Jing'an Temple

On Sunday, we went to visit one of the Temples located in the middle of the city - Jing'an Temple.  It is a peaceful retreat in the middle of a huge city.  It is currently home to quite a few monks, making it one of the few monasteries in Shanghai.

I meant it when I said it was smack in the middle of the city.

According to wikipedia.org (because only two signs were in English in the temple), the temple was built in 247AD and was originally located beside the Suzhou Creek, but has been in it's current location since 1216.  During the Cultural Revolution, it was converted into a plastics factory and then back to a temple in 1983.

It is constructed of Myanmar Teak wood, and has multiple gods, including one made of 15 tons of silver and a 3.8m jade buddha.

While there were a lot of people there, praying, meditating, throwing coins, and wandering around, it has a tranquil feel to it, even with the crowds and hustle bustle.

People throw money into this statue.

It's gold, Jerry.

15 tons of silver.  HUGE.

beautiful...

The carving and artistry is unbelievable.

When people come in, they purchase incense sticks, light them, then
pray to the different gods.  They then put the sticks to finish burning
on the pagoda looking fixture on the left.  LOTs of incense.  

People give gifts to the gods and the monks
everywhere - they stick them into crevices on
random rocks, or set coins (standing up)  on
this chair.

One of two signs in English.  Since monks actually live on site,
I think this takes you to them.

Literally put offerings on everything, like the top of this carving.