![]() You can see someone in the second image trying to toss a coin into the giant urn in the middle of the yard. Some of these shots were an exercise in trying to balance the people across the whole frame and also thinking about their shadows in one or two of them. I don’t usually shoot scenes below from on high, but I did here. You can also use them to get some different photographs. I’ll say also that these particular ones on this Portra 400 film are pretty pleasing too.Īs you can see in that picture above, Jing’an Temple has upper walkways that you can explore. The location is different but the style of shooting and the results are very similar. It’s nice not to be too intrusive in a temple where people are worshipping and wouldn’t appreciate a camera lens in their personal space, but I don’t tend to do that anywhere when I shoot anyway. That is, finding a nice scene or background, preferably a well-lit one, and waiting for someone to enter it. So of course I made sure to get a good number of images in a similar way to how I do out in the streets. Shooting a whole set of textures and architecture would get boring for me. I imagine if you get there as soon as it opens, you’ll have it more to yourself than I did just after lunchtime on the day I went.įor my photography though, I prefer to have other people there that I can include in my shots. This does make for some nice photographs though with the temple architecture in amongst the shiny glass and steel of the neighbouring office towers.Īs nice as it would be to pretend Jing’an Temple is some oasis of isolation from the hustle and bustle outside, it isn’t. The name Jing’an Temple translates to temple of peace and tranquillity, which may once have been true but isn’t really today considering there’s one of the busiest areas of a megacity just outside its walls and countless visitors coming in each day. Some of the main halls do go back to around 1880, although the place was repurposed as a plastics factory during the Cultural Revolution.Ī huge fire then destroyed a lot of the complex in 1972, which was subsequently rebuilt in the 1980s and opened to the public in 1990. Like most historical sites in China, a lot of what you see today is not actually very old at all. ![]() The first incarnation moved from its original site to the current one in 1216 and only changed its name to Jing’an Temple in 1945. Just take Line 2 or Line 7 to the Jing’an Temple station.Īlthough it can trace its history back to around 247 AD, it hasn’t always been at its current location and hasn’t even always been called Jing’an Temple. Unless you’re within walking distance, the easiest way to get there is probably on the subway. It’s in a prime spot in the centrally located Jing’an district, which was named after the temple rather than the other way round. Jing’an Temple is one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Shanghai. 5 Final thoughts on visiting and photographing Jing’an Temple What and where is Jing’an Temple?.Personal laments aside, read on to learn what and where Jing’an Temple is, see some film shots from there, and get a view on whether it’s worth visiting for yourself if you’re ever in Shanghai. It’s a stock I should have tried much sooner. Shooting this film was another thing I finally got around to, by the way. ![]() Now I’ve finally been though I can tell you what to expect and also show you some photographs I got from there on Kodak Portra 400. That’s not because I don’t like temples either, having already written about this other one in Shanghai, this one in Wuxi more than once, and this one in Chongqing too. I was in Shanghai for a good few years but it was only in the closing months that I went to Jing’an Temple. Just think about all the things your hometown has to offer and then think how many of them you’ve done or been to. There’s something about living in a place that makes you get lazy about seeing all of what it has to offer. Images shot on Kodak Portra 400 in Yashica Electro 35 GSN At no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. ![]()
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