Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou

Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou tickets and tours: which one to book

Kaiyuan Temple is free to enter and there is nothing to book: you simply walk in from West Street. That makes it easy to visit independently, and most people do. The real choice is whether to see it alone or as part of a guided look at Quanzhou, a city whose history as one of the great ports of the medieval world is not obvious at first sight. Local tours are generally half-day walks covering the temple and West Street, the old shopping street outside its gate, sometimes extended to the mosques, ancestral halls and other monuments of the old town. Short city tours of two or three hours hit the main landmarks with a guide who can explain the remarkable Hindu carvings inside the temple and the city's role in maritime trade.

Another popular combination adds Xunpu, a fishing village near the harbour famous for houses built with oyster shells and for the women's headdresses of fresh flowers, which has become a favourite photo stop. Note that several other Chinese cities have a Kaiyuan Temple, including Chaozhou in Guangdong, so check that the tour you choose is in Quanzhou. Guided walks normally include the guide and sometimes a local snack; transport is included only on trips that leave the old town. Quanzhou's high-speed rail station is a short taxi ride from the centre, and the temple lies right in the historic core, so it is easy to combine with lunch and an afternoon of wandering.

Visiting Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou: what to see and how to behave

Kaiyuan is the largest Buddhist temple in Fujian province and one of the most important in southern China. According to legend, it was founded in 686 when a rich landowner, asked by a monk in a dream to give land for a temple, agreed only if his mulberry trees bloomed with white lotus flowers; three days later they did, and the temple was first called the Lotus Temple. It took its present name in 738. The temple is one of the components of the Quanzhou World Heritage listing, which recognises the city's role as a hub of sea trade under the Song and Yuan. The approach leads through a gate hall to a broad courtyard of ancient banyans, with an old mulberry tree still pointed out as the one from the legend. The Mahavira Hall at its centre is known as the Hall of a Hundred Pillars;

look up at the brackets, where carved winged musicians, half bird and half woman, hold instruments and scrolls. Behind the hall stand stone columns and panels carved in the style of South Indian temples, reused from a Hindu shrine built in the city by Tamil merchants in the 13th century, a rare trace of Hinduism in China. Further back is a fine ordination platform. On either side of the courtyard rise the twin stone pagodas, about 48 m and 44 m high, built in the 13th century to replace wooden towers and the tallest stone pagodas of their kind in China. Their octagonal walls are covered with carved figures of guardians and saints. Kaiyuan remains an active monastery. Keep your voice down in the halls, and do not photograph monks during services.

Kaiyuan Temple, Quanzhou: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple is open daily from early morning until late afternoon. The best hours are the first after opening, when local people come to pray and burn incense and the light falls softly on the pagodas, or late afternoon when the day-trippers have left. Weekends are much busier than weekdays, and West Street outside is crowded in the evenings. Quanzhou has a subtropical climate. Autumn, from October to December, is the most comfortable season, with dry, sunny days.

Spring is mild but damp, and summers are hot, humid and sometimes stormy. Chinese New Year and the Buddha's birthday bring large numbers of worshippers and a lively atmosphere, as do the Lantern Festival celebrations in the old town. Allow one to two hours to see the halls and pagodas properly. Combine the visit with a walk along West Street, the Qingjing Mosque and the Guandi Temple in the old city, and the Maritime Museum.