Travelogue: The Floating Temple of Luojia

Will literally blow you away. Like, its really windy.

I swear I’m not doing what it looks like I’m doing.

Our four day visit to Quanzhou has been nothing but homeruns. The snacks of the XiJie, the artefacts of Kaiyuan, the serene rocky paths of Qingyuan. The intriguing new characters Master HongYi and the Sea Goddess Mazu. We did not come here to see and do everything. This four day trip is a scouting mission for an all-family adventure next year. Quanzhou seems nothing but pleasant surprises. But I learned in business that you don’t know you’ve gone far enough until you’ve gone too far.

The Floating Temple on the coast looks amazing on Instagram, and it IS amazing, don’t get me wrong! It’s just missing something up close in person, you know? Maybe its the youthfulness? The temple was only built in the 1990s. Maybe the lack of information online or on site. I knew very little going in and left in the same condition. My itch for knowledge was not tickled in that way I’ve been spoiled to expect.

Our walk started at the apartment and resort developments that line one end of the beach so we could see the giant statue of Mazu the Sea Goddess. Remember the Tianhou Temple? Anyone sailing on this sea would need all the help they could get.

You can see the bridge to the temple on the left.

Luojia Temple was built in the 1990s. We can easily forget that these organizations are living and growing. Not everything is 1000 years old.

The walk across the beach was a real chore. The wind howls, tearing at your clothing, whipping dust. Maybe our day was just really intense. The developers must have known about this, but I can’t imagine there is anything they could do. But we made it to the bridge connecting the temple to the rocky coast.

Here is that bridge and the temple entrance.

The temple may not be floating but it is built right on the ocean. The views and sounds of the crashing waves are mesmerizing. Shenzhen Bay is glass compared to this.

Looking back at the beach from the bridge.

We cottoned on quickly that Luojia is more for Instagram than history, more for memes than worship. So we jumped in and aped the practiced influencers, looking for the hottest spots and angles. So please enjoy my first Photo Essay.

An influencers work is never done.

Me and my inner tiger.

With construction.

Without.

A very yellow wall.

Buddha, 佛 over a lotus flower.

The wind would lift you off the ground. Ridiculous. I couldn’t wear my hat. Which I regretted later.

Steles listing the prominent citizens who donated to the construction of this temple.

Now enough of me standing about staring into space. I think you will find this interesting. At one of the temples visited earlier, I think it might have been Kaiyuan, or maybe Yuanmiao, we heard this wooden clacking, as if large dominos were hitting the floor over and over. We looked around but didn’t see who was doing it. Here at Luojia, the mystery was revealed. These are Bo Cups used in fortune telling.

The instructions for use are translated from the picture below. First the believer offers incense and kowtows. Second, the issue, person, or subject needing to be divined is described in detail. This is important: the description must be as specific as possible. Gods like to play jokes and pretend they aren’t omnipotent and all-knowing. Then the two wooden crescents are thrown and the results read by the expert on site. You do this some number of times, and there has to be an expert supporting your interpretation of this. Did I mention that? They interpret the final meaning.

Honestly, I have no idea if any of this is correct. Certainly it’s incomplete. We didn’t see the ritual being performed, and the desk was missing the expert. I will be on the lookout for this and seriously give it a go. Though I am not a believer, it’ll be fun.

Not everything has to be 1000 years old to reach minimum interesting age, but it doesn’t hurt. Human culture defines the architecture trends of the age, and our age is defined in many ways by the phenomenon for social media. The Floating Temple feels like it was designed with influencers first in mind. Maybe not true, I’m not here to put the place down, but go there first. Feel it for yourself.

This is the concessions area outside the temple. Trinkets for sale, food truck type fare, all battling and losing to the constant wind and dust. Looked like a Mad Max camp.

This is right outside the bridge to the temple.