From Beijing to Wutai Shan
Trip Start
Jul 20, 2004
1
87
157
Trip End
Jul 20, 2012
Beijing,
China
Monday, July 31, 2006
Beijing - Dinner with Yao and his wife snow
. On Wednesday, I left for Shanxi province by taking the bus to Taiyuan and then continued by train to Pingyao. Pingyao is one of China's ancient town well known for its sound preservation of the urban landscape in China's Ming and Qing Dynasties. The City Wall itself, and the streets, buildings and shops are all preserved from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In 1997, when UNESCO decided to include this town on the World Heritage List, the comments read ?the Ancient City of Ping Yao is an outstanding example of a Han Chinese city of the Ming and Qing Dynasties". From Taiyuan, I phoned "Harmony Guesthouse" whose owner, Jipu told me that someone will pick me up. I stayed at the guest house for 2 nights and enjoyed my stay very much. The guesthouse has a family atmosphere with Jipu's wife and two kids working at the place. I also visited a guesthouse two doors down which is affiliated with him. The 'dorms' are 40Yuan and double rooms are more (forgot how much). The dorms are actually double beds or a single bed and have a bathroom in the room. During the day, I just walked the city and took in the sights and smells of the shops an food stalls. I didn't spend the 120 yuan fee which offered entry into some of the temples and old financial houses - this was money well spent on accommodation and cold beer which was a necessity in the sweltering heat.
Beijing - Yao and Mr. Wie
From Pingyao, I went back to Taiyuan to catch a bus to Wutai Shan. One thing about the people in Taiyuan struck me; they seem to be extremely friendly and helpful. I asked a bus driver where the bus station to Wutai Shan is and he got out of his bus and walked with me along the street and asked several people. He got me to the bus station for city bus 615 which took me to the sparkling new Taiyuan bus station. He entrusted me to one young man who spoke English and in the bus, I met another guy who spoke some English. All three of us went to the bus station and they made sure that I bought the correct ticket and got me on the correct bus. One of the men, Hailong Zheng, a journalist for the China Reform Newspaper, also went to Wutai Shan to relax. This was great as I had someone to hang out with. We got to the village of Taihuai. It is the summer vacation in China and with 1.3 billion inhabitants and maybe 40% of them travelling there is never a quite place to find anywhere. The village was bustling with tourists and buses and taxis and streams of people made this place look anything but relaxing. Wutai Shan is one of China's four mountains that are sacred to Buddhists. It has five peaks (northern, southern, eastern, western and central) of which the northern is the highest one (3058 meters/3061 according to some maps) called Beitai Ding or Yedou Feng. It is also the highest peak of North China. Wutai Shan is a nature reserve centered on the beautiful monastic village of Taihuai
Beijing - Yao in front of Beijing University
. Our first task was to find a cheap hotel. it was weekend AND the main travel season so I was out of luck. The hotel listed in the LP was full but they gave me a little storage room that had a bed in it. I paid 30 yuan for it and got the promise I will have a room the next day. We met another young fellow who is a student at Beijing's Tsinghua University. We went out to dinner and then I went up Dailou Peak to take in a misty view of the village and its surrounding area. The village is dotted with temples and one can easily get templed out by visiting them. This we did the next morning as I was woken up at 5am to be ready to head out at 6am. My friend Hailong's English is weak at best so I did not fully understand what was going on. There were tons of people who bought expensive looking incense boxes which they then burned in a public place. There were also lots of pilgrims in the village and at 8:30am, we went to a monastery to witness the celebration of an individual who had donated a large amount of money to the monastery as they has prayed for him throughout the year. Each monk was given 100 yuan. We went from temple to temple, then had lunch and wandered through town. It was there that I spotted a white dog whining near the street. We went over and after watching the dog for a while, we knew something was wrong. Someone stopped by and told us that the dog got hit by a car a day before. I bought a bottle of water and gave it water to drink and then could see that it tried to move its hind legs
Pingyao - Boiled eggs and rice noodle soup
. Poor thing. I was not about to leave it just dying there. I carried over to the little park trying to figure out what to do with it. Two female monks came by and started praying; we got more water and some sausages to feed to the dog. The dog was obviously in pain and I tried to communicate if it was possible to take it to the temple where the monks can take care of it. Another monk stopped by and after a few discussions, he said he will take it up to his temple. I tried to find a big piece of cloth to carry the dog in but we could not find anything. We decided to take a taxi, but after the taxi driver saw the dog he refused. My friend must have threatened him with something, he said he told the taxi driver he is s journalist, which is true, but i am not sure if he implied that he will write a "face loosing" report about him. We got to the top of a hill and had to carry the dog to the monks austere place. As the dog was a bit heavy, I had to put it down and suddenly, it died. This was the first time I actually have seen a dog dying and I just lost it. I cried and cried and tried to console myself that it actually was best for the dog to have died as it would have never been able to walk again. We digged a grave for her and put her in the grave where she was accompanied by Buddhist prayers from the monk. I felt very sad but also relieved that we did everything we could to make her comfortable in her last hours. At least she had a grave and did not have to die alone in the park.
Pingyao - Chilli Pepper
The monk showed us his cave where he had been living for 8 years. It actually was not even a cave, just two big dugouts covered by a plastic sheet. He had a small cooker, a dirty mattress and a canister of water. He did his laundry at the monastery. Otherwise, he had no worldly possessions. He was a cheery fellow who gave us some soft drinks which we refused but he insisted. He didn't want any money but I got him to promise me to go to dinner with me. It was eye opening to see his way of living compared to the noisy tourist crowd. I saw the gleaming new cars and the fancy clothes people wore and could not stop thinking that he has most likely a happier and more worry free life than any of them. I took him to dinner and then said goodbye to him and my friend Hailong who went back to Taiyuan. These two days will leave a lasting impression, not for the temples and mountains but for the people I have met. The three of us trying to save the dog and philosophizing about life (which Hailong and the monk did).
