I always do quite in-depth research before deciding to visit a specific place.
This is partly to make sure it will be worth the effort, but also to know more about the place before arriving. In most cases, I do not need the guide pamphlets freely available on arrival because my knowledge will by that time exceed what is written is such a small pamphlet.
While exploring possible visiting spots in and around Shenzhen I found this temple. Most internet information in English refers to it as Nansha Temple of the Queen of Heaven".
This temple is unique for its location and size. Facing the Lingding Ocean at the mouth of the Pearl River, Nansha Tianhou Temple is a Mazu temple on the southeastern slope of the Dajiao Mountain in Guangzhou City and covers about 100 hectares. It was built to worship the goddess of the sea, also called Mazu by the people, whose real name is Linmo(960-987). The architecture combines both the style of the Forbidden City in Beijing and the sublimity of Dr.Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum in Nanjing. It is the largest palace compound in its category in the world. It also has a reputation as being the biggest Mazu Temple in southeastern Asia.
It also has a huge statue the the Queen of Heaven looking out over the sea.
It is one of the few temples I have seen having an English translated website for tourists. According to the website, in 2015, it was awarded the status of a "Scenic spot" which in actual fact translates to "being overcrowded and definitely not a place to visit over weekends"
Although the "Scenic Spot" idea is a bit off-putting, I decided that it is worth exploring in person, so I showed Xiaoyi my (English) research results and mentioned the name "Nansha Temple of the Queen of Heaven" asking her to see how we can get there. I also mentioned to her that I saw it is possible to get there by bus, with a few bus changes, and that it is supposed to be not more than about one to two hours travel.
She did some research on her phone and eventually came up with a plan involving mostly using the subway and then one bus route and then about a 3-kilometre walk.
We set off on a weekday (I did not want to be part of the weekend crowds!).
When we get off the bus and start our last part of the journey, I started to smell a rat - this does not look at all like the photos I saw on the internet.
But we continued our journey and low and behold, arrived at the temple!
The wrong temple!
We arrived and "Nanshan Queen of Heaven Tianhou Temple". Also known as "Chiwan Tin Hau Temple".
A small misunderstanding, Nanshan instead of Nansha!
But visiting the Nanshan temple was not a disappointment; It is much smaller, not a typical tourist attraction (although there is a CNY15 entrance fee) and almost no visitors.
I learned something new; there are many temples honouring the Queen of Heaven.
For this post I specifically selected photos without people in them - this is an example of Street (and travel) photography using only "Symbols of People" to learn something about their culture.
(We did also visit the Nansha temple - but that is for a future post. All the photos in this post was taken at the Nanshan temple.)
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Location information
● Nansha Temple of the Queen of Heaven （East Gate）, Nansha, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China