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1、Pay a Visit to ChaozhouChaozhou is one of the historical and cultural cit- ies of China. It is on the coast， in the eastern part of Guangdong Province that is in the southeast corner of China. It is now a medium sized city with a population of about 2.5 million people. The area under the Chaozhou go
2、vernments administration is about 3，500 square kilometers. It is said that about 2 million people from Chaozhou live abroad in Taiwan and other countries， or are living in Hong Kong and Macau. It is a six hour bus journey（about 480 kilometers）from the capital city of Guangdong Province that is calle
3、d Guangzhou. The area has some ancient buildings and scenic highlights.Chaozhou City is surrounded by three mountains， and the Han River and Huanggang River flow through the city area. There are mountains in the northeast， caves in the southwest， and a plain in the southeast. In Chaozhou city， there
4、 are hundreds of scenic areas such as ancient walls， ancient temples， ancient bridges and ancient pagodas. This is why Chaozhou City is considered to be a historical city. The ethnic group came from central China more than a thousand years ago， and the area was sort of isolated and had contact with
5、cultures off the mainland， so they developed a distinct language dialect and distinctive art forms. So this is why it is also considered to be a city of cultural origin in China.The area developed its own style of operatic theatre， its own tea ceremony and “Ganghu Tea”， and its own ceramic styles. T
6、here is an old saying： “If you havent come to Chaozhou， you havent really come to Guangdong”.Kaiyuan TempleThe first Kaiyuan Temple was built in 738 AD in the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. So the site is about 1，200 years old. The complex has been redesigned or reconstructed ten times
7、since then. The present building that is made of wood and stone is about 200 years old. The framework has tenons that lock into each other and brackets that help to support the weight of the building. The top of the temple is decorated with glazed tile. The building looks run-down. The temple is imp
8、ortant for Buddhist scholarship in China because a complete set of Buddhist scriptures is housed there. After a thousand years of wars and natural calamities like typhoons， the Kaiyuan Temple has ancient Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty architectural styles， and artifacts from dynasties as far back as
9、the Tang Dynasty are housed there. According to archaeologists， the Song architectural style of this building is similar to that of the famous Todai- ji Temple in Japan. The buildings look somewhat similar， but the Kaiyuan building is much smaller and shorter. The second story of the Kaiyuan buildin
10、g is much lower than that of the Todai-ji. It Is interesting that both buildings were built a few hundred years ago ?C the Todai-ji Temple was built about 300 years ago and the Kaiyuan Temple was built about 200 years ago.The temple has a big bronze bell that is 1.7 meters high and 1.05 meters in ci
11、rcumference. It weighs more than 1，500 kilograms. This bell was made by the Chaozhou Diamond Sutra Agent in 1114 AD and is in good condition. It still rings.At the front of the Great Hall， there are 78 stone enclosures with beautiful carvings. Among these carvings， some show scenes from Buddhist sto
12、ries and some show natural scenes. In the middle of the Great Hall， there is a big stone enclosure with some Chinese characters carved on it. All the stone enclosures are cultural relics.There is a red bronze censer in the temple. It is said that this censer was donated by a Korean monk in the Tang
13、Dynasty. There are words on it that tell people the history of the censer.In addition， there is a gold and lacquer wood pagoda from the Ming Dynasty period in the temple that is 6 feet tall and has a hexagonal outline. There are seven levels in it that each has a theme. Most of the carvings relate t
14、o Buddha. This pagoda has a complex and beautifully carved structure.In the scripture storing tower， there is a set of scriptures called Stored Dragon or Dragon Hiding . It was published in the Qing Dynasty， and has been preserved since then. This is a complete set， and 7，240 volumes were put in 724
15、 parcels. In the Qing Dynasty， there were only 100 Dragon Store books made. This set was preserved by the Monk Jinghui.In 1987， the State Bureau of Cultural Relics and State Bureau of Publication granted approval to publish the Dragon Store. In order to find a complete version of the Dragon Store， p
16、eople exerted a lot of effort and found a complete copy there. In the 1700s， Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty had ordered a part of the scriptures in the Dragon Store copies destroyed as well as other religious books.Chaozhou Thai Buddhist TempleTemples in Thailand are like museums of art. The Thai Buddhist Temple in Chaozhou is decorated like a Thai Buddhist Temple. The roof of the pavilion has multi-faceted angles and doubled eaves. There are beautiful yello
