{"id":301,"date":"2008-05-25T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T04:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/?p=301"},"modified":"2008-06-04T22:11:25","modified_gmt":"2008-06-04T14:11:25","slug":"on-the-outskirts-of-ningbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"On the outskirts of Ningbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Took a short trip off campus yesterday to go and investigate the region around Ningbo. Went to a place called &#8216;Tiantong Temple&#8217; which lies in the Taibai Mountains, around 25 km east of the city. I have, on good days (when they have not been hidden by pollution and dust), been able to see the mountains from my office, however I had no idea that they would be so picturesque. Quite a find and revelation, I must say!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The temple was built in 300 AD in the West Jin Dynasty. Driving towards it we passed several tea plantations, fields of vegetables and some very beautiful countryside, again something I was unaware existed so close by. Due to the tropical weather, fog submerged parts of the mountains and made the bamboo woods on either side of the temple buildings emanate a real air of mystery. The combination of the different textures of the bamboo, mist and rooftops was just stunning. Reminded me somewhat of the &#8216;<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">House of Flying Daggers<\/span>&#8216; movie. Unfortunately it does not quite come out in the photos &#8211; but wait until I bring my DSLR camera &#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2793-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2793-2-tm.jpg\" alt=\"PICT2793.JPG\" width=\"200\" height=\"128\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2792.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2792-tm.jpg\" alt=\"PICT2792.JPG\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The temple is designed in a way that as one travels from temple room to temple room, one moves upwards towards the hilltop, allowing for some stunning views over the area. I assume that this assent could be a symbolic reflection of the many different steps towards enlightenment &#8211; part of the Buddhist belief system.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are also monks still living at the temple, something I had previously only see in Lijiang; one of which was carving Chinese characters into a stone plate to commemorate donors to the monastery.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2801.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/pict2801-tm.jpg\" alt=\"PICT2801.JPG\" width=\"150\" height=\"209\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Also wanted to go and see a tea plantation to pick our own tea, however unfortunately, due to the mist and fog in the area, the place was shut and we will have to return another time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Took a short trip off campus yesterday to go and investigate the region around Ningbo. Went to a place called &#8216;Tiantong Temple&#8217; which lies in the Taibai Mountains, around 25 km east of the city. I have, on good days (when they have not been hidden by pollution and dust), been able to see the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-personal","tag-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattisonthompson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}