A Bus to Buddha

Today we had a late start. We took the subway to a stop, then looked for the bus we needed. After asking a few people (who didn't charge us), we finally found the bus stop and got repeatedly harrassed by a guy trying to give us ride in his dodgy van. But we patiently waited for the bus and had a long ride out to Tanzhe Si, the Cudrania Pool Temple. It is the oldest and largest Buddhist temple in Beijing, up in the mountains, built in the third century. It was a beautiful ride up the mountains full of snow. The temple was a beautiful place to walk around. We were the only people left on the bus by the time it reached the temple, and weren't quite sure where to go. We started walking along a path, but ended up amid some pagodas with monks living in them. Oops, wrong turn. We did manage to find the right path, and spent the afternoon walking among the different pagodas of the temple. We both lit some incense for Buddha. It was freezing out, probably at least -4 degrees Celcius.

After the long ride back on the bus and subway, we stopped for dinner in the food court of a shopping mall (Chinese food court) and bought some groceries for the next day. All in all it was a slow day, but nice.