#Tiantai Hotel Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in May)
Once you come here, you'll want to become a monk, such is the Buddhist vibe of this holy city
"The Heavenly Mother connects to the sky horizontally, its might uproots the Five Sacred Mountains and overshadows the Red City.
The Heavenly Platform is forty-eight thousand feet high, about to tilt down towards the southeast."
————Li Bai
The birthplace of the Buddhist Tiantai Sect, the founding place of the Southern Taoist Sect
The opening of Xu Xiake's travel notes, the endpoint of the Tang Poetry Road in eastern Zhejiang
Tiantai County in Zhejiang's Taizhou is truly a treasure trove, known for its Buddhist and Taoist origins, and its stunning natural scenery.
If you enjoy breathing in the mountain air, visiting famous mountains and ancient temples, and seeking out hidden gems, this place comes highly recommended.
The Tiantai Mountain Scenic Area is divided into the Shiliang and Guoqing districts, with the main destination being the conventional Guoqing Temple area.
❇️【Recommended Attractions】
⭐ Tiantai Mountain: Tiantai Mountain is free to visit, you can drive up the winding mountain roads, with many viewing platforms along the way to overlook the county town;
⭐ Guoqing Temple: An ancient temple from the Sui Dynasty, a national key cultural relic, free 5A. The birthplace of China's first Buddhist sect, the Tiantai Sect, and the ancestral home of the Tiantai Sect in Japan and Korea; famous monks like Hanshan, Shide, and Jigong; making wishes in the Kalan Hall is very auspicious!
⭐ Chicheng Mountain: Its might uproots the Five Sacred Mountains and overshadows the Red City, a small mountain with Danxia landforms; entrance fee is 25 yuan;
⭐ Tiantai Waterfall: As Li Bai's poem says, "The dragon pavilion and phoenix palace refuse to stay, soaring straight to Tiantai." The number one waterfall in China, with a drop of 325 meters and a width of 100. Entrance fee is 100;
⭐ Qiongtai Xian Valley: A granite canyon scenic area, famous for its peculiar peaks, strange rocks, flying springs, and green waterfalls; entrance fee is 50; can be visited together with the big waterfall, combined ticket is 130;
⭐ Tongbai Palace: The ancestral home of the mainstream Quanzhen sect of Taoism in the south, located on Tiantai Mountain's Tongbai Mountain, next to the Tongbai Reservoir;
⭐ Tiantai Museum: Precious cultural relics, 127 pieces (sets), from the Neolithic Age to the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
❇️【Travel Route Suggestions】
DAY1⃣: Guoqing Temple—Tiantai Museum—Tiantai Mountain drive—Tongbai Palace
DAY2⃣: Tiantai Waterfall—Qiongtai Xian Valley
【Accommodation】
You can stay in the Tiantai county area, such as Tiantai Hotel, Radisson, Kaiyuan; more upscale options include Xingye, Lujing;
【Food】
Tuzao Tou (Xiyan Maodian), Yuqing Zhai, etc.
🚘Transportation
Tiantai has a high-speed train station, if you're only visiting Guoqing Temple and the big waterfall scenic area, you can take public transportation
Guoqing Temple take bus 5, big waterfall take bus 5/7 to Tiantai Mountain Visitor Center, then transfer to a scenic area bus.
Overall, self-driving is the most convenient.
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Guoqing Temple
Guoqing Temple is located in the Tiantai Mountain scenic area of Zhejiang, with convenient transportation. Take the high-speed train to Tiantai Mountain station and then take a taxi. It is recommended to stay at the Tiantai Hotel, which is right next door.
Guoqing Temple is an ancient temple from the Sui Dynasty and the birthplace of the Tiantai sect. The garden preserves more than 1400 years of Sui Dynasty plum blossoms. To the right of the Mahavira Hall, there are the Medicine Buddha Hall, the Guanyin Hall... There is also a cultural relics exhibition hall. If you get tired of visiting, there is a tea room at the entrance side, offering free black tea and Pu'er tea.
Stepping into the temple, every grass and tree embodies the Buddha nature, and your heart will truly calm down.
The rice fields and vegetables outside the courtyard are all grown by the monks in the temple, self-sufficient and well-provided!
MAYA CONLEY
Off-the-beaten-path attractions that are worth visiting just for the emojis, Tiantai Mountain's Guoqing Temple
🚫 If you are currently in a low point, feeling restless, uncomfortable, and anxious, go to Guoqing Temple. May you return to walk the earth, still striving for clarity and freedom.
⭕️ Evening drums and morning bells, seeking Zen, spring plowing and autumn harvesting, enriching the soul
⭕️ A Sui Dynasty ancient temple over 1400 years old, Sui plum trees, Sui pagoda, every plant, brick, and tile here records the mottled history, every scene has its own story, with time as the thread, no matter what you are experiencing now, looking back, it may just be a point
⭕️ Entering Guoqing Temple, paddy fields on the left, a distant view of the thousand-year-old Sui pagoda, mountains and forests on the right, babbling streams, ancient trees reaching the sky, all part of the temple's serene setting amidst nature
🧩 Must-see in the temple:
1️⃣ Crossing Fenggan Bridge, the yellow shadow wall bears four big characters 'Sui Dynasty Ancient Temple'. At first glance, the character for 'Sui' seems strange, missing the 'work' radical, but this is just the ancient Sui Dynasty script.
2️⃣ The full name of Guoqing Temple is 'Guoqing Lecture Temple', where 'lecture' is written in traditional characters as '言育', expressing the Tiantai Sect's teaching philosophy of unity of knowledge and action; hence, Tiantai Mountain is currently a 5A tourist attraction.
3️⃣ Seeing the temple gate, the two lions standing at the entrance are made of Han white jade, which were moved from the Forbidden City Museum.
4️⃣ Entering the temple gate, the four characters of the Mahavira Hall are written vertically, in the same style as the royal family, indicating that it was a royal temple in the past; the 'Shengshou Wujing Bronze Incense Burner' at the entrance of the Mahavira Hall was cast by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother's birthday; this place was also a filming location for Jet Li's 'Shaolin Temple'.
5️⃣ The Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, which actually contains 501 statues, try to find Ji Gong.
6️⃣ The Garan Hall, which enshrines not Guan Yu, but the Taoist deity Prince Wang Qiao of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
7️⃣ The authentic single-character 'goose' calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, created with one stroke of his 'Eight Principles of Yong'.
8️⃣ The Sui Pagoda, hexagonal and nine-tiered, the flying eaves and brackets have disappeared over the years and dynastic changes, leaving only the pagoda body; seven Buddha statues discovered from within the pagoda body are now preserved in the temple's pagoda stele room.
🧩 Travel Tips
To reach Tiantai Mountain high-speed rail station:
1️⃣ Take bus route 7
2️⃣ Shared electric bikes, about 25 minutes, can ride directly to the entrance of the scenic area
🧩 Accommodation:
1️⃣ Homestays near Guoqing Temple
2️⃣ Hotels near Guoqing Temple: Tiantai Mountain Hotel (strongly recommended building 5, first floor, see picture 17), Tiantai Hot Spring Hotel
3️⃣ To visit the entire Tiantai Mountain scenic area, stay in homestays near the Tiantai Mountain Tourist Center
🧩 Guoqing Temple admission is free, open from 7:30 to 16:00
🧩 Tiantai Mountain 3-day 2-night itinerary:
D1: Suggested shared electric bike + taxi
High-speed rail station → Guoqing Temple → Chicheng Mountain (7:00~16:00 to watch the sunset)
D2: Travel by tourist bus + strenuous mountain climbing
Tiantai Mountain Waterfall (8:00~15:00) + Qiongtai Xiangu (8:00~16:00) (ticket 165 includes Huiqiao scenic tour, ticket 80) → Shiliang Waterfall (8:00~16:00, ticket 60)
D3: Tiantai Mountain Museum (8:00~16:00 free) → Buddhist City (8:00~17:00 Taizhou Traditional Crafts Museum 10r) → Return to high-speed rail station
JamesonBrennan74
Taizhou Guoqing Temple | A thousand-year-old ancient monastery that one must visit in a lifetime
Guoqing Temple is known as the most worthwhile temple to visit in the country, with a thousand years of refined elegance, and is called the most beautiful and purest temple in China. This is my first visit, and the beauty of Guoqing Temple on a rainy winter day made me stop for four hours. I will definitely come back when spring comes and flowers bloom.
🔎History of Guoqing Temple:
Founded in 598 AD, Guoqing Temple is not only the birthplace of the first sect of Chinese Buddhism - Tiantai Sect, but also the ancestral temple of the Tiantai Sect in Korea and Japan.
During the Sui Dynasty, the high monk Zhiyi, founder of the Tiantai Sect, wished to build a temple as the official ancestral temple of the sect. Due to a lack of funds, construction had not started. In 597 AD, Zhiyi's dying wish was, 'If the temple is not seen completed, I will close my eyes in regret.' Prince Yang Guang, who had received the Bodhisattva precepts from Master Zhiyi, was moved by Zhiyi's will and thus dispatched the Sima Wang Hong to supervise the construction of the monastery, initially named Tiantai Temple. In 604 AD, Yang Guang ascended the throne as Emperor Yang of Sui, and later, inspired by the idea 'If the temple is completed, the country will be pure,' Tiantai Temple was renamed Guoqing Temple.
🆙Guoqing Temple has three wonders: the Sui pagoda, Sui plum, and the unique 'Goose' calligraphy by Wang Xizhi.
🚗Route:
By car, navigate directly to the Guoqing Temple scenic area
By high-speed train, go to Tiantai Mountain station, then take bus route 7 directly to the Guoqing scenic area
For accommodation, you can choose Tiantai Hotel, a short walk away from Guoqing Temple
👉There is free Zen tea inside the temple, and a shuttle bus that costs 2 yuan per trip
🕐Guoqing Temple of Tiantai opening hours 07:00-16:00, parking lot ¥10/day