Maitreya Buddha also known as a disciple of Gautama Buddha has a dedicated temple in Shanghai named Longhua Temple. I took the subway line 3 to the Longcao road Subway station and walked around 15 minutes to reach my destination.

I could see the Longhua pagoda at a faraway distance, so I was walking towards the right direction. I was relieved to see not much tourist in this location at this time, the tour groups are just arriving the destination. I bought a RMB 10/- ticket to enter. Maitreya hall, Heavenly king hall, Grand hall of the great sage, 3 Sages hall and Abbots hall are the 5 main halls that are arranged along a central north-south pointing axis known as Sangharama Five-Hall Style.

The tour groups are pouring in and the crowd was getting bigger and bigger. The groups with old age people were guided by a tour guide carrying a small microphone & a speaker explaining the history of this temple. The announcements passing through the loudspeakers were cutting through the silence of this serene environment.

I have a belief that the main beauty of any temple or monastery is the feeling of nature’s silence. Everywhere I look it was the same kind of architecture and design of the buildings; nothing got me excited to make me stay there longer. Searching for something unseen and different I walked towards the nearby Pagoda. It is 40m high and is one of the 16 remaining Pagodas of Shanghai.