrifice the first place of interest for the second one and rush at the Puning temple. This foothill-built staggering temple takes on white and brick red shades. A few buddhist monks meditate while the tourists feed their curiosity and fill themselves with positive energy walking into the maze of this peace haven. The main temple containt a 42-arm mind-boggling buddha. The statue is imposing and radiant in spite of the cut-off perspective due to the architecture itself of the temple.











Then, we head for the Putuo Zongcheng temple, hoping to visit it despite the the late time. On the way, we get by the Xumi Fushou temple whose forms draw their roots in the Shigatse temple.



The next complex is inspired by the Dalai-lama's residence, the Potala located at Lhassa. We get in the largest temple in the city of Chengde ; a path goes round a sacred building, rises, and dies at the bottom of the palace. A staircases sequence leads up to the roof. Its thick walls shelter a courtyard. The architecture of this courtyard contrasts with the austerity and the geometric lines of the palace front.