★ Tourist location: Baoyan Scenic Area, Changshu, Suzhou

Opposite the tea garden is Baoyan Zen Temple. This famous temple in the south of the Yangtze River was built during the Tianjian period of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties. It was originally named Yanfu Zen Temple. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the king of Wu and Yue gave 500 taels of gold to build a pagoda in the courtyard. During the Chunhua period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty issued imperial scriptures such as "Xiaoyao Yong","Taiping Shenghui Fang", and "Urgent Zhang" into the temple. Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty established a "Baoyan Zen Temple", and Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty specially gave a bronze statue to be worshipped in the Zen Temple. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Buddhist temples have been repeatedly built and demolished. The current Buddhist temple was rebuilt in 1999.

The Zen Temple is the standard yellow of Jiangnan temples. In the middle is the word "Baoyan Zen Temple" with gold characters on a red background. The gate is five rooms wide, and there are Bodhisattva guarding the gate on both sides, giving a majestic posture.

The Tianwang Hall is a two-story pavilions style building, with Maitreya Buddha in the center and Weituo Bodhisattva on the back. There are two sitting statues of the four King Kong. The statue of King Kong is very tall.

There is a hall next to it, with two plaques reading "Puguang Hall" and "Huazang Majestic". The top one has a black background and the bottom is a gold frame on a red background. They are all in gold characters, which are very magnificent.

The Daxiong Hall is the main building of the temple. It is dedicated to the Third Buddha. It sits high on the lotus platform, hangs his eyes slightly, and holds the Buddha seal in his hand, making it solemn and solemn. On both sides are standing statues of the Eighteen Arhats, all of which are made of gold.

The back is dedicated to Nanhai Guanyin, wearing a pink embroidered cloak, and the whole body is made of gold. Behind him are many Bodhisattva, and Nanhai Guanyin is generally very large.

On both sides of the courtyard behind the Daxiong Hall are the Hall of Reclining Buddha and the Hall of Guanyin, which is also a relatively standard configuration. Compared with Buddha statues, there are much fewer. Except for Ksitigarbha and Guanyin, I really can't recognize other Bodhisattva.

The Sutra Depository is undoubtedly the most magnificent building in the temple. It has three floors of eaves with curved corners and flying eaves, and each floor above it is slightly retracted. There are more plaques, from the "Sutra Pavilion" on the top floor to three on the second floor. The "Glass World" on the bottom floor indicates that this Sutra Pavilion is also a Hall of Medicine. Walking in, the Medicine Master's golden body sitting statue was very eye-catching, and the entire hall was very large. On the walls are colorful sculptures of the Immortal World, which are very rich in colors. Unfortunately, we don't know these immortals! It seems that these immortals are a bit like people from the Taoism Sect.

The last building is the Temple of Finance, which is actually a two-story pavilions, which is more magnificent than the Temple of Finance in ordinary temples.

The Maitreya Hall looks a little shabby, and the Buddha statues are not big. In front of the main statue, there are several small Buddha statues, which are Maitreya Buddhas made of various materials. There are white walls on both sides and no decorations. Compared to the Hall of Medicine, it is quite crude. However, in the Hall of Kings, Maitreya Buddha had already been worshipped once, so he still smiled and did not feel wronged at all.

The Hall of Reclining Buddha is dedicated to a Buddha. The entire body is white, and the clothing is decorated with gold stripes, which is simple and elegant but valuable. He supported his head with one hand and placed the other hand on his waist, looking calm.

Walking out of the Buddhist temple, there is a bamboo sea behind it. The scale looks very large. The bamboo trees that are common in Jiangnan are planted. This kind of bamboo is very tall and can easily form a bamboo forest.

On the other side is Fuhai with beautiful scenery. A plum blossom tree leans against the lake, opposite is a fir tree with all its leaves standing proudly, and several evergreen trees are still eye-catching green.

Standing behind the plum trees, the white flowers are like layers of snowflakes, setting off the blue lake of Fuhai. This scenery is simply too beautiful. It seems that this early spring scenery suddenly attracted our eyes. I privately think that this is the place with the highest beauty in Baoyan. Although the plum blossoms in Meilin are larger in scale and have more varieties of plum blossoms, they are still not as good as the white plum tree next to Fuhai.

No matter which angle you look at the lake through plum blossoms, you will feel that your appearance has been upgraded to more than a level! Although this plum blossom is not a precious variety, it is precisely because it grows on the beach of Fuhai that its appearance coefficient has been improved.

In fact, after completing the tour of the entire scenic area, we returned to Fuhai again and stayed until dusk before leaving reluctantly. The beauty of Fuhai was really too high.

There is an ancient bayberry garden next to Xunmei Bridge next to Fuhai. The bayberry trees here are old. These bayberry trees do not seem to be too special, nor do they grow particularly tall or thick. But I was relieved when I thought of the very old ancient bayberry tree in Qiyuan, Suzhou. Maybe even if the bayberry tree grows for hundreds of years, it will only look like this?

There are also tea gardens on the mountain. I don't know what kind they are. Let's just call them Yushan green tea. This is also one of Changshu's famous local specialties. Tree species such as metasequoia, ginkgo and loquat are also interplanted in the tea fields. It is said that the reason for this is to use the shade of the canopy to improve the quality of tea.

Walking further forward is Tanmei Bridge. I instinctively wondered: "Are there many plum blossoms here? I don't seem to have seen it since I came from Fuhai. The plum blossoms are obviously at the foot of the mountain!"

The little friend reminded: "This plum is not a plum blossom, is it?"

It dawned on me, didn't it? The plum search and plum search in Baoan are all near Yang Meilin, aren't they looking for bayberry to explore bayberry? This plum is probably not about flowers, but about fruits. Thinking of red bayberry, I suddenly felt that my mouth, which was a little thirsty, was secreting saliva again. It was really "looking at plum blossoms to quench my thirst".

Walking through Yang Meilin you will find a large sea of bamboo. There are some pavilions next to the bamboo forest for tourists to rest. The design is quite unique. For example, mother and infant booths. There is also a bamboo building, which is a bit like a suspended building. The second floor is not enclosed, and there is a ceiling fan installed on the top. It looks like a teahouse. Business should be good during the bayberry harvest season and summer. Hiding in a bamboo forest and crossing a small bridge, isn't it inappropriate to become a hermit in the forest?

Each bridge can be known by the name, and each bridge together has the word "bamboo", so this is a plum tree in a sea of bamboo. There is a pavilion next to it and a bamboo sea behind it.

Jiefu Bridge is on the other side of the pavilion. It is a wooden flat bridge with diamond-shaped patterns and looks very antique. Although not every bridge is as long as it is, I think this bridge is better than a bridge in the bamboo forest.

The population culture park is very simple. It is some sculptures about population culture. There may be some indoor introductions, but they are not open.

Going west from Baoyan Zen Temple, I really walked a lot because there was Zeng Pu's tomb on the road sign, but I couldn't find it. There was no one here to inquire about, so he could only leave with regrets. Walking up the mountain, this road is very wide, but we didn't see any signs of scenic spots for a long distance, making us wonder if there was no road ahead. A young couple walking towards them seemed to "confirm" this point: "There is nothing ahead, let's go that way!" However, we have always been immortal until we reach the Yellow River. Even though we know that there is no way ahead, we still continue to move forward. In fact, this road is a bit long and far, and it can lead to the Shidong Cold Spring Scenic Area!