Baoguang Temple Vegetarian

If you have the time, 4-7 hours, this is and outing worth the time and effort. Baoguang Temple, located at Baoguang Street in Chengdu’s Xindu District, covers an area of 100,000 square meters, and is a Zen Buddhist Monastery with a long history and housing numerous cultural treasures. The temple was founded as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD).

Baoguang Temple is now composed of one pagoda, six halls and sixteen courtyards. It is the only temple still to preserve the traditional temple layout- "incorporating the pagoda, with the pagoda as the centre".

We took the Metro to the North Train Station and found the city bus station and bus 35 which took us to the North bus station (Beimen Chezhan) and going to the left of the main ticket office back to a staging area for three more local buses we found Bus 605 to Xindu, 3 RMB(50cents) About 45 minutes to Xindu and then a bus and a 15 minute walk and we made it to the Temple(Monastery). Paid the 5 RMB(82cent) entry and told to go to the right to find the dining hall. We found it by going through the Tea Pavilion and found the order windows with the menu choices all in characters with prices. Not having a clue one of the 4 women pointed to two suggestions and I also ordered a tofu and we went and sat down. Shortly they brought our food and we were delighted to have a Broccoli dish that was not over cooked in a delightful gravy, the Braised Tofu with peppers and a nice sauce and a Celery, red and green peppers with Roasted Cashews dish. I asked my non vegetarian friend which was his favorite dish and he named all three and added that we couldn't have ordered better if we knew what we were ordering. Bill 40 + 10, 50 RMB($8.20) no drinks or dessert. They closed by 1:15 so try to be there around noon with time, an hour or 2, to visit the grounds and sites before or after lunch. Going to the end of the parkway in front of the Temple we found Bus 651 back into Chengdu to north of the North train station.