Baotong temple is located on the south foothill out of Dadongmen, Wuchang of Wuhan city, Hubei Province. It is one of the four biggest temples in Wuhan. In 1983, it was listed as the main key national Chinese Buddhism temple by the State Council. The Baotong temple began construction at the reign of Baoli second year of Tang Dynasty (826). It was also known by the name of “small Jinshan Mountain” because it is similar to the Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang. The Qing Dynasty government sponsored the ancient temple with silver coins to carry out repairs for many times during the Kangxi emperor 15th years to 30th years (1676-1691). It became the first Buddhist temple in Wuchang after restoration.

A couple of days ago I met up with two journalism students from Wuhan University, and we went on a nine-hour marathon street photography/sightseeing tour of the city. We visited some of the funkier and artsy commercial districts, and the site of the original capital building of Republic of China (now a museum). We crossed the Yangtze River by ferry, where we took a walk though the oldest, “colonial” part of the city. There were many things that caught my attention, to many to mention, but more than anything the sheer multitude of people walking everywhere, and the thriving economy, is very impressive. Wuhan is a city that most in the West have never heard of, and don’t think of it as a major Chinese city, yet in sheer geographic size and population it is at least as big as New York City.