Thousand-Buddha Mountain
Lying 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles) to the south of Jinan, Shandong Province, the Thousand-Buddha Mountain is one of the key points of interest in the city of Jinan. It is about 258 meters high (846 feet) ranging from east to west. It has been constructed into a park in1959 which occupies an area of about 166 hectare (140 acres).
The mountain was called Mt. Li in ancient times. However, in the early days of Sui Dynasty (581-618) a great many statues of Buddha were chiseled on the rocks of the mountain and the Thousand-Buddha Temple was built and soon became famous, so the name of the temple was to become that of the mountain. There are many scenic spots and historical relics distributed in the mountain. You can enjoy the beautiful sceneries all along the way wandering up either by foot or by bus.
The Thousand-Buddha Temple was renamed as Xingguo Temple after reparation during Tang Dynasty (618-907). It is located at half way of the mountain, leaning against the cliff on the south and overlooking the Jinan City on the north. There are the Daxiong Baodian, Kwan-yin Hall, the Laughing Buddha Hall and Duihua Kiosk distributed in the temple. Four seal characters carved on the cliff southwest of the temple is a celebrated stone inscription in the city of Jinan. The Lishan Courtyard, to the east of the temple, where you can see Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism harmonize with each other in one courtyard. The Shun Temple, the Luban Temple, the Wenchang Pavilion and the Yilan Kiosk are to be found in it.
More than 130 statures of Buddha carved in the Sui Dynasty are bearded on the south side of the mountain. And the cliff holds four caves abreast from west to east, namely Longquan Cave, Jile Cave, Qianlou Cave and lvzu Cave.
Source: cultural-china.com
Editor: Yang Yi, Wang Moyan
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