Huizhou Zhunti Monastery

Eighty-eight stone steps, worn smooth by five centuries of footsteps, lead up Chongdao Mountain to a four-pillar stone archway. The gilded characters of Zhunti Monastery catch the sunlight, marking the threshold of a sanctuary that has repeatedly reinvented itself since the Ming Dynasty.

Originally built between 1506 and 1521 as Ruikai Pavilion, the site evolved into a prestigious Chan forest. In the seventeenth century, the monk Zhenpu gathered anti-Qing rebels within these walls, turning spiritual devotion into quiet defiance. Centuries later, in 1903, the revolutionary poet Su Manshu knelt on these grounds to shave his head, choosing the monastic life amid political turmoil. During the Anti-Japanese War, monks carried eighteen heavy Arhat statues up this very hill, rescuing them from the ruined Liudu Nunnery and earning the monastery the local name Eighteen Arhats.

The monastery breathes with the landscape. Pine and bamboo groves cast shifting shadows across the Mahavira Hall. Inside, a newly sculpted 3.8-meter gilded Zhunti Bodhisattva gleams in the dim light. In the courtyard, water ripples in eight specialized wishing vats. Visitors toss coins, aiming for submerged miniature incense burners to secure health or wisdom, their hopes sinking through the clear water to rest on the ceramic bottoms. Stepping onto the main hall's platform reveals the famous Zhunti Far Observation. A 270-degree panorama unfolds, sweeping across the calm surfaces of Ping, Feng, and Ling lakes.