Thousand-year-old royal temple - Shengshou Temple

The weather has been pretty good these days, the temperature is not high, and there is a cool breeze blowing from time to time. I went to Xingyang Pagoda Mountain with a few friends to visit the famous Thousand-foot Pagoda of Shengshou Temple. When we went there, it started to rain lightly. However, this did not affect our fun at all. On the contrary, it added a bit of poetry and painting.

Climbing up the steps, you can see all the greenery. The apricot trees on both sides of the road are lush and leafy. If the apricot blossoms bloom in spring, this must be the most beautiful place.

Beside the steps, there are two apricot trees covered with red ribbons. There are also small wooden signs hanging on the trees: Wealth Tree, Kangning Tree. Just touching it with your hands can bring you wealth and health.

Walking a few steps forward, the three characters "Shengshou Temple" are clearly visible. The back of the stone tablet records the history of Shengshou Temple. By reading the inscription, I learned that this temple is related to Empress Cao of Song Renzong.

Walking all the way up, a village stood majestically. Yuefuzhai is powerful and powerful, with three characters inscribed in the Xianfeng period. The thick walls seem to tell a long history.

Inlaid in the thick village gate are two stone tablets, one dating from the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty and the other from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. It has a history of hundreds of years.

Standing on the wall of Yuefozhai and looking down, I feel that the view is very broad. You can see the hills in the distance and the trees nearby.

Walking along the east side of the village wall, there is a Guandi Temple. On the wall in front of the Guandi Temple, there is an inscription on the completion of the Guandi Temple. The calligraphy was beautiful and the content was good. Several people stopped to admire it.

Exit the Guandi Temple and continue up the steep steps. Standing on the steps and looking down, you have the feeling of "being at the top of the mountain and seeing all the small mountains at a glance".

On the top of the platform is Shengshou Temple. There is endless Buddhist music in the temple, and many Buddhists are chanting sutras here. In the southeast corner of the temple, there is a bronze bell.

There is a turtle stele on both sides of the steps in front of the temple, which records the story of Queen Cao and the deeds of Zhang Zhenlong who rebuilt Shengshou Temple.

After passing through the temple, I finally saw the famous Thousand-foot Pagoda, which looked like "holding a pipa and half covering its face", hiding behind a thick apricot tree.

According to the "Xingyang County Chronicle": "Song Renzong built the tower on Dazhou Mountain." Because it is a thousand feet high from the foot of Dazhou Mountain to the top of the tower, it is called the "Thousand-foot Tower". Thousand-foot Pagoda or Queen Cao Pagoda is derived from a legendary story. Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty (reigned from 1023 to 1063) selected a woman from the Nacao family to be his queen in Zhujiayu, at the foot of Dazhou Mountain. As time passed, the queen missed her hometown, so Renzong ordered a pagoda to be built in her hometown so that she could see the pagoda of her hometown in Bianjing City to relieve her homesickness. Because the tower needed to be a thousand feet high so that the queen could see it, it was not completed for a long time. For this reason, many officials and craftsmen were demoted and killed. Later, some capable people came up with a plan and used sheep to carry bricks to build the tower on the top of Dazhou Mountain. When the pagoda was completed, it was more than a thousand feet from the bottom of the mountain to the top, and Queen Cao was able to fulfill her wish. Therefore, later generations called this tower Thousand-foot Tower or Queen Cao Tower.

After several people circled the tower several times, they walked out of Shengshou Temple along the side path and arrived at the parking lot in front of Shengshou Temple.

After wandering in the parking lot for a while, we saw the three words "Erxian Cave" and couldn't help but go down to the col through the stone archway to find out.

The cave is very small, and only one person can bend down to enter. The thick stone wall is gleaming when touched. It seems that there are many people coming down, but in fact there is nothing inside.

After leaving the cave and coming to the mountain, there were several newly built houses. Xiao Wang, who was traveling with me, said that these houses were built by his friends here. When the tourism development here is completed, we will prepare to do business here.

Near the house, we met staff from the Xingyang Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau. An enthusiastic comrade told us that the scenery along the mountain was beautiful and suggested that we go down and take a look.

Sure enough, the scenery below is unique. There is a beautiful view of the sky and a small Zhubi Spring! Mr. Wei and Xiao Wang took a small stick and poked it into the spring, and water flowed out. They also posted the video to the group, and several people had a great time playing.

Further down, there is a cliff. The words "Infinite Scenery" are engraved on the stone wall.

There is a natural "bedroom" on the stone wall that can accommodate a person lying in it. Mr. Wei and I tried it one after another and experienced the feeling of being a "reclining Buddha". Our actions made everyone laugh.

After having enough fun down there, we returned the same way and returned to the top of the mountain.

Seeing wild leeks all over the ground, we started looking for wild leeks again.

Walking southeast along the mountain road, an unexpected rock attracted us. Standing on the rock and looking down, everything is in sight. The only regret is that driven by economic interests, the eastern mountain has been hollowed out, leaving only exposed stones, giving it a desolate feel.

We played until four or five o'clock in the afternoon, picked a big bag full of wild leeks, and left the Thousand-foot Pagoda of Shengshou Temple in high spirits.