Mount Putuo is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 southeast of Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, in Zhoushan

Zhoushan

Zhoushan or Zhoushan Archipelago New Area; formerly transliterated as Chusan, is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. The only prefecture-level city of the People's Republic of China consisting solely of islands, it lies across the mouth of the Hangzhou Bay,...

 prefecture of Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

 province, China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. It is famous in Chinese Buddhism, and is considered the bodhimanda

Bodhimaṇḍa

Bodhimaṇḍa is a term used in Buddhism meaning the "position of awakening." According to Haribhadra, it is "a place used as a seat, where the essence of enlightenment is present." Although spelled similarly, a bodhimaṇḍa is not synonymous with a bodhimaṇḍala, which is a "circle of...

 of Avalokitesvara

Avalokitesvara

Avalokiteśvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism....

 (Guan Yin), a revered Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

 in many parts of East Asia. Mount Putuo is one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism, the others being Mount Wutai, Mount Jiuhua, and Mount Emei

Mount Emei

"峨眉山" redirects here. For the county-level city that Mount Emei is located in, see Emeishan CityMount Emei is a mountain in Sichuan province, China...

 (Bodhimandas for Manjusri

Manjusri

Mañjuśrī is a bodhisattva associated with transcendent wisdom in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism he is also taken as a meditational deity. The Sanskrit name Mañjuśrī can be translated as "Gentle Glory"...

, Ksitigarbha

Ksitigarbha

Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism, usually depicted as a Buddhist monk in the Orient. The name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb"...

, and Samantabhadra

Samantabhadra

Samantabhadra , is a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism associated with Buddhist practice and meditation. Together with Shakyamuni Buddha and fellow bodhisattva Manjusri he forms the Shakyamuni trinity in Buddhism...

, respectively). Mount Putuo lies on Eastern Sea of China and displays the beauty between sea and mountain. The area is about 12.5 square kilometers and has lots of famous and sacred temples. Every year on February nineteenth, June nineteenth, September nineteenth of the lunar calendar, it welcomes millions of people for the celebration of the birth of guanyin, being a monk and being bodhisattva.

History

Around 1612, the 20-year-old future Chan

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

-master Yinyuan Longqi arrived at Mount Putuo while looking for his father, who had disappeared fifteen years earlier. He served tea to the monks. The religious activities can be derived from qin dynasty. During the tang dynasty, along with the development of sea silk road, Putuo Mountain became the center of Han Buddhism for Guanyin.

Features

• 33m tall statue of the Guan Yin at Zizhulin (紫竹林)
• Two major beaches - Hundred Step Beach and Thousand Step Beach. Hundred Step Beach charges for entry and has facilities such as deckchairs and parasols, and activities such as a banana boat and quad bikes.
• Sea food-including all kinds of sea food like yellow fish,shell, sea crab.

Temples

• Puji Temple
  Puji Temple
  Puji Temple is a Buddhist temple located on the island of Putuoshan in Zhejiang province, China.The temple is now a tourist attraction as the island is significant in Chinese Buddhism...
  
  
• Fayu Temple
  Fayu Temple
  Fayu Temple , also called Stone Temple, is one of three major temples in Mount Putuo, Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China.Its grand hall was rebuilt in Kangxi 38th year , Qing Dynasty.-History:...
  
  
• Putuo is covered with many temples and monasteries, both large and small. All are under the directive of the Chinese Buddhist Association. Many monks and nuns from all over the country, and abroad, go to great lengths to live and practice there.
• In addition to these monasteries, there is a large Institute of Buddhism, one of the largest Buddhist academic institutes in China.
• The modern scholar monk Taixu spent several years in solitary retreat at a small hermitage in Putuo.

Transport

Many of the Zhoushan Islands are now linked by bridges. This means that Putuoshan can easily be reached by bus from Shanghai and Ningbo. The bus terminates at Shenjiamen Bus Station. From the Banshengdong Wharf on the Shenjiamen waterfront it is a 10 minute ride by fast ferry (22rmb) to Putuoshan. In Shanghai, the Nanpu Bridge Bus Station, Shanghai Stadium Sightseeing Bus Center and Shanghai South Long Distance Bus Station have several departures daily to Shenjiamen (4-5 hours, 138rmb). In Ningbo, the North and South bus stations both have regular daily departures to Shenjiamen (2-3 hours, 60rmb).

There are two flights daily from Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai to Putuo Airport which is only 3 kilometres from Shenjiamen. (approx 800rmb).

The ferry services mentioned below are still available but the bus services now provide a greater level of convenience and comfort.
Putuoshan can be reached by boat from the major cities of Ningbo and Shanghai. It will take approximately an hour by boat to reach the wharf at Ningbo, from where a bus transports passengers to Ningbo city centre. There are two boats linking Putuoshan and Shanghai. One departs in the evening and travels overnight, arriving in the early morning; the other leaves early in the day from a wharf outside of Shanghai city centre but takes less than two hours.

A number of minibuses link the major tourist areas. There are no taxis and traffic is usually limited to buses.

Weather

It is Asia Tropical marine climate and has four distinct seasons that winter is warm and summer is cool. It has plenty or rain and fog. The average temperature of whole year
is 16.1 degree Celsius. The coldest month is January, average temperature is 5.4degree Celsius. The hottest month is August, temperature is 27degree Celsius. It has typhoon season on July, August and September. The average speed of wind is 4.2-5.7 meters per second.

External links