As we walked into the Fourth Patriarch’s Temple, the one thing we needed most was someone to let us know whether it was possible for us to stay overnight, and if so what the procedure was to do so. We had no idea how to find out or where to go. At that moment, a […]

[Cynthia’s observations] On Mt. Lu, we as westerners are very rare. In fact we hadn’t seen any others as we took a morning walk up to the village. In the park near a viewpoint into a valley, we saw many elderly Chinese people playing games — a unusual version of checkers, majong, and a gambling […]

Baofeng Temple, located just north of Nanchang is a large, operating Zen temple. It looks like there has been a lot of recent refurbishing, We didn’t see a lot of monks, but the few we did see looked us in the eye and greeted us warmly. In the eighth century Baofeng was the dharma seat […]

Cynthia and I are at the train station in Hangzhou, waiting for the overnight train to Nanchang, scheduled to leave at 7:41pm. We are in the Soft Sleeper Waiting Room. We haven’t had dinner yet and the options here in the waiting room include candy, biscuits and fruit juice. So I was curious as to […]

I (Cynthia) sit in a hotel at the top of the Yellow Mountains. Those famous mountains that appear out of the fog with beautifully shaped trees growing at perfect angles out of the rock. No landscape designer could plan such perfection. Whole ridges appear and disappear in a few blinks of the eye and each […]

To all our perspiring Seattle friends: wish you were here in nice cool Hangzhou. Here are links to some of our photos of the past two weeks: Eclipse http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/721576217440843411/show/ Huangshan http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/ Hangzhou http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/7215762176426156/show/ Jingci Temple http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868433172/show/ Lingyin Pagoda http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868407490/show/ Chungkang Village http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868269900/show/ Keep cool! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

For a slideshow of some of our photos of Huangshan, try this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/ Good luck! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

These two well-named sights are called “Flower Blooming on a Brush Tip” and “Beginning to Believe Peak”. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

We spent the night at the city of Huangshan, which is about two hours short of the summit of Huangshan mountain. “Huang” means yellow and “shan” means mountain. We will be staying in one of about 5 hotels that are located near the top of the mountain. To get here we took a van for […]

In the dharma lineage recognized by Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan, the 27th ancestor after Bodhidharma is Nampo Jomyo Zenji, who lived from 1235 – 1309. According to Andy Ferguson, author of the book, Zen’s Chinese Heritage, Jingci Temple in Hangzhou is where Nampo Jomyo learned much about Zen and tea culture before taking his […]