Monday Road Trip

Shane and I decided to go on a bit of a road trip to Bendigo today. Bendigo is one of our old goldrush cities of the past. As with all the goldrush towns the Chinese community played a huge part in the history. With this in mind I really wanted to have a look at the "Golden Dragon Museum", "Yi Yuan Gardens" and the "Kuan Yin Temple." Our first stop was the Yi Yuan Gardens, there is something about both Chinese and Japanese traditional gardens, they are always so peaceful and colourful.

Colourful Lotus Leaf at the Museums entry

Yi Yuan Gardens

Our next stop was to the KuanYin Temple.
What can I say - it is a Buddhist Temple and there are lots of Buddhas.
Oh I was in total bliss.

The last stop was the museum. Amongst all the amazing artifacts the museum housed "Loong"(Dragon) the worlds oldest Imperial Dragon. Loong appeared in Bendigo in 1892 and annually paraded at the Bendigo Easter Parade until he retired in 1970.

Also housed is "Sun Loong" (new dragon) the worlds longest Imperial Dragon being over 100 metres in length. Sun Loong stretches his legs annually at the Bendigo Easter Gala Parade. These are not the only Dragons featured, there is also "Yar Loong" (night dragon), "Gansu Loong"(dragon fromGansu), "Ming & Ping" and  "Xiao Loong" (little happy dragon). They are all amazing pieces of past and current times.