Suzhou Ancient Temples | The historic Beita Temple, a witness to the city's rise and fall

| The historic Beita Temple, a witness to the city's rise and fall. Suzhou Ancient Temples | The historic Beita Temple, a witness to the city's rise and fall. Suzhou is home to many temples, large and small, scattered in all directions. Today, let's visit the Beisi Pagoda located in the Suzhou city area, officially known as the Beita Bao'en Temple. If you are taking the subway to the Humble Administrator's Garden, you will definitely see the tall pagoda 'Bao'en Wansui Pagoda' inside the temple when you get off at the Beita Temple station. This is a typical Chinese pavilion-style Buddhist pagoda, known as the 'Number One Ancient Monastery in Wu'. It was built during the Three Kingdoms period by Sun Quan to repay his mother's kindness. Entering from the south gate of the temple, you can see a 'Maitreya Buddha statue' with a smile on its face, long earlobes, bare chest and belly, and a string of Buddhist beads in its right hand. On the back of the statue is another figure, 'Weituo Bodhisattva', one of the eight great generals under the Southern Growth Heavenly King. Located to the east of the pagoda is the Dust-Free Guanyin Hall, commonly known as the Nanmu Guanyin Hall, which is the most well-preserved Ming Dynasty building in Suzhou. Deeper within the temple, there are other structures such as the Seven Buddhas Hall, the Chanting Hall, and the Sutra Repository.