Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong

The Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong, near Kowloon City, is one of the largest temples in Hong Kong. It has a very large number of visitors, actually the largest in Hong Kong, not only tourists but also locals who come here and pray. Further it is engulfed in a incredible array of high condominium buildings, that make the scenery very surreal. The compound is made of several buildings and a lake, a small stone garden and a set of bridges over the lake, several fountains, cascades, a pharmacy and many many fortune tellers waiting to tell you your future.

There was a festival with paper statues going on when these images were shot, and you could see them everywhere, in all kind of sizes, depicting fable animals and historic figures.
The area has several gates and buildings, all connected with short streets, open spaces and small pagodas.
This taoist temple was named after a hermit called Wong Tai Sin who had healing powers and could tell the future. So people come here, some with a big bunch of incense sticks and walk to all single small temples to light them, say prayers and wish for a good health or future.
There are so many incense sticks burning all the time that you get scared of a smoke poisoning. There are water buckets around for security, and helpers take out the burnt-down sticks from the metal boxes they were placed. People also get boxes with bamboo sticks on which numbers are written. They shake the box until one stick falls out completely. This can take a while and you hear the rattling of the sticks all over. The number is read from the stick (usually typed into the cellphone), and then people proceed to an extra building with many fortune tellers that tell them the future.
The other areas of the temple are full of small houses which purpose seems unclear, but also very beautiful alcoves and sights that make the temple worth coming here more often to see it in different lights during the year.
The pond on the back of the area with its waterfalls looks somewhat modern and artificial, specially with all those colorful statues of paper around, but its surely a place of quiet in the very noisy Hong Kong.
Some people light so many incense that they, instead of quietly smoking away, catch fire and have to be put on the floor to be spread out until the flames die.