Among the Ten Scenes of West Lake, the only one that takes a musical instrument in a Buddhist temple as a landscape is the ‘Evening Bell Ringing at Nanping Hill’ in Jingci Temple. Here, ‘Nanping’ refers to Nanping Hill behind Jingci Temple, and ‘evening bell’ refers to the large bronze bell in Jingci Temple. Jingci Temple is located at the foot of Huiri Peak on Nanping Hill on the south bank of West Lake. It was built in the Wuyue period and was formerly known as ‘Yongming Chan Monastery’. It is one of the four ancient temples in the history of West Lake. There is a release pond in front of the mountain gate, and there are historical sites such as Zongjing Hall, Huiri Pavilion, Jizu Hall, and Yunmu Well in the temple courtyard. According to legend, the Living Buddha Jigong once practiced here and used his divine power to transport wood from the well to build Jingci Temple. The recast bronze bell is 3 meters high and weighs more than 10 tons. There are more than 68,000 characters of the Lotus Sutra cast on the bell. On New Year’s Eve, many citizens and tourists will gather inside and outside the bell tower of Jingci Temple to hold the New Year’s bell-ringing activity to ring out the old year and ring in the new. When the 108th bell rings, it is just the beginning of the new year. This activity, which symbolizes peace, joy, stability, and unity, has injected new meanings and charm into the ancient Evening Bell Ringing at Nanping Hill.
Opening hours: Open all year round from 06:30 to 17:00.Evening Bell Ringing at Nanping Hill
Among the Ten Scenes of West Lake, the only one that takes a musical instrument in a Buddhist temple[...]
