West Garden Temple (Xiyuan Si) is a one of Suzhou’s active temples and a beautiful garden combined! In the garden section of the West Garden Temple, there is a pool where Buddhist worshippers have placed fish and other wetlife. The creatures are ritually “set free” into the pool and taken care of by the temple.
In the temple section of the complex, the Hall of the 500 Arhats is particularly interesting. In the center of the Hall stands a 13 meter high statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva with 1000 eyes and 1000 hands, made of a single piece of sandalwood. Not far from that statue is a unique Buddha statue whose face has four sides with four different expressions. It is said that the four sides represent the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism and the Buddhas worshipped at each sacred mountain.
This is an active temple and the crowds can get rather large, especially on weekends and Chinese holidays. Visiting in the morning may help keep crowds down.
Open: 7am to 4:30pm daily.
How to get there: Take a taxi west in the direction of Tiger Hill or take bus number five.
Cost: Tickets are RMB8.
