Following The Way In Ping Che.

In The Gardens of Wun Chuen Sin Koon.

I've still got a very long list of things to visit in Hong Kong, but I wasn't expecting my list to grow any longer. Therefore, I was quite surprised to come across a wonderful Taoist temple in The New Territories that I'd never heard of before. This temple is called Wun Chuen Sin Koon Temple and it is located very close to the Chinese border in Ping Che.

To get there I travelled to Sheung Shui by MTR, exited through exit A4, and made my way to the bus station, where I boarded bus 79K. I took this to Wan Chuen Sin Koon bus-stop, which is right outside the temple's main entrance. It's also possible to board this bus at Fanling Station, or to get to the temple on the 52K minibus. The minibus is much faster, but I took the bus as I didn't know where to get off and buses display their route electronically on board, while minibuses don't.

Wun Chuen Sin Koon Temple is a Taoist temple. Taoism literally means following The Way. This religion is based on the teachings of the Ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who recorded his beliefs in a book called the Tao Te Ching. Taoism teaches its followers about balance and how to exist in harmony with the universe.

Wun Chuen Sin Koon was founded by a group of Taoist monks from Xiqiao in Guangdong Province, who were driven out of China by the Japanese Occupation in 1938. They escaped to Hong Kong, where they built a replica of the temple they had been forced to abandon.

At the entrance to the temple there is a large gateway, guarded by stone lions, and just behind this there are images of three Taoist gods.

Taoist gods.

Gateway.

Near the entrance to the temple there is a vegetarian restaurant which is supposed to be excellent and very reasonably priced. I didn't try it, but everything I have read raves about how good it is.

I enjoyed the temple, without really knowing what everything was. There was no information in English about anything and all the signs and maps were in Chinese only, but I didn't really mind this.

Map.

I walked towards the main temple. Its entranceway has statues of different Taoist gods. I think these are supposed to guard the way to the main temple. The walls here are beautifully decorated. I especially liked the mural of cranes.

Entrance to the main temple.

Images guard the way.

Images guard the way.

Cranes.

I passed through the doorway and I was in a courtyard with the main temple building at the top of the stairs in front of me and other buildings off to the sides.

Looking up at the main temple building.

The main temple building.

Mythical creatures guard the way.

Mythical creatures guard the way.

Looking back at the entranceway.

Looking back at the entrance way from the main temple.

Side view of main temple building

I looked around, then I climbed up the steps to the main temple. This was lavishly decorated. It had a main altar and a side altar. Its walls were covered with golden dragons. Its ceilings were hung with ornate lamps.

Inside the temple.

Inside the temple.

Golden dragons.

Golden dragons.

If you walk around the walls at this upper level, there are gorgeous views over the gardens, over the temple and over the courtyard. There are also bell towers and some wonderful strangely shaped rocks here. I found an image of a golden bat on one of the walls.

Main temple viewed from on top of its walls.

Entranceway and courtyard viewed from above.

View of the courtyard from above.

View over the garden.

View over the garden.

Gemstones.

Golden bat.

When I had finished looking at the temple, I went to the gardens. Wun Chuen Sin Koon has wonderful gardens which are famous for their lotuses in summer and their chrysanthemums in winter. I visited at the wrong time of year for either of these, but the gardens were still stunning.

I started by looking at the lotus ponds. There were no lotuses in bloom yet as it's too early in the year for them. The ponds were covered in lush green lily pads. There are many bridges here, statues in the water and little shelters to sit in.

The Lotus Pond.

Lotus pond.

Boats in the lotus pond

Stream.

Bridge.

Bridge.

Around the edges of the gardens there are various columbaria, housing the remains of the departed. I didn't go inside these, but wandered around the little ponds that were dotted round about them. The ponds have water spouting fish statues and are connected to each other by small bridges.

Ponds with spouting fish.

Columbaria.

The walls of the Columbaria had beautiful scenes from Ancient China depicted in stone on them.

Stone scenes.

Stone scenes.

Stone scenes.

In another stretch of the garden there were lots of potted bonsai trees. I stumbled upon a pond filled with turtles. They all dived in the water when I approached. At first I thought I had scared them, but as they came straight towards me, I realized they were actually hoping I would feed them.

Bonsai.

Bonsai.

Bonsai.

Turtles.

Turtles.

I realized there was a second part of the main temple underneath the part I had been in originally, so I had a look around there, too.

Under the temple.

Under the temple.

Under the temple.

At one point I came across a beautiful Chinese gateway with an image of a dragon and various figures from Chinese mythology next to it.

Gateway.

Gateway.

Through the gateway.

Dragon Mural.

Dragon Mural.

There were also some statues of oxen dotted about on the lawns. The gardens are a wonderful place to just sit and relax.

Ox statues

Ox Statues.

Ox Statues close up.

There were lots of different shelters in the garden where it was possible to sit peacefully, alone with just your thoughts. Each shelter was slightly different from the others.

Shelter.

Shelter.

Shelter.

There was an ornate dragon wall and several other features.

Dragon wall.

Dragon wall.

Dragon statue.

In the gardens.

In the garden.

In the garden.

There were lots of lovely views of the temple buildings from the garden.

Temple building viewed from the garden.

Temple buildings viewed from the gardens.

Temple viewed from the gardens.

Temple viewed across the pond.

Naturally there were beautiful flowers and plants everywhere.

Jackfruit.

Water hyacinth.

Flowers.

Bamboo.

When I had finished looking around I decided to walk to Ping Che Village which is known for its murals. I noticed there's a strawberry farm opposite the temple where you can pick your own strawberries.

Strawberry farm.

I hadn't fully researched how to go to the mural village and went the wrong way at first which led to me being attacked by a village dog. Fortunately I was able to get past it without getting bitten, but it nearly made me give up and not bother with the murals at all.

Anyway, I eventually realized I was just on the wrong side of the road for the murals. There are some lovely old village houses in this area. The temple and the mural trail are only about fifteen minutes walk away from each other.

Old houses.

Old houses.

Old houses.

Colourful houses.

The Ping Che Mural Trail was created in 2013 in response to government plans to demolish parts of the village and redevelop it. The locals thought that if they decorated the walls and paths of their village and made it into a tourist attraction, then the government would leave them alone. They were helped in this endeavour by lots of university students and local artists and decorated their village in all the colours of the rainbow. I'm not sure if it was as a result of the villagers actions or not, but the proposed redevelopment did not take place.

Colourful sign for Ping Che.

Nowadays, unfortunately, the Ping Che Mural Village is looking rather the worse for wear, many of the murals have faded or have been vandalised. I personally found it a little bit disappointing. To be honest if I had come all this way just to see this, I wouldn't have been happy. Fortunately, the temple had made my journey completely worthwhile.

The first murals I saw were on a warehouse fence not far from the main road. At least these let you know you are on the right track.

On a warehouse wall.

Warehouse wall.

The trail is to the left of this shop.

Mural Village Sign.

The path through the village would once have been very colourful, but of course these paintings will have been frequently trodden on. Some had survived better than others.

Keep smiling mural.

Cow mural.

Mural on the path.

Flower mural on the path.

There were, however, some houses that were beautifully decorated.

The murals on this house still looked good.

Close up of the front.

Children and flowers.

Boy reading.

Bird hammock.

Flowers.

Rice farmer.

Leaping fish.

I really liked the butterfly house. It was like something out of a fairytale.

Butterfly house.

Butterfly house.

There was another house with a butterfly theme, too.

Butterfly house

Butterfly.

Another house had the low wall around its garden decorated.

Painted around the edges of the garden.

One house should have had lovely murals but they had been vandalised.

The murals on this house got vandalised.

As well as the houses there were decorations along stretches of wall.

Long landscape.

Closer up.

With a lion.

And houses.

More decorated walls.

At one time there were sculptures and other things here that added to the colourful, arty farty air of the village. Most of these have gone, but one or two still remain, such as the sweetheart post fridge which encouraged people to leave positive messages for the villagers in a decorated, abandoned fridge.

Painted abandoned sweetheart post fridge.

Sweetheart post fridge.

Coco the dog, one of the friendlier members of the species.

An owl stands guard.

Painting behind a fence.

Decorations hung in the trees.

Welcome sticks.

Naturally I also took some time to examine the flowers growing all around me, too.

White ivy flower.

Chinese wisteria.

Flowers.

Flowers.

As well as flowers, this area is known for its fields of tall silver grasses. Apparently there is a viewing pavilion with great views into China in the middle of these fields. On this occasion I did not look for this.

This area is famous for tall silver grasses.

I decided not to bother going to see the ruined village school which was also part of the original art project. This is located nearby. In the 1950's the villagers grouped together to build this school, but unfortunately it was closed down in 2007 due to falling enrollment. Having read up on the school when I got home, I was glad I did not go, as someone wrote it was full of stray dogs. I think being attacked by one dog is quite enough for one day.

There are other things to see around this area such as a Tin Hau Temple and some old ancestral halls. I didn't look for these, so there's a possibility I might come back. But there's a limit to how much walking it's possible to do when it's humid and I had had enough for one day. I returned to the main road and jumped on a 52K minibus back to Fanling and went home.