Chengde Building Hotel

... the last time I had done it was last summer in China - before that was many, many years. But, lucky me, I didn't get killed by a truck, just rode, eyes plastered on the road ten feet in front of me, and my skin pale and clenching tightly to the lifeline of the handlebars.

We biked for about an hour, far off the main highway through small farming and factory villages, past a field full of goats and along a meandering river. The destination, I ...

The day of the 4th and 5th we took a long distance bus to the nearby prefecture-level city of Chengde. Chengde is well knows as the Summer Resort during the dynasties where the emperors would travel to escape the heat. Much of the mountain city is taken up by 'Bishushanzhuang', aka the Summer Resort. And, of course, this was our highest order to see.

The summer resort itself is basically a ...

... more like trail-mates as we wended our way together along the ancient bastion.


Although it's only a distance of about thirteen km from Jinshanling to Simatai, the walk takes nearly four sweaty hours as the trail is extremely steep in places and, at times, the crumbling stonework requires careful footwork. It was nearly 10.30 when I set off and the mist, which I had hoped would burn off, showed no signs of rising ...

Well, I'll keep the personal bits of this leg of my trip to a minimum. Let me just say that this was the first time I met with my gals parents and family (basically all of whom were home for the holiday), with which we stayed for 7 days all while taking in the sites and new experiences of the surrounding lands.

The rest of the drive from Jixian was very fun and I took a lot of ...

... been a while!) and were more than glad that we made the effort. Puning temple, outside the palace walls, was a rather unimpressive construction from the outside, but houses a 22m high Buddah, the largest of its kind in the world (whatever that means), intricately carved from a beautiful wood that retains a lustrous sheen almost glowing with radiance. Called the thousand armed Buddah (Guanyin) it has actually only 42, but hey, who's counting. Ouside ...

... at 22m high surronded by her two worn out disciples and thousands of small effigies of Buddha.

There are few other temples around Puning temple, which unfortunetly could not compete with the grand of the Guanyin. Puyou temple is relatively small and can be done within 20 minutes. I decided not to visit the remaining temple as I am temple MAX out..

The Dongpo restaurant opposite train station providea a nice tasty meals. Try the ...

... Si, and this is where we made our way to once we were done with Bishu Shanzhuang. The courtyards smelled of incense being burned in large troughs, lit by worshippers. There is a statue of the Goddess of Mercy here, apparently the largest wooden statue in the world (although it seems that everywhere we go, the guidebook says it is the biggest, or deepest, or oldest thing in the world - we've grown skeptical of all these claims). Regardless ...

Today we took a trip which dropped us off at Jinshanling and we proceeded to walk for about 10km along the wall to Simatai. The views were incredible - certainly meeting or exceeding expectations - the wall is very impressive - you have to see it to comprehend the scale of it all. Some ...

... Hotel. After firstly looking like a building site we discovered that they were just re doing the front and Noa had sorted us out a suite. Nice room - sitting room, tv room, bedroom and bathroom with, thankfully enough, internet access. First on the agenda was lunch and then for those of us brave enough a Chinese massage. We were told it was reflexology and was relaxing and rejuvenating. Noa lied. Amy and I along with ...

The earliest tourist trip I remember. I was 6. My parents took me to Chengde and stayed in a resort for 2 days. We did a lot of hiking, which was tiring for me. We visited the huge 5-story high wooden Buddha statue in Puning Temple, the two big Tibetan style temples built to mimic the home monasteries in Tibet of Dalai and Panchen Lamas, and climbed to the base of the Sledgehammer ...