A forty-minute bus ride 16km north of Chengdu (buses every 30min from the train station forecourt; ¥4), the market town of XINDU lies knee-deep in summertime vegetables and locally made coloured basketware, but what draws the crowds is the Baoguang Si (Monastery of Divine Light; ¥5). A lively, large and influential complex since the Tang dynasty, its treasures include a stone tablet from 540 AD cut with the figures of a thousand Buddhas, an unusually wide range of Ming- and Qing-era paintings and calligraphy, and some tiny, jewel-like gardens that hide away in secluded corners. Seek out the thirteen-storey Sheli Pagoda , whose upper storeys are slightly tilted off the perpendicular and, in the gloomy Arhat Hall , a set of five hundred comical and eerie statues sculpted in 1851. These all represent Buddhist saints but for two, which depict the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong - look for their distinctive beards, boots, and capes. For lunch, try the airy and cheap vegetarian restaurant in the monastery compound.