Daoist temples don't hold events frequently, but there are usually one or two each year, such as the Daoist Cultural Exchange Summit that Yun Zhaozhao once attended.
Small-scale cultural exchange activities are usually planned and organized by the local Daoist temples themselves. However, if a large-scale cultural exchange is involved, Daoist temples from other cities may come to City A, or Daoist temples from City A may go to other cities.
At this point, issues such as accommodation, meals, or other arrangements for the Daoist participants will indeed arise.
At this time, Yun Zhaozhao proposed to set up a dedicated Daoist temple hotel, which would be used to receive Daoists during conferences and to promote Daoist culture to the public when there were no conferences. The Taoist Association was naturally delighted. After all, if the Taoist Association had its own funds, they would have set it up themselves. Now that someone was willing to contribute money and effort, and they were just helping to promote it, they were naturally happy to accept.
So the two sides quickly reached an agreement, and the president of the Taoist Association even tried to apply for some subsidies for Yun Zhaozhao.
Following Lawyer Wang's suggestion, after reaching an agreement with the Taoist Association, Yun Zhaozhao was to personally negotiate with True Yang Temple or other Daoist temples. However, Yun Zhaozhao thought that since official endorsement was so useful, why not simply have the president of the Taoist Association help negotiate cooperation with other Daoist temples?
This approach avoids other Daoist temples putting on airs in front of Clear Breeze Temple, and also prevents them from making exorbitant demands. While other temples may not give Clear Breeze Temple face, they should at least give some respect to the Taoist Association, right?
And this proved to be true.
When the president of the Taoist Association came to visit in person and learned that the hotel was specially set up to promote Daoist culture, other Daoist temples expressed their support. In the end, not only did True Yang Temple say that their Daoist priests could come to provide technical guidance and related support after the hotel was established, but some other Daoist temples also said that they could send people to join in. In any case, things went much more smoothly than Yun Zhaozhao had imagined.
While the president of the Taoist Association was helping to mobilize other Daoist temples, Yun Zhaozhao quickly took over the hotel and began to process the relevant opening procedures.
As usual, Yun Zhaozhao handed over the renovation of the guesthouse to the construction team that had built the new Clear Breeze Temple for them before. After all, they were old acquaintances, and their previous cooperation had been quite pleasant.
However, when renovating Clear Breeze Temple, Yun Zhaozhao's requirement was for grandeur, but this time when renovating this Daoist temple guesthouse, Yun Zhaozhao changed her requirements; she wanted elegance.
It was through her extensive exposure to Daoist culture that Yun Zhaozhao gradually discovered that elegance and refinement are also very important aspects of Daoist culture.
For example, Daoists love tea; many Daoist practitioners throughout history have been fond of tea.
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In ancient times, Emperor Daojun wrote " Treatise on Tea of the Daguan Era " and later Master Danqiu wrote " Tea Manual ", both of which were permeated with Daoist thought... Among the three elegant practices of a dwelling, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and incense ceremony are included.
Therefore, Yun Zhaozhao's desire to decorate and furnish this Daoist temple guesthouse in a fresh and elegant manner is perfectly reasonable.
If Buddhism emphasizes "the unity of Zen and tea," then Daoism emphasizes "the harmony between heaven and humanity." Yun Zhaozhao now has her own tea garden, and she even plans to have Grandpa Lin select a few of the best tea trees from the garden and transplant them to the courtyard of this guesthouse. Then, Daoist priests who want to brew tea can simply pick the fresh leaves from the tea trees and process and brew their own tea...
It can be described as natural as it can be, and as down-to-earth as it can be.
As for the remaining flower arrangement and incense ceremony, these were no challenge for Yun Zhaozhao. After all, Yun Zhaozhao was a woman with her own back garden. The flowers planted in the back garden of Clear Breeze Temple could probably fill not only the courtyard of a Daoist temple guesthouse, but also all the guesthouses in this area.
As for incense appreciation, sandalwood seems to be very popular in many guesthouses and hotels nowadays. Actually, sandalwood is not exclusive to Buddhism; Daoism also uses it, although they use more agarwood and sandalwood. Yun Zhaozhao hasn't decided what kind of incense to use in the guesthouse yet, but that's not a problem for her. After all, Clear Breeze Temple has the incense-making master Lin Banxia, and in addition, there are Daoist Qiuting and Daoist Yiyezi. If all else fails, she can also use Daoist Chang Kong as a secret weapon, since the aroma of food is more likely to arouse the interest of the guesthouse guests.
Besides, it's clearly not a good thing that so many stray cats in Clear Breeze Temple just stay there all day eating and not doing any work.
These kinds of guesthouses usually keep cats and dogs to create a relaxed atmosphere.
If these Daoist temple guesthouses actually open, wouldn't those stray cats in the temples finally come in handy?
After all, those stray cats aren't good at much else, but they're masters at acting cute, rolling around, and being adorable. If they were kept in a Daoist temple, they could easily trick worshippers into buying them all sorts of treats. If they were actually placed in a guesthouse, wouldn't the guests' hearts flutter with delight?
In addition, guesthouses also need to advertise to generate traffic.
Jingting's live streams have been going on for so long, but the attention she's gained has never been monetized effectively. But with the Daoist temple guesthouse, things will be different. Viewers from other places will be able to book guesthouses and hotels at Clear Breeze Temple directly through Jingting's live stream.
What do you call this? To put it nicely, it's called cultivating online friends for a thousand days and using them for a single day. To put it bluntly, it's turning trash into treasure!
In any case, Yun Zhaozhao felt that choosing this time to open a Daoist temple guesthouse was the best opportunity.
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Whether it was the Daoist temple's canteen or its medical clinic, neither was given a proper name. Even the new Clear Breeze Temple simply continued the name of the old temple. As a result, many netizens jokingly referred to the new Clear Breeze Temple as a " Clear Breeze Temple Branch Temple."
But now that she's officially opening a Daoist temple-themed guesthouse, Yun Zhaozhao feels it's time to seriously give it a catchy name.
The group from Clear Breeze Temple hadn't held a meeting together for a while.
Now, Yun Zhaozhao has specially organized a meeting.
In the past, even including non-staff members, the room was never full during meetings.
Things are different now. Now, even just the staff of Clear Breeze Temple are so crowded that it's almost cramped to sit down in one room.
Such a magnificent scene made Yun Zhaozhao feel a little smug before she even had a chance to announce the meeting's theme. After she finished basking in the moment, she succinctly announced the meeting's theme: to share their opinions on giving Clear Breeze Temple soon-to-open Daoist temple guesthouse a catchy and memorable name.
Daoist Qiuting and Daoist Yiyezi would definitely not attend such a meeting, as they have more important things to do.
Daoist Chang Kong sat down for a while and then left, as he had to go to the cafeteria to work.
Before the meeting had even started, Tang Li's cunning mind was already racing. He whispered to Yun Zhaozhao, "Are you trying to use this meeting to filter out who in Clear Breeze Temple is actually doing the work and who likes to slack off?"
Yun Zhaozhao: "... I really didn't have that thought, but what you said has reminded me..."
Tang Li: "Pretend I didn't say anything. Meeting, meeting..."
Yun Zhaozhao asked them to express their opinions, and each person suggested one or two names they liked. As it turned out, these Daoist priests had no experience in naming, and the names they came up with were so bad that even the stray cats in Clear Breeze Temple would find them unappealing.
For example, Daoist Long suggested calling it "the only officially designated hotel of the Daoist temple".
Daoist Zhu suggested it could be called "Daoist Village".
After hearing this, Yun Zhaozhao sighed and said, "Go back and think it over carefully! If you find one you like, then come and tell me."
Fortunately, there's no rush to name the Daoist temple guesthouse. After all, it will take at least half a year from the time the renovation is completed to when it can officially open for business.
Moreover, sometimes, it's hard to say what kind of name is better when it comes to naming. For example, the name " Prosperity Spring " for Clear Breeze Temple was really just something the designer came up with on the spot, but everyone who heard it felt a special sense of warmth and familiarity.
Now, " Prosperity Spring " has almost become a must-visit attraction when visiting Clear Breeze Temple.
Later, Yun Zhaozhao even had Daoist Chang Kong erect a stone tablet next to Prosperity Spring, inscribed with the words, "Visit Prosperity Spring, and you will be rich for all eternity."
I don't know if it's because of the good slogan or the good meaning, but sometimes when there are a lot of people, the road to Prosperity Spring is even congested.
When Yun Zhaozhao designed " Prosperity Spring ", she didn't intend to make money from it. But the pilgrims who came to visit " Prosperity Spring "Prosperity Spring were too enthusiastic. She didn't know when it started, but many pilgrims would throw coins into Prosperity Spring. Although they were all one-yuan coins, there were so many people throwing them that after a while, the spring had to be blocked.
So the Daoist priests of Clear Breeze Temple had another form of entertainment in their spare time: going to the " Prosperity Spring " to retrieve coins.
The ten young Daoist priests from the Qing generation were the most enthusiastic about this activity; after all, what child doesn't love playing in the water?
Yun Zhaozhao followed the group of children to retrieve the coins. After they had retrieved all the coins, Yun Zhaozhao descended from the sky and, in front of them, divided the pile of coins into three parts. Speaking of which, she had liked to divide the money she earned into three parts since the beginning of the Daoist temple, and she had kept this habit to this day, which could be said to be a testament to her original intention.
Yun Zhaozhao: "This is the first one. I'm saving it for you guys to use when buying school uniforms and textbooks later."
This is reasonable, and the children have no objections.
Yun Zhaozhao: "This second portion is for you as pocket money. Each of you can bring a small toy or a small snack. As long as the price is reasonable, it should be enough."
The children were practically jumping for joy, and secretly vowed to come back for more coin-scooping fun next time.
Yun Zhaozhao concluded, "This third gift is for you to buy calligraphy practice sheets or supplementary homework. After all, these are all tokens of your love from your grandparents, uncles, and aunts, so we should make full use of them and not let their good intentions go to waste."