Serene temples offer welcome respite from city life

Welcome change

In early March, travel blogger Tan Qi, 28, signed up for five days of Zen practice at Nuonata Temple in Lushan, Jiangxi province.

First built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) on Mount Lushan, the Buddhist temple offers three five-day Zen sessions to a total of about 150 people each month.

"I saw the temple on the Xiaohongshu social media platform and immediately wanted to visit it," said Tan, who comes from Chongqing.

"It offers a change that I had long wanted to experience, but had never been able to," he said, adding that the flexible hours of his job led to him developing bad habits.

"I used to stay up late a lot and didn't get up until noon. I knew I was doing myself a disservice, but couldn't seem to stop such behavior," he said.

Tan decided to visit the temple to restore some discipline to his life. However, he found there were many applicants for the limited number of places available.

"I had to contact a person in charge of the registration to ensure I submitted my personal details on time," said Tan, who also completed a form to show just how serious he was about making the visit.

He was excited on hearing he had been accepted, but soon found he was struggling to adapt to the highly disciplined life at the temple.