Mount Wutai

A lot has been said about the Taihuai Buddhist architectural complex, but one’s Mount Wutai experience could not possibly be complete without paying a visit to the magnificent Great East Hall of the Foguang Temple, the third oldest timber structure in China and the finest of its kind.

The Foguang Temple was first established during the Northern Wei Dynasty in the 5th century, but the existing Great East Hall dates back to 857 AD, when it was rebuilt after the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution ordered by Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty in 845 AD. Due to its rural and arid location, the temple kept intact and remained hidden in plain sight, not to be rediscovered until 1937. The Great East Hall is the best living example of Tang-style wooden structure in all of China, easily noticeable through its imposing hipped roof and huge columns with Dougong (interlocking wooden brackets). The carpentry expertise applied to the Great East Hall closely corresponds to the records of Yingzao Fashi, the earliest Chinese architectural treatise from the 11th century, and provides several isolated and unique structural cases for architectural academic studies. The hall still holds an exhibition of 36 Buddhist sculptures and numerous wall paintings from Tang Dynasty. The temple has always been an inseparable part of the Mount Wutai heritage. Other noteworthy spots in the temple include the 6th-century Zushi Pagoda, two Tang funerary pillars with chronological records, and the 12th-century Manjusri Hall. The oldest timber structure in China, the Nanchan …

I had finally made it: Wutaishan. It's not the last one for my China WHS but certainly one that should have been visited earlier than a few odd ones on the list especially seeing that it's only a <5h ride from Beijing (west 2nd ring road even but rush hour would add another hour for sure). Personally I had always put this off because I wanted to go via public transportation or at least a long-distance bus but in spring there is only one bus from Beijing daily, the train arrives at the nearby town of Shahe at midnight, the return train (requiring to buy a ticket from Taiyuan but can be boarded anywhere) is a sleeper - altogether this doesn't sound so bad but then you take a minivan to the Wutaishan area, pay for the green bus routes to get around, return to the main town. All this hassle? I found a tour instead. I usually hate them but avoided all shopping and prayer sessions, didn't mind the 5am wakeup calls, the mediocre food and the staff were super friendly. The only downside was the local guide who was BSing a lot of the religious aspect, i.e. "you give a certain deity a (monetary) gift and you'll feel better - get rid of your nightmares...", the restaurant also tried to offload "blessed" beads before you get something to eat.

As part of the tour the entrance ticket was included, the green bus ticket is not mandatory, but …

Went with a friend Sept. 8-11th.

Many things have already been said on how beautiful this place is; so I won't add anymore on that. It is definitely a place to visit!

From the Wutaishan Railway station, there are buses to Taihuai town for 20RMB - takes about two hours to get to town. The entrance fee for Wutaishan is 220-ish RMB per person (quite pricey) though the free shuttle bus rides within Taihuai help in visiting many temples.

Trips to the mountain peaks will need bus tickets ranging from 60-80RMB, depending on which of the five peaks one wishes to visit. My friend and I decided to choose the South Peak since our guide book mentioned it is the most beautiful among the five. In general, these mountain peak bus trips take 1.5 to 2 hours (one-way) and the driver gives guests 40 minutes to one hour time to worship and/or take photos. The shuttle needs a minimum of ten passengers before it leaves.

I have to agree on the comments written earlier about the new buildings constructed in Taihuai town. Many restaurants, hotels, toilet rooms and souvenier shops were built "temple style" to somehow fit with the scenic landscape of Taihuai - and some were poorly designed and even ugly. Clearly, these buildings are for tourism purposes but I would sure hope they'd be placed far away from the Tayuan Pagoda area.

We were lucky to visit Wutaishan during the weekdays. I can imagine how crowded the place …

How strange of life can be, I have to wait for eleven years to re-visit mainland China, but less than three months from my second visit, my feet were on this country again and this time my trip was Shanxi province, the land of western mountain with many timeless treasures and three world heritage sites, so Wutai Shan or Mount Wutai which literally means the five terraces mountains was my first place to visit.

From Shanxi's capital, Taiyuan, I took a four-hour bus though many farmlands and mountain valleys, it was a long but nice journey, on my bus, apart from couples of tourists there was a Buddhist monk and a few Tibetan lamas, I knew immediately that I took a correct bus. When the bus reached Wutai Shan area, I saw that Chinese government was building a new highway to this world heritage site; many parts of the highway were built on the small, beautiful river valley or even cut though small gauges truly destroyed the scenic landscape.

Not only the highway, but there are also many new towns construction, I read the ICOMOS report that in order to put Wutai Shan in the world heritage list; thousands of locals had been evicted to the new towns by governmental order changing traditional way of life. I only wondered how UNESCO accepted this ugly development plan since the original proposal submitting Wutai Shan to become a cultural landscape!

When the bus reached Wutai Shan, I had …