Inner Mongolia

I light candles for my loved one who are not with us anymore.

Inner Mongolia: Day One
We had a week off in October for Autumn Festival!  This is when almost the whole country gets a week off.  It is a very busy travel time.  It is also called Moon Festival because during this time of year the moon is the roundest.  They also eat a lot of moon cakes( dry cake with  different fruit jellies).

We arrived in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, at noon, and was picked up by our tour guide Annie!  She took us out to a great lunch and we received free moon cakes!!  Moon cakes are usually really dry and gross.  The Chinese buy them like crazy and always give them as gifts!

Then we went to the Dazhao Temple, which means the Infinite Temple.    The Dazhao Temple is the oldest and the largest Temple in Hohhot.  It is a Lamaist Buddhist temple and was visited by the Tibetan Dalai Lama in 1950's.

The temples have monks that live there but I guess they can get married if they want.  Since it was Mid-Autumn Festival the temple was decorated with prayer flags and people left offerings for different statues to bring good luck for their families!  

Horse wrapped in prayer flags.

 They leave moon cakes and fruit such as apples, peaches, pomegranates (symbol of fertility), grapes and melons.  The mothers bring pomegranates to help their children have children.   You can see that people left money, nuts, and flowers!  They could also buy candles and incenses to burn.  The temple was really amazing!  There were several people praying and bringing offerings for the moon goddess

Here are some of my best pictures from my trip!  I will make more updates soon!

At all the sights they had Mongolian first, Mandarin second, and English third. 

Here is Ashley, Jenny, Kristina, and tour guide Annie by the temple!

Outside offering table with prayer flags above!

There were several monks living and visiting the temple.  They were praying and chanting with families.

Jenny, Ashley, Me, and Kristina

They had several of these pots around the temple, you make a wish for happiness and the longer it takes for your money to reach the bottom the more happiness you receive.  That is why so many people but cash into the pots, and people believe the higher value the money has the longer it takes to sink to the bottom.

Inside the temple where the monks prayed and chanted.  

Ashley, Me, Jenny, and Kristina outside the temple