A magnificent gate greets the visitors to the Yuen Yuen Institute, perched
in the hills over the Tsuen Wan district in the New Territories. There were no
signs in English anywhere on the temple grounds. The institute features
temples from three Eastern religions: Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
Needless to say, we had to puzzle out what the different structures were for
and to which religion they belonged. It was an interesting outing.
This beautiful structure is the main part of the Yuen Yuen Institute. It
is a Taoist temple that is an exact replica of the "Circle of Heaven" temple in
Bejing. The monks run a vegetarian restaurant on site, and it is there that we
had the absolute best Chinese food in Hong Kong, and at the cheapest price as
well. Score!
More buildings of the Institute. We think these are used for storage,
since the doors were not open for visitors and we got a peek inside one and it
looked like there were just a bunch of boxes in there. Very beautiful
architecture.
We visited several temples in the Hong Kong area, and each one had a
relaxing Koi pond on the grounds. Each pond had turtles and frogs in it, in
addition to the wonderful fish swimming around. I'm not sure what significance
turtles and frogs have to the Chinese, but they make a killer addition to the
ponds.
We did visit the Temple of the Ten Thousand Buddhas, but not with our
camera. (Anyone who knows us can't be shocked by that!) So, I borrowed this
picture off the net. It was an interesting place, but I must admit that I
didn't think there were 10K buddhas stuffed in that room. Of course, I didn't
count them, so I can't verify one way or another.
What to our surprise did we see being advertised, not in Hong Kong proper,
but way out in the New Territories? Why, Linux of course. Look hard and
you'll spot it. Viva la Linux!
