A Humbling Trek on Mt. Emei
ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!! Those are the words to describe my latest adventure!!! I set out at 10am on Saturday May 24th with Kristin and Michael to hike Mt. Emei. I knew it was a "good" hike, but did not really know it until we began the trek. Michael is a German fellow we met at our hostel. He presently lives in Chengdu, is fluent in Mandarin and on his 6th climb of Mt. Emei, which made him the best tour guide for this hike!! We started at Baogou Si, hiked to Huyu Bridge then to Leiyin Si and over to Shen Shui Si (nunnery)...~12kilometers. At Shen Shui Si we were fortunate to observe a spiritual ritual in process. Ahh-mee-tah-foe (phonetically speaking) was the phrase/word being chanted by the nuns along with the beat of drums and bells...I was mesmerized!!! I wish I could have recorded it, but out of respect I did not, but was permitted to take one picture. The picture I was able to capture was of a nun, performing a ceremony on a cylindrical stone pillar that stood (if facing Buddha) on the left side of the entrance to the shrine. The sight was humbling. To see such devotion in any religion is humbling to me. You could hear the devotion in the chanting and in the movements of the nuns...unbelievable!!! I left with a warm heart and knew the rest of the trek would be inspiring. From Shen Shui Si we traversed ~5k more to Qingyin monastery to spend the night!! Two rivers came together at this point and therefore the English translation is Pure Sound monastery. The three of us had our dinner, then sat on our balcony overlooking the river sipping jasmine tea (my favorite)!!! The clear rushing sound of the river and sweet smell and warmth of the tea made for a good night's rest!! The next morning Michael and I headed for the Hard Wok Cafe...yes that's what I wrote!! It took us about 1.5 hrs to get there for the best banana-honey pancakes on Mt. Emei. Peggy's (English name) cafe has been on Mt Emei for the past 25yrs. (Mt Emei's stone path was created 30yrs ago). We complimented her food and hospitality and then moved on to Hongchun Ping (elevation=1120m). Shen Shui Si and Hongchun Ping are 2 of the oldest and active monasteries on Mt. Emei. At Hongchun Ping Michael and I were invited by Buddhist monks to sit and enjoy some tea with them!!! Again...unbelievable!! Again...humbled. We drank tea Taiwanese style...out of smaller than one ounce handle-less clay cups. Michael translated when was I spoken to and when I posed questions to the monks. These guys were extremely friendly and welcoming. They also invited us to have lunch, but unfortunately we just ate and had many more kilometers to hike. We ended up hiking ~60kilometers of staircases and trails in two days!! Viewing some of the most beautiful monasteries with Chinese and Tibetan influences. ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!!
No Tibetan Culture for You!
So next adventure was one hell of an excursion!! We left Xi'an on an overnight train to Lanzhou at 10pm to arrive at 7am. From there we take the 9am bus to Linxia which was a 3hr noisy ride. We arrive in Linxia and get on the bus to Xiahe after circling around town for 1.5hrs picking up people and cargo??? Don't ask, because I don't know??? Anyway Finally around 130pm we head out to Xiahe, only to get stopped at a checkpoint about an hour outside Xiahe and kicked off the bus and immediately forced onto a return bus to Linxia. So what went down was that the Chinese police are cutting off all Tibetan areas of known rioting to foreigners. Xiahe has a beautiful Tibetan monastery (The Labrang Monastery). It's the place to go if one is unable to get to Lhasa, Tibet. Xiahe is NOT in the Tibetan province, but as I said before because of previous riots the Chinese police/government has closed it off to foreigners. The last information we had before setting out to Xiahe was that it was open to foreign travellers. An unfortunate mishap during our travel, but we did enjoy a remote Chinese countryside for about $7 round trip ;) Okay so now we had to travel the 2hrs back to Lixia, the 3hrs back to Lanzhou and the overnight 8hr train ride back to Xi'an. Backtracking was the only way to go at that point. The train then put us into Xi'an at about 9am, then we took the 130pm flight out of Xi'an to Chengdu and hopped another bus for a 3hr ride to Emei Shan and that's where I am now! Finally at rest for a couple of days. It will finally be good to get into a new pair of clothes since I have been in my current attire for the past three days...and you guessed it no shower in the last few days either! The Garnier wipes sure do come in handy on mishaps like this! T.I. C. = This Is China!
Going to climb to the top of Mt Emei tomorrow!
Going to climb to the top of Mt Emei tomorrow!
Xi'an
The first day in Xi'an we booked a tour for the Terra Cotta Warriors, Hot Springs and the Banpo Museum. The only one worth talking about was the Terra Cotta Warriors. Buried underground to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, thousands and thousands of warriors were created out of clay. The bodies were made separate from the heads. Each face is distinguishable by expression from hand carved details. The paint on the soldiers were faded, but there is some evidence of reds, blues, greens and golds. An interesting detail was the sole of the shoes...with tread meant married and without tread meant single (I am still without tread) :) The wife was the one who detailed the shoes. Other distinguishing features were hairstyles (buns and square knots) and attire (details on the suit). The excavation still continues as money is donated for the feat! I don't think my words can describe the scale of the scene...so hopefully my pictures will. The rest of the tour, unfortunate to say sucked! But in the end we met a great group of people from Australia, D.C. and Vancouver. We ended up at their hostel drinking and playing card games! We were asked to move out of the bar into the back patio area, secondary to earthquake warnings. We were safe and nothing happened, but a good time with new friends!
The following day we went to see The Dacien Si (temple) and The Big Goose Pagoda. The pagoda has seven tiers with a window at each level. Visitors throw money out of the windows for luck. Unfortunately the pagoda was closed so instead we walked around the temple. Xuan Zang spent 15yrs in India collecting Sanskrit sutras. He brought them back to China to translate the 1335 volumes into Chinese and had the pagoda built to protect the sutras! Some of the halls depicted carvings on three walls of Xuan Zang's journey. The side walls were of black laquer, carvings made in the laquer with glistening gold paint in the grooves. The middle wall was a mahogony colored wood with raised carvings. All of this was so interesting to "see" his perserverance and dedication to preserving the sutras. Inside the main prayer hall sat a 50ft tall gold-foiled Buddha that really made an impression on me. Just outside the hall was a large candle holder made of wrought iron. It held hundreds of lit and melting China-red candles. Unsure if this was a daily tradition or secondary to the victims of the earthquake. At the end of our visit, we came upon a prayer wall, which held 4x6 wooden cards with different colored borders. Red=love and health, blue=success and green=education. We purchased a red prayer card, wrote a message for those injured and/or displaced by the earthquake and hung it on the wall along with many others. A solemn moment for me, but a happy one as well as I paused to remember how fortunate I am to be here and experiencing all that is China.
We moved on to the Muslim Quarter to see the Great Mosque...by far my most favorite piece of religious architecture in China! An old, yet active mosque that was stunning...upturned eaves with detailed carvings of dragons, archways with phoenixes and blue-glazed roof tiles. It's a beautiful and harmonious combination of Middle Eastern and Chinese architecture. After the mosque we headed for the Muslim Quarter, where we ate noodle soup (sorry don't know the real name, secondary to can't read Chinese characters) which contained leeks, garlic and a slew of vegetables...YUMMY!!!!! We also had Chinese pizza, two pieces of crepe like bread filled with meat and vegetables and deep fried...mmmm....good!!! The food has been settling well in my belly! We walked around the market stalls and noted anything was for sale from fake Rolexes to Prada bags to chopstick sets and watches with Mao's picture and his hand as the second hand!! So finally time for us to head out; we decided to leave via auto-rickshaw. Our driver drove us into oncoming traffic and then crossed a raised median and whipped around corners...we made it back safely...can't say my blood pressure was in a safe range, though. :)
The following day we went to see The Dacien Si (temple) and The Big Goose Pagoda. The pagoda has seven tiers with a window at each level. Visitors throw money out of the windows for luck. Unfortunately the pagoda was closed so instead we walked around the temple. Xuan Zang spent 15yrs in India collecting Sanskrit sutras. He brought them back to China to translate the 1335 volumes into Chinese and had the pagoda built to protect the sutras! Some of the halls depicted carvings on three walls of Xuan Zang's journey. The side walls were of black laquer, carvings made in the laquer with glistening gold paint in the grooves. The middle wall was a mahogony colored wood with raised carvings. All of this was so interesting to "see" his perserverance and dedication to preserving the sutras. Inside the main prayer hall sat a 50ft tall gold-foiled Buddha that really made an impression on me. Just outside the hall was a large candle holder made of wrought iron. It held hundreds of lit and melting China-red candles. Unsure if this was a daily tradition or secondary to the victims of the earthquake. At the end of our visit, we came upon a prayer wall, which held 4x6 wooden cards with different colored borders. Red=love and health, blue=success and green=education. We purchased a red prayer card, wrote a message for those injured and/or displaced by the earthquake and hung it on the wall along with many others. A solemn moment for me, but a happy one as well as I paused to remember how fortunate I am to be here and experiencing all that is China.
We moved on to the Muslim Quarter to see the Great Mosque...by far my most favorite piece of religious architecture in China! An old, yet active mosque that was stunning...upturned eaves with detailed carvings of dragons, archways with phoenixes and blue-glazed roof tiles. It's a beautiful and harmonious combination of Middle Eastern and Chinese architecture. After the mosque we headed for the Muslim Quarter, where we ate noodle soup (sorry don't know the real name, secondary to can't read Chinese characters) which contained leeks, garlic and a slew of vegetables...YUMMY!!!!! We also had Chinese pizza, two pieces of crepe like bread filled with meat and vegetables and deep fried...mmmm....good!!! The food has been settling well in my belly! We walked around the market stalls and noted anything was for sale from fake Rolexes to Prada bags to chopstick sets and watches with Mao's picture and his hand as the second hand!! So finally time for us to head out; we decided to leave via auto-rickshaw. Our driver drove us into oncoming traffic and then crossed a raised median and whipped around corners...we made it back safely...can't say my blood pressure was in a safe range, though. :)
I'm off to China!
Wow! What a year it has been for me and now I am taking the opportunity to start traveling the world...well at least part of the Eastern World! I'm looking forward to a great journey in spirituality, independence and cultural exploration. I will be spending 4 weeks in China with one of my closest friends, Kristin! We are tentatively planning to explore Beijing, Xi'an, Xining, Lanzhou, Tongren, Chengdu, Leshan, Kunming, Shanghai and Tibet (if we are lucky)! Sights we are planning to see are the Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square, giant pandas in the Wolong Nature Reserve, Mt. Emei, bamboo forests, teahouses, The Great Buddha, Jokhang Palace, Barkhor Square, Potala Palace, Tiger Leaping Gorge and a journey on the Yangzi River to see the Three Gorges Dam. After Kristin departs I will go on to explore Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau. From there my journey takes me to Thailand, where I will volunteer with the Institute for Field Research Expeditions for 4 weeks. My volunteer work will be in the area of public health. I will then go on to explore Kuala Lumpur to see the Petronas Towers and the last month of travel will be exploring Singapore and Indonesia.
I know with all that's been going on in China and SE Asia many of you are already worried about me. I appreciate all the concerns you have for me. I promise to be as safe as possible. Please not only keep me in your thoughts, but all those that are in dire straits as well.
I will post as often as I can and look forward to hearing from all of you!
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