The autumn breeze is cool, and the rice is abundant: a low-key Buddhist kingdom that grows and eats its own food, with no admission fee for 1,400 years

Unconsciously, from 2021 to 2025, I have visited Guoqing Temple on Tiantai Mountain for the fourth time. The first three visits were in midsummer, but this time I deliberately chose the golden autumn in October— and unexpectedly encountered the most enchanting season of Guoqing Temple. Outside the Sui Dynasty pagoda, the fields are piled with haystacks, and the temple’s stone paths are covered with rice grains. This is the “autumn sun-drying” unique to this thousand-year-old temple, where monks plant in spring and harvest in autumn, growing and eating their own food. Even as more tourists arrive, the temple still insists on not charging a single penny for admission. The mottled yellow walls are warmed by the autumn sun, and the scent of rice drifts in the breeze. In a daze, I realize four years have passed, yet Guoqing Temple remains serene and unhurried. ■ A thousand-year-old temple, quietly preserving its heritage Founded in 598 during the Sui Dynasty, Guoqing Temple is not only the birthplace of the Tiantai Sect but also the ancestral temple of Tiantai Buddhism in Japan and Korea. The Sui Pagoda, Sui Plum, and Wang Xizhi’s unique “Goose” stele—three temple treasures—quietly tell the story of time. 📍 Tiantai County, Taizhou, Zhejiang 🎫 Free admission This autumn, why not take a walk through this “living ancient temple,” watch the monks harvest rice, and experience the unbroken Zen lifestyle spanning a millennium.