Ep. 100: The Temple of the Sleeping Dragon

Wolong Temple in Xi'an

In the splendor that is Xi'an, Wolong Temple barely registers on most itineraries. Yet, it's called "the oldest temple in Shaanxi Province"! And being inside the city walls, it's quite convenient. Let's take a look in this landmark 100th episode of--

TEMPLE TALES!

The street-side courtyard of Wolong Temple is protected by a rickety fence grill.

Wolong Temple, the name of which means "sleeping dragon," lies on an alley near the south wall, not far from the massive South Gate of the city of Xi'an and very close to the much smaller Nanshao Gate on Wenyi/Baishulin Road. We walked 20 minutes or so from Guangren Temple (see Episode 098) to West Street, took a bus to the Bell Tower and another to the South Gate, and walked another 15 minutes or so to Wolong. As we walked we passed the gate to the Stele Forest or Beilin Museum, which Lila would visit a few days later (while I paid a second visit to Wolong). As is my custom, I will treat the two visits to the Sleeping Dragon as one.