Hainan Island @ China (6) – Sanya South Mountain
4/28/19 An insane week is always the best week 🙂 😀
From the city center of Sanya, you took 30+ stops on a city bus (cost about 2 dollars and 1-2 hours), you will arrive at this place called “South Mountain”（南山）. It is the home of the famous “South Mountain temple” and “Guanyin on the sea” (a 108 meter monument with elevators and Buddhism temples inside). I always enjoy visiting Buddhism temples when I go back to China. It is my Philosophers’ Walk where I feel I reconnect my Chinese roots. Some temples preserve historical caves, carvings, towers, buildings, books dating back as far as 2000 years ago. There are poems, calligraphy, stories and historical people I learned in schools in China as well as the good memories that my family took me there when I was little. Of course, it is always pleasant to conclude your visit with a tasty vegetarian meal offered here.
The south mountain park is huge. I remembered that I walked the entire day. It is so scenic that every breath is a picture like this:
The first must-go is the “Guanyin on the sea”. This is an incredible engineering project. People built an island in the ocean and there is a one-mile bridge that connects the land and the island. The statue has three faces, each of which carved the same Guanyin but with different instruments: one represents health, one represents money and career, and the third one represents harmonic relations in life.
From the top of the statue
The “south mountain temple” is located in the same park but a few miles away from the statue. It is built on the mountain and faces the oceans. There are beaches and boulders where people hang out and take pictures. The park has golf cart types of transportation that can take you there.
There has been research that studies how religion impacts humanity. The conclusions are religion in general has a negative impact on humanity. Hmm, I hope it at least has brought people peace when they are in the fear. This is a tree called “make a wish tree”. People wrote their wishes on the red cloths and hang them on the tree. The colorful flags are typically seen in Tibet. Each color represents a different Buddha with different powers.
The park has a forest of “Buddha Trees”, whose technical names are called “Ficus religiosa”. This is a type of a tree under which “Siddhārtha Gautama” (释迦摩尼）sat and became a Buddha? There are many interesting and philosophical stories and poems in Buddhism, e.g., “菩提本无树，明镜亦非台，本来无一物，何处惹尘埃”. They are very hard to translate though. I can quite feel what they might mean but not able to understand them enough to articulate the meanings.
The park also has this instrument, consisting of different sizes of bells. When the wind comes, the bells ring with different sounds, very poetic.
