Fairyland Botanical Gardens

This Sunday a group of staff members had decided to spend the morning at this place called The Fairyland Botanical Garden and we decided to tag along. After taking an hour long bus ride outside of our district we arrive not far from the park site. The entrance to the park had huge temple-like arch way where we were able to take a bus for 2 yuons up to the main Buddhist temple that was at the top of the park. Once we got to this temple we were each given 3 long sticks of incense. We eventually found out that in the temple square people go around and kneel to pray at each different Buddha statue. It’s almost like little stations that you go to. You light your incense at one large candle lighting shed. Then you are suppose to go to the first Buddha, wait for your turn to kneel at the foot of the statues and hold the 3 incense to your forehead as you pray. After going to all the statues you walk even futher up the temple to visit a Buddhist Monk. Here we had to wait in line to see him, but it was well worth it. This monk is the most respected of all Shenzhen and was 103 years old. When we entered his temple (a place that does not allow cameras) we gave him an offering in a small red envelope, most people knelt at his feet and we left. He looked like a sweet old man, and definitely did not look that old. On our way out the temple Jessica jokingly said “I would do anything for an ice cream right now” and the Buddhist Gods must have heard her because after it was said our group walked around a corner and found an ice cream stand. Here we sat for a short break and snack. After the temple we decided to explore the rest of the park. We took walking paths through a bamboo forest that had little waterfalls and streams running through it. We walked through an open field with statues and grand trees passed a small lake that you could boat across. By this time we were quite tired and getting hungry so we decided to find our way out of the park (which took long enough) and took the first bus home. There were many other gardens in the park that we could have visited, but we’ll safe that for another day. We took lots of nice pictures and were back at the school with still a half of a day left to spare. We’ll definitely go back.