Ancient City of Pingyao - Some more

看完院子，我们来看城
在山西的那些天，几乎每天都在下雨
在南方，雨之于我们是最平常不过的
而在北方，雨却是稀罕之物
所以北方大院中常见的蓄水大缸，又有敛财之意
而只有内半边的人字型屋顶，则让雨水汇往屋内，即取自“肥水不流外人田”之说
这些都说明了北方人对雨的看重

而作为游客的我，更要感谢那些日子里的雨
它即给我们酷暑的旅途带来了丝丝清凉
更洗刷了山西这个煤矿大省，无时无刻漂浮在天空中的细小煤颗粒
让镜头下的景物干干净净，清清爽爽
古城的钟楼，上去的费用不包括在160元（学生半价）的全城通票之内

Let's have a look at the city around

Those days when we were up north, it rains almost every day
But in south, back to my hometown, raining most days in a year just as normal as eating rice at every meal
People in the city there were very happy about it, since it rarly rain in northern part of China
You may see a huge vat in every courtyard, which had used be collectng rain in case of catching fire
However, there's another meaning behind it which is collecting fortune
Talk about the roof, you may see not the usual "人" shape, lead the rain to both inside and outside
but half part of it , like "丿" shape, which only faces to the inside of the courtyard
It also means, people don't want let the rain go outside but only inside
since rain is as presious as fortune to a city which was immersed in business in those old days

As tourists, we also felt thankful to have some rain during our trip
It wiped off all the coal dusts in the air, brought us not only the cool but also the refreshing city view
let us were able to take some clean and beautiful photos

FYI: the city pass is 160RMB, half for student, exclusive the bell tower shows below in the photo

参观古城衙门（包括在通票内

我是从衙门门口对面的普通街道走过去的
石照壁的两边众生人像
一面是干净整齐，络绎不绝的游客和电瓶车
另一面则是正在休整中的道路，堆积的垃圾













“灋”为的“法“字的古体写法。根据东汉许慎所著《说文解字》一书的解释：“灋，刑也，平之如水，从水；廌，所以触不直者去之，从去”。之所以偏旁为“水”，是因为法律如水那样公平；而之所以有“廌”，因为“廌”是传说中古代的一种独角兽，生性正直，古代用它进行“神明裁判”，见到不公平的人，会用角去顶，因此也就有了“去”。

"灋" was the old style of the "法"(Law).
Based on "说文解字(shuowen jiezi)"
the left part "氵" measn water, since water always horizontal, the law should be as justice as water
the right part means a legendary unicorn, which was used to justify.
It would attack the unjustifiable person
The blue creature down the photo's right side is the unicorn













城隍庙



猜猜下面图中两字为何意？



the two charactors means "Dare to go thru?"









古旧的戏台
两旁各有上下两层，中间还有宽阔的留空
在在说明当年的热闹景况



巧夺天工的木雕，转角斗拱，垂花柱
我们的祖先很会摆弄原始的木头，勾心斗角，相互叠压
经过几千年的发展，形成中国古建筑特有的组合形式，出跳越多，出檐也就越深远







文庙里的砖雕

[Jun/28/2005] The Shuanglin Temple
Qiaotou Villiage, Pinyao County
Shanxi Province, China

The Shuanglin Temple is located in Qiaotou Village which is 6km southwest of Pinyao County.
Mum and I had lodged in Pinyao last night, and took a minibus in front of Pinyao station to get there in the morning.

Since there were no express transit for budget traveller to take, we decided to take the minibus which was used by the locals to commute between villages and counties everyday. Of course it's way cheaper than the "taxi", but way "local" feel and smell than taxi too.

You will sit in the middle of bunch of cages full of chickens, or sit on a dirty-messy-looking-seat, etc. If you don't mind of all of them, that would be very good for you~coz' you can really get know the culture and save lots of money. However, it's a bad idea for people who don't speak Mandrian to take it, since you may not able to let the driver know your destination. And one more thing, the Temple was not just located right beside the main road. After you get off the minibus, you have to walk about half an hour through a nice-viewed-but-bad-smelled-boulevard to really stand in front of the Temple's front gate.

The Shuanglin Temple was original named as The Zhongdu Temple when it was build around year 571. Just after the temple was finished, it got  fired and rebuild at Song Dynasty(960-1279) and based on one statement from the sutra “佛陀双林入灭” which described the Sakyamuni parinirvana(1), the name waschanged.

The Shuanglin Temple is said to be the treasuses of ancient painted sculptures. There are 10 temple halls, 2052 painted sculptures left from Ming Dynasty(1368-1644). The value of cultural relic and ancient art history was the reason that made the Shuanlin Temple to be well-known.

The most representative works are the 14 arhat sitting scupltures with pretty realistic face expression on, impressed every single one to see them.

I don't think I made a good shoot,since the weather was pretty bad that day, and there are not allowed to put any light in the ancestral architectures since they were all made by wood.(actually it is also not allowed to take photos on since the flash will give bad effect on the statu. I'm a bad girl, but I didn't put flash on...)



The Four Deva-King was set in Deva-King Shrine..
You can see them in a very close distance, it feels way much pressures than other places.















It's very odd that all 26 hands of this Kwan-yin are on the same plane, no matter you see from any angle or direction.



The Veda in the Thousands-Buddas Shrine.







1. parinirvana [圆寂]
The term is applied only to the death of Buddhist monks, and it is a literal translation of the
Sanskrit term nirvana, or parinirvana. Strictly speaking, "parinirvana" refers to the death of a monk
who has achieved "nirvana" while he is still alive.

1. [Jun/27/2005]
Jiexiu
Shanxi, China

介休是去王家大院的中转站
出火车站时还是早上点多的样子，连饭铺都没开门
于是问过当地人后，去逛了下离火车站不远的他们所说的老街
的士司机把我们载到介休二中门口
这时虽然学校还没开门，但是已有一些学生等在了校门口

Jiexiu city is in the middle of our way to The Wang Family Courtyard.
When we were standing outside the Jiexiu train station, it was about 6 in the morning, and not a single restaurant was open at that time
so we decided to follow a local's suggestion to check around the "Old Street" nearby
the cab drove us to the #2 Jiexiu high school's front gate, the driver told us "this area around is the 'Old street'."
Since it was way too early, there were a bunch of school kids were waiting for the gate to open
 




我们一身外地人打扮，尤其是本人背后的大背包，自然回头率
I was having a big backpack on my back, which is not that common everyday scene in a small town, everyone passed by me was staring me, even the guy in black was riding bike...

又偷跑入别人家里了
we went to someone's home without asking...coz' they didn't lock the door, and my mum really wanna see the inside...



别致的竹门
every special door, made by bunch of bamboos

山西为产煤之地，在这儿我开始有了初次的深刻感受
It was my first impression of Shanxi province, the primary coal mine producing province of China.