Just a short trip

Towards the end of Spring Break we made a short two-day trip to the nearby island of Putuo Shan, the sacred Buddhist island filled with temples and dedicated to Guanyin, the compassionate Goddess of Mercy.

Despite watching the weather forecast all week and timing our trip for the two days that promised to be sunny, or at least not rainy, it rained as soon as we stepped off the ferry Thursday afternoon.

On the ferry

We tried to be good little tourists and see some sights in the rain, such as the very large Guanyin statue on the southernmost tip of the island.

Trying to pretend like it isn't raining

Milan did find this cool dinosaur on one of the walls of the platform, mixed in with the dragons and phoenix.

Look, a dinosaur!

But mostly it was just cold and wet. So we gave up and went back to our hotel for an early dinner and early bedtime.

The next morning it was not sunny, but NOT raining, which was a huge improvement. We toured around to a few sites on the island. There is a temple around every corner, it seemed, and many many visitors paying their respects to Guanyin and the other Buddhist deities. We barely scratched the surface.

South Heaven Gate

This old turtle crawling among the rocks on the seashore was a highlight for me. We also collected some cool rocks and sea glass.

The turtle is very special - the first character painted on is shell means Buddha 佛 fó

One of many temples

Guanyin statue inside a temple

There are more pictures on Flickr.