Gardens, Nunneries and Temples.

Over the weekend I went to the Nan Lian Garden and Chi Lin Nunnery with Lex and Anna S. We started out earlier than our past adventures, around 10, which got us to the Garden and Nunnery a little after 11. The MTR dropped us off by an entrance to a mall (what a surprise- most MTR stations are connected to some shopping area) and it was a quick walk over to the Garden. The brochure I picked up describes the Nan Lian Garden as “A classical garden in a modern city- Serenity in the midst of urban hustle and bustle.”  It really was like we were in a different world once we entered the Garden. You could barely hear the cars outside and the sun was so bright you wouldn’t have even thought skyscrapers surrounded you.

We meandered around the Garden, through the paved paths. There was one main path that weaved in and out of all the areas of the Garden that we followed and allowed us to see the Chinese Timber Architecture Gallery, Blue Pond, the Pavilion Bridge, The Mill as well as the Tan Gallery. There was a vegetarian restaurant that we were going to eat at but it was rather expensive and it didn’t have a great selection so we decided not to eat there.

After walking through the Garden we proceeded to the Chi Lin Nunnery, which was connected to Nan Lian Garden by a few steps. In a section of the Nunnery you weren’t allowed to take pictures, but we did- we just hid from the security guards while doing so. The Nunnery was gorgeous with great architecture and beautiful gardens.

We stopped at the mall by the MTR and found this interesting food court to eat. There were about 20 different stations/places to eat and they all offered a different type of Asian food including Vietnamese, Tawainese etc. I ended up getting dumplings.

Our final stop for the day was Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. Although it was gorgeous, we were all a little disappointed because we couldn’t actually enter the temple; we were only allowed to walk around outside it. We still got to see a lot, but it was very crowded and a lot of people were praying. I heard there were fortune tellers there and wanted to check it out. We found the fortune telling section- about 70-80 little shops/booths in a row offering palm reading, face reading and more for more than $200HK (a little less than $30USD). It was rather expensive so we opted not to do it and figured we’d find a cheaper place at a later date.

The line of fortune tellers