People have never stopped looking for peaceful places to escape from their anxieties and pressures. Over the past year, working as volunteers in temples has been a popular choice for young adults seeking to experience a very different lifestyle at a super low budget.

Free meals and accommodation, a schedule of getting up early and sleeping early, a peaceful atmosphere, and, if possible, a talk with monks about the meaning of life—all this adds up to a perfect choice for young people seeking tranquility in both the outer and inner worlds at a very low cost.

The new find

A weekend stay as a volunteer at Jingshan Temple in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, served as an interval between two busy trips for travel blogger Zhang Jingshu. Before that, she had just finished an intense trip to Tibet Autonomous Region.

After graduating from Shanghai University in 2020 with a major in filmmaking, she landed a job after graduation but then quit in 2022 to become a full-time blogger.

Before going to Tibet, she had had no connection with Buddhism other than going to pray in temples with her grandmother as a child. "I didn't know anything about Buddhism at that time and didn't understand why my grandma would go to pray," she told Beijing Review.

The trip through Tibet was her first real journey of religious exploration. She visited the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, and traveled on to Mount Kangrinboqe, a holy mountain in far-western Tibet. She was impressed by the piety of the worshipers there and the immersive experience in Buddhism made her want to learn more about temple life, both for collecting material for her short videos and for her own life experience.

After her trip to Tibet, Zhang applied online to volunteer at Jingshan Temple, a royal temple in ancient times but now one of the lesser-known temples in Hangzhou. She was accepted. The temple only accepts volunteers on weekends and during holidays.

The accommodation at the temple was much better than expected. Zhang and another young volunteer were assigned a standard hotel-style room. This was very luxurious by the standards of temple volunteers as, in most temples, volunteers are required to share a large room.

In the temple, all volunteers are allowed to get up at 4:30 a.m. and join the temple chanting if they want to. Breakfast begins at 7 a.m. After that, volunteers are assigned their tasks for the day. Zhang's was to make coffee in the temple cafe and she learned how to do so from scratch. "Over the weekend, we made hundreds of cups of coffee as tourists swarmed in," she said.

She saw many young visitors in the temple. Figures from Trip.com Group, a major travel booking platform in China, show that the number of tourists visiting temples in the previous five months this year was over three times that of last year. Among the temple visitors, those born after 1990 accounted for more than 50 percent.

"I've heard many friends my age say they want to volunteer in temples but only a small number have actually done so," she said. "This is partly because they don't know how to apply as many temples don't have open channels for application and you need to visit the temples in person to inquire."

The two-day experience marked the start of her exploration of more temples in China, and she intends to visit even more of them and stay in some as a volunteer. "The schedule in the temple helps maintain a healthy lifestyle and provides a break from a life glued to your smartphone," she said.

She now has over 60,000 followers across her social media platforms and temples will be the target destinations of her upcoming trips.

Weekend shift

Xu Wansi is more of a "veteran" temple volunteer. A director of TV programs in Beijing, she has been working as a regular weekend volunteer at the capital's Guangji Temple since 2012, when she had just graduated from college. Now, the 34-year-old goes to the temple whenever she has time on weekends.

It is a small temple nestled in one of Beijing's most bustling areas and a short walk from the Financial Street, a major financial center in China. When she walked into the temple for the first time in 2012, she felt nothing but a sense of calm and comfort.

She came across a monk and asked whether she could volunteer at the temple. He took her to another person who was in charge of the volunteers and that was the start of her experience there.

Her job is to serve food and work in the temple kitchen. As the temple doesn't offer any accommodation, she has to drive for half an hour from home and arrive at the temple before 7 a.m. to help prepare and serve breakfast and then help to clean the kitchen and do other chores. She leaves before 8 p.m., after serving dinner.

"Staying and working in the temple makes me feel very calm and all the workers there are very nice," she told Beijing Review. "Life inside the temple is very different from that outside. It helps me to put aside daily pressures and gain a sense of relief. This is the reason I like going back there all the time."

Zhang agreed with Xu on the attraction of the temples. "You might be busy and tired physically but will feel relaxed mentally." Regarding some comments that young people go to temples as an escape from real life, Zhang offered another perspective.

"Visiting temples or volunteering at temples might not bring any tangible changes to our lives," she said. "You can't expect staying in a temple for a couple of days will bring you extra money or a good job offer, but it can help you to view life from different perspectives. This is very important for young people who may be feeling confused or overwhelmed."

During her two-day stay at Jingshan Temple, a monk guided the volunteers in meditation at 7 p.m. each evening and answered some of their questions.

One particular thing the monk told her left a deep impression on Zhang. "He said our will is the strongest power," she said. "It reminded me of the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I think the power depicted in the movie might be similar to the willpower that the monk was describing. When facing obstacles in the future, I will remember his words. As long as we don't give up, we will find our way through life." 

(Print Edition Title: A Break in Temples)

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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