Lingyin Temple

Lingyin Temple tickets and tours: which one to book

A visit to Lingyin involves two tickets bought one after the other. The first admits you to the Feilai Feng scenic area, the wooded valley with its rock carvings; the second, sold inside, admits you to the temple halls. Both can be bought at the gates or reserved online, and online versions often add a digital map or a short self-guided route, which helps because the grounds are larger than they look. Incense is given free at the temple entrance, so there is no need to buy it from the stalls outside. Guided products in Hangzhou usually build a full day around West Lake.

The common pattern is a morning at Lingyin and the carvings with a guide, followed by a lake cruise, Leifeng Pagoda or a stroll along one of the causeways. Other versions add a visit to the Longjing tea villages in the hills, with a tea tasting, or finish along the historic quarter of the Grand Canal in the evening. Private tours include a car, driver and guide, while shared day trips are cheaper but keep a tighter schedule; entrance fees may or may not be included. For those interested in the art rather than the worship, there is a specialised tour that focuses on the Buddhist sculpture of Feilai Feng and Zen culture. Independent visitors can manage easily with buses or a taxi from the lake shore.

Visiting Lingyin Temple: what to see and how to behave

Tradition says Lingyin, whose name is usually translated as Temple of the Soul's Retreat, was founded in 328 by an Indian monk known in Chinese as Huili. It grew into one of the greatest Chan monasteries of southern China, with thousands of monks under the Wuyue kingdom, and has been destroyed and rebuilt many times since. Most of today's halls are late Qing or modern reconstructions; local people and students protected the temple from destruction in 1966. The approach runs beside the limestone outcrop of Feilai Feng, the Peak That Flew From Afar, whose cliffs and caves hold several hundred Buddhist carvings made between the 10th and 14th centuries.

Do not miss the large, laughing pot-bellied Maitreya of the Song dynasty, carved straight into the rock face by the stream. Inside the temple, the Hall of the Heavenly Kings is followed by the Mahavira Hall, one of the tallest single-storey halls in China, where a seated Buddha almost 20 m high, carved from camphor wood and gilded, fills the space. Two stone pagodas from the Wuyue period stand in the courtyard in front of it, and further up the slope the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats holds rows of large bronze figures. Lingyin is a working monastery: walk quietly, do not photograph monks during services, and light incense only at the burners provided. The temple lies west of West Lake, reached by city buses or a short taxi ride.

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

The scenic area and temple are open daily from early morning until late afternoon. Arrive at opening, when monks are chanting and the paths along the carvings are quiet; by late morning, and all day at weekends, tour groups and pilgrims crowd the halls. Spring, from March to May, and autumn, especially October when the osmanthus trees are in flower, are the most pleasant seasons. Summer is hot and humid with heavy rain in June, and winter is cold but peaceful.

The Spring Festival is the great event of the year: on the eve and first days of the Chinese New Year enormous crowds come to burn incense and pray for luck, which is memorable but not for those who dislike queues. Buddhist festivals such as the Buddha's birthday also draw large congregations. Allow about three hours for Feilai Feng and the temple. Combine it with the tea villages in the hills nearby and an afternoon on West Lake.