Cui Zengqi: Hometown Trip (8) - Wuxi Trip 1 (Photo)

Cui Zengqi: Hometown Trip (8) - Wuxi Trip 1 (Photo) (8) Wuxi Trip 1 Wuxi is famous as a light industrial city in the south of the Yangtze River. When I visited Wuxi in the past, I mainly...

(8) Wuxi trip one

> Wuxi is famous as a light industrial city in the south of the Yangtze River. When I visited Wuxi in the past, I mainly visited Yuantouzhu, Huishan and Xishan on the shores of Taihu Lake. This time the tour guide took us to a new scenic spot on the edge of Taihu Lake - Lingshan Scenic Spot. Construction started in the late 1990s and was only formed in this century. I have never been to this new tourist attraction. The visit to Lingshan consists of three parts: Kowloon Bath, Lingshan Giant Buddha and Brahma Palace. The Kowloon Bath is a large-scale musical dynamic group sculpture, which is based on the story of the birth of Buddha Sakyamuni. According to legend, Sakyamuni could walk as soon as he was born. Every time he took a step, a lotus flower bloomed on the ground, and then nine giant dragons appeared in the sky to bathe and purify him. There is a show every hour. We came to the venue, and amid the solemn and melodious music, the lotus petals slowly opened, and the golden body of Sakyamuni slowly rose from the petals. With one finger pointing to the sky and the other pointing to the ground, he faced the front and looked around 360 degrees, showing the image of the Buddha's light shining on the earth. Nine giant dragons sprayed water columns into the sky. The scene was very spectacular. According to reports, the statue of Sakyamuni is 7.2 meters tall and made of gilt gold. It costs a lot of money. It is the first dynamic group sculpture like this in China and is very novel. Anyone who has been to Las Vegas will feel that the creativity of the Kowloon Bath is similar to the dynamic group sculptures of Caesar at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The Lingshan Giant Buddha stands high on the beautiful Lingshan Mountain, with Xiaoling on its back, a green dragon on its left, and a white tiger on its right. It faces Taihu Lake. It is a place with good Feng Shui. I have been to many well-known temples, almost all of which are surrounded by three mountains. The environment is very quiet, and walking into them is like entering a fairyland. 'Near mountains and water, sit north and face south' is one of the basic principles of Feng Shui masters. This place also gives me the same feeling. I believe it must be the crystallization of the common wisdom of many Feng Shui masters. This place was also the place where Tang Xuanzang passed on Buddhist scriptures after he returned from the West. The construction of the Lingshan Giant Buddha was the idea of ​​Mr. Zhao Puchu, the president of the Chinese Buddhist Association. He once proposed the concept of "five directions and five Buddhas" in the east, west, south, north, and middle. In China, there is the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan in the west, the Yungang Giant Buddha in Shanxi in the north, the Longmen Giant Buddha in Henan in the middle, and the Tiantan Giant Buddha in Hong Kong in the south. The Lingshan Giant Buddha was completed and consecrated on November 15, 1997, fulfilling his wish.

>Kowloon Bathing and Lingshan Giant Buddha

The Best Palm in the World

Due to time constraints, we did not go up the mountain. We only took a shadow of the Buddha in the distance at the bottom of the steps, and then walked straight towards the temple. In front of the temple, there is a "Number One Palm in the World", which is copied from the right hand of the Lingshan Giant Buddha. People rush to touch the Buddha's hand, saying that if you touch it clockwise three times and then put it in your pocket, you will make a little fortune. Don't tell me, it worked. That night, when my wife and I returned to the hotel to weigh ourselves, it happened to show 77.7kg, which was a lucky number. Sure enough, 10 days later, while playing at a casino in Singapore, I entered and clicked on the slot machine, and three ingots came out. It automatically kept spinning, which was equivalent to giving me a free ticket from Beijing to Singapore. This can be said to be a miracle, or it can be said to be a coincidence. This is how things happened.

Exterior view of the Vatican Palace

Vatican Palace

The Vatican Palace can be called the highest cultural and artistic palace of Buddhism. It integrates profound Buddhist culture and magnificent and splendid art. From the two white jade elephants from Myanmar at the entrance to the huge domed hall covered with auspicious patterns and Buddhist story paintings, the top is full of celestial images, flying lotuses and Dunhuang murals. It is really dizzying. Walking into the Great Hall inside, the circular roof looks like a starry sky. Standing there, you feel like you are in the vast universe and feel so small. In this hall that can accommodate 1,500 people, the World Buddhist Forum was grandly opened here in March 2009. Three days later, it was moved to the Taipei Arena for closing. This is also a grand event for cross-strait cultural exchanges. After so many years of frequent exchanges between the two sides, the level of talks has risen from private to semi-official to official. Recently, a direct meeting between the honorary chairman of the Kuomintang and the chairman of the Communist Party was achieved. The shots of Hu Jintao and Wu Boxiong shaking hands when they met were almost hugging. I am really happy for this development. (to be continued)