Friendship Hotel Wutaishan

Wutaishan was one of our greatest disasters to date.Hee and there's been a few. I booked a hostel which gave directions to Wutaishan bus station but was in fact in Nanning- a whole other provence. Oops.<br>Pretty place, once we'd finally checked into somewhere in our price range. It was the coldest place I've ever been. The water in the river had frozen solid! We had pot noodles in bed and tried some rice wine, (evil smelling stuff) and quickly got on a bus out of there! <br>Love Lucy xxx<br>

... and people taking pictures!<br><br>When we reached Datong we caught the bus to our hotel and checked in. Because there is no hostels in Datong we had to book a proper hotel for once. This turned out to be a 4 star luxury business hotel, not bad for £12 a night!!! We actually had a private bathroom with a toilet instead of a squat, toilet roll, bath, tv, air con, mini bar and even comlimentary toothbrushes!! We hadn't ...

... rozpaky ji nakonec obetovala na oltar Buddhy. Toto nam zrejme dodalo pozitivni karmu po zbytek cesty.<br><br><br><br>Cestou po vrcholu do Central terrace jsme dorazili do Zaoyo pool chramu, kde nas jeden (jediny pritomny) mnich naucil zpivat motlitbu, kterou si mame odrikavat az pujdeme dale po horach (pro jistotu jsme dostali i text motlitby, bohuzel v cinstine). Zrejme tusil, ze nase dalsi cesta nebude tak jednoducha.<br><br><br><br>Na ...

... nakonec nas nikdo neobtezoval a dockali jsme se v klidu a miru dalsiho slunneho rana.<br><br><br>Story 4: duchovni procitnuti ve Wutaishan<br>Druhy den jsme navstivili mnoho krasnych klasteru ve Wutaishan- napr. Louhou temple, Tayuan temple (kde byli modlitebni valce)Yuanzho t., Pusa terrace, Shouning temple<br>Vsude plno budhu!!!<br><br>Fotky dodame pozdeji, maji tu moc pomaly net.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

... oui parce qu'ici ca baisse en bas de 20 degres la nuit et meme si ca peut vous ecoeurer d'avoir des temperatures similaires en ce moment a Montreal, nous on est tres satisfaits!), et le village est enrobee d'une grosse odeur de charcoal a briquettes en permanence.<br><br>Le voyage de bus depuis Datong jusqu'a Wutai Shan etait lui meme completement impressionant, encore pleins de ces petits villages ou les gens vivent dans des trous de roche. Ils ont aussi transforme les montages en ...

... and get serious about religion.<br> <br>4 temples later, a horse ride and Alex climbing the money temple stairs, tiger skins, cat and fox fur on offer in the market, some terrible food and the most beautiful, friendly Monk who invited us to listen to him playing his flute we had had a magicaly experience in WuTaiShan and were seriously comtemplating giving Buddhism a whirl we were ready to leave...<br>

Enduring a long, unheated and mildly life threatening bus journey (it slipped off the side of a snowy mountain road at one point), I reached the peaceful Wutai Shan (five terrace moutain). One of the four sacred buddhist peaks in China, it was understandably almost deserted given the temperature was several degrees below freezing during the day and a hell of a lot colder at night. I was glad the hotel had good heating, though I wasn't quite so enthused by ...

... we went for dinner - the girl we were with was shouting instructions at the poor waitress, no time for pleasantries in this country! We had a huge meal for little or nothing and the food as usual in China was gorgeous. There was no electricity while we were in Pingyao so we didn't get to see the lanterns lit up at night which is beautiful (we seen it on Pete's camera from the night before).

I showed up at the Hohhot train station with my ticket to Datong already in hand, feeling rather pleased with my advance preparation. I mean, I didn't technically have a SEAT assigned, but I'd done this before and always found one somewhere without too much hassle. I was only marginally more concerned by the MASS of people conspicuously crowded around my departure gate. I didn't fully realize my predicament until the gates opened and I was nearly trampled to ...

... pillars and the interior is literally half-house, half-cave. The complex is located at the foot of Mt. Hengshan, which is one of the five "Sacred Mountains" in China...an old Emperor first visited the mountain circa 2372 BC. Anyway we arrive and its quite a site to see this old monastery built into the side of the cliff like some magnet stuck on your refrigerator! From far off you cant really see the pillars so it really does look like it was just ...