{"id":4398,"date":"2017-04-05T15:47:47","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T15:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkerten.com\/wordpress\/?p=4398"},"modified":"2017-12-06T13:20:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T13:20:17","slug":"ancient-capital-of-china-xian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkerten.com\/wordpress\/2017\/04\/ancient-capital-of-china-xian\/","title":{"rendered":"China Xi’an 1 – A day in Famen Temple – Let’s see the Finger Bone of Sakyamuni Buddha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ancient Capital of China – Xian : A day in Famen Temple<\/strong><\/p>\n

I visit China frequently and every few years I would re-visit different part of China. \u00a0I started to explore from the southern part of China such as Xiamen, Guangzhuo, ChaoZhou, Yunnan and Guangxi. \u00a0This time I was really excited because Xian, is really special and is the most historical city in China. \u00a0There are so many stories waited to be explore in this ancient town and I can’t wait to discover one by one.<\/p>\n

Xian\/\u897f\u5b89 also known as Chang An\/\u9577\u5b89 before Ming Dynasty. It is the ancient capital city of China, located in Shaanxi Province. \u00a0I arrived in the early summer, weather was very hot in the mid day but was cooler in the morning and evening.<\/p>\n

Fusheng Hotel<\/strong><\/p>\n

I stayed 2 nights in Fusheng Hotel, hotel room was clean and comfortable. Half of the guests were foreigners and half were locals. \u00a0The breakfast served western and Chinese menu, such as man tou and porridge, variety was not great but good enough for me.<\/p>\n

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Fish, especially the gold fish bring in good luck in Chinese culture and usually\u00a0you can see big fish tank display in the main lobby of the hotel.<\/p>\n


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Famen Temple<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took slightly more than 1 hour to reach Famen Temple, situated 120 km from Xian city. \u00a0 The Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Area comprises four sectors including the Temple Gate Square, Foguang Avenue, Famen Temple, and the Namaste Dagoba.<\/p>\n

Namaste Dagoba<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Shaanxi government finished constructing the larger complex in addition to the Famen Temple and the most obvious feature of the new complex is the Namaste Dagoba and vault, see below. \u00a0It was designed by a Taiwanese famous architecture who also designed the Taipei\u00a0101 Tower, called Mr\u00a0 Li Zuyuan. \u00a0If you look carefully, you would see the architecture represent two palms facing together like a namaste gesture.<\/p>\n

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Beside the iconic Namaste Dagoba , the temple is also renowned for storing the Finger Bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha. The one and only relic of Sakyamuni’s finger bone in the world was enshrined in the underground palace in the Namaste Dagoba.<\/p>\n

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Avenue of Buddha Anticorona<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a super huge Buddhist temple and you need a tram to go from one place to another. \u00a0There are restaurants, \u00a0souvenir shops and cafe in this area. \u00a0I have the vegetarian buffet lunch at the restaurant here.<\/p>\n

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On both sides were huge statues of 18 lohan Buddhas.<\/p>\n

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Famen temple<\/strong><\/p>\n

This part of the temple were very ancient, built in Han Dynasty. \u00a0We reached here by the tram.<\/p>\n


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It was known as the “Royal Temple”, many emperors of the Tang Dynasty once welcomed bone relics of Buddha back to the palace for worship. \u00a0The temple is also famous of it pagoda.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Giant Wild Goose Pagoda\/ \u5927\u96c1\u5854<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It was built in the Tang Dynasty and has 5 stories, it was rebuilt during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian and the exterior brick facade was renovated during Ming dynasty. \u00a0The Pagoda was built with layers of bricks without any cement, which is a good example of Chinese traditional architecture. \u00a0It was once destroyed by the earthquake but was then repaired. \u00a0Nice courtyard to walk around, full of local tourist.
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Free musical fountain in\u00a0North Square of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were actually waiting for the night to get dark as there is a free musical fountain in the North Square of Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.<\/p>\n

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While waiting for the musical fountain to start, we went to the nearby souvenir shops to look around, found the red dates quite cheap so bought few packets. Shaanxi is famous for it red dates, they are huge, sweet and juicy.<\/p>\n

Below is the not the musical fountain, it is only a small fountain in the square, the musical square only started when the sky turn really dark at night at the other side.<\/p>\n

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Ancient Town – Xian\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n