Our university took some of the foreign teachers on a day trip to several locations in the area. The first that we went to was Famen Temple in Baoji. Going there was definitely an interesting experience, but neither of us have any desire to return.
First of all, what is Famen Temple? It's an ancient Buddhist temple that may have been built during the Eastern Han dynasty (25 BC – 220 AD). It's famous now because of the relic that was found there during the reconstruction of its pagoda in 1987: the finger bone of Sakyamuni Buddha. Apparently after his death pieces of his bones were sent around the world to different Buddhist temples. China received several bones, but this is the only one remaining today.
Apart from the creepy finger bone, its a strange place for another reason. Because this place is now a pilgrimage destination and filling up with tourists, millions of dollars have been poured into it, and it now resembles more of a amusement park than a temple. It seems that their project was a failure as lots of money has been lost because they created something that is commercial and ugly. You can also see that most of its buildings will probably fall apart in a decade.
Here is the pagoda where the finger was found in an "underground palace." This is the nicest part of the place.
These are the four relics that were found. One of them is the real deal and the other three are duplicates that were made to protect the real one.
This is the kilometer-long walkway that is all concrete and no trees.
Here you can see the modern temple that they have created, and inside you can find the finger bone.
This is a shot of the inside of this building that is extremely large (made for giants). The finger bone is below the Buddha inside the little gold temple shaped container.