What do Chinese Temples look like and smell like?

Question

I'm writting a story and I can't find anything that would really help. Can you please tell me what kind of incense might be used in a Chinese temple and what the color of the walls could be. Please and thank you.

Answer 1

I recently spent an extended time in China, and visited many temples. In general, the walls themselves were nondescript, dark and understated. the lighting was always low, and there was almost no noise noticed. Some had a foggy atmosphere because of the incense, I don't recollect a specific scent, but it smelled heavy and gave a "heady" fragerance. The inscence was made of naturall materials, I am highly allergic to the chemicals used in the cheap inscence available in america, but these had no negative effect on me.
I visited a temple rarley visited by anyone, it was 900 years old, set in a cave on a small island. the front of the cave had been partially blocked by a wall, it had an open door way with a small window on each side. on each side of the door were dog sculptures with open mouths gaurding the entrance, and visitors would burn some inscence in the mouth of each one. enter the door and step down a few stone steps, and directly in front of you was a low wooden altar with a bowl of fruit on it as offering, the fruit there when I saw it was getting a bit ild and mouldy. A monk removes the fruit every so often. As I understood, the old fruit is burned in an oven that is directly to your left. On the other side of the altar were the statues of two gods, the gold leaf stone gods were balckened with age, and matched the blackened walls of the cave. To the right of the altar and slightly behind you, opposite the oven was a large bowl, again, filled with the stubs of burned inscence. Back to the altar, next to the fruit bowl was a claer plastic tube for donations. One or two Ren Min Be ( Chinese dollars, about 12 to 16 cents american) were expected as donation, if you could afford it. Basically the donation covered the inscence and lighter, and also the fake money people burned in the forementioned oven. Their were a few small sculptures of Buddha around the room, or Buddha looking guys, in various serene poses. As you left the temple, or shrine you might call it, there was another inscence bowl outside directly in front of the door, about 10 feet away. There were lots more details, but I hope this gave you some ideas.

Answer 2

http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Tourism/tourist-temple-scenes.html
http://www.thaiworldview.com/photo/directory.php?choix1=HKSAR&choix2=Chinese%20Temples

I'm sure its lots of Gold, Red, Black on the walls. Most eastern counties use Frankenses incense.

Answer 3

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?ei=UTF-8&p=Chinese%20Temples&fr=ush-ans&fr2=tab-web

http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/festivals/0497_Incense.html