The Guan Yu Forest
The Guan Yu Forest is actually the memorial temple and the tomb for Guan Yu. It is called "Forest" merely because there are many ancient pine and cypress trees surrounding the area, which is located right in Guanlin Town, south of Luoyang City.
Guan Yu (160 - 219 AD) who originally came from Shanxi province and was also called Guan Yunchang, was a famous general of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 277 AD). Legend has it that Guan Yu's head was buried here after he was captured and decapitated. General Guan Yu, well-known for his loyalty, faithfulness, boldness and power, had been regarded as the peerless hero and raised to the level of quasi-religion and therefore worshiped as a Buddha from the Three Kingdoms period to the Sui Dynasty,.
The main entrance is a 5-room-wide tower with three doorways leading to the inside. Each door of the gate tower, red in color, is inlaid with 81 golden rivets, the treatment reserved only for Chinese kings and emperors. The halls behind the gate tower are magnificent and full of power and grandeur. Inside the first hall there is the statue of General Guan Yu in a sitting position wearing an imperial crown and robe with the design of the dragon on it, which is the attire only for a Chinese king or emperor. On both sides of the statue of Guan Yu, are two standing statues: On the left, Guan Pin, Guan Yu's son , holding a large seal and on the right, Zhou Cang, Guan's disciple, , holding a big saber. The second hall is the Hall of Warriors. On both sides of this hall are two accompanying halls-- the Hall of Zhang Fei and the Hall of Five Brave Generals. Behind the second hall is the third hall, the Hall of Spring and Autumn in which stand two statues of Guan Yu, one in the sitting and the other in the supine position, both reading a history book " Spring and Autumn", by candlelight. On the surrounding walls, are drawings depicting stories of Guan Yu, like "Three Generals fighting Lu Bu", "To Capture Jingzhou", " A Battle at Changsha" and so on. At the rear is a backyard in which there is a pavilion called "Dragon Tablet Pavilion", established in the Qing Dynasty. On the pavilion there is horizontal plaque and inside a big tablet with the inscription commemorating Guan Yu.
Source: regenttour.com
Editor: Chen Yanqiu, Wang Moyan
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