After school finished at the end of April, my friend Heather who came to visit me for one week and I took off to
Mt. Taishan in Shandong province. We took the overnight train from Beijing and and got to Taishan early in the morning. Since we hd lots of time and no pressure to be on the summit before 5PM, we walked through town and snooped out some of the local delicacies we could find at the small foodstands. After stuffing ourselves, we headed for the mountain.
And this is what Chinatravel has to say about Taishan Mountain: Taishan Mountain was once called Mt. Daishan or Mt. Daizong before. It was renamed Taishan Mountain during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Mt Tai,the first of the "Five Sacred Mountains", is located in the central part of Shandong Province, within the precincts of Jinan, Licheng and Tai'an, covering an area of 426 square kilometers. Its circumference is 80 kilometers. The highest peak of this mountain range about 1545 meters above sea level, lies within Tai'an City. Mt Tai abounds in lofty peaks, deep valleys and rare cultural relics of the old days.
The mountain is an early birthplace of China's ancient civilization and the area around was one of ancient China's political, economic and cultural centers.Since ancient times Taishan Mountain has been hailed as the "most sublime of the five mountains". Apart from its impressive height and ancient culture, the reason is probably that men have deliberately deified it.
Historical records show that a total of 72 emperors of bygone dynasties, from the first Qin Emperor Shihuang onward, have made sacrifices to Taishan Mountain. This association with feudalism has earned the mountain a widespread fame. Nowadays, after repeated renovations, Mt Tai has become more enchanting than ever before.
For a long time, poets, writers and artists from various historical periods went to Taishan Mountain to enjoy the beauties and elegance of Taishan abundant sources of inspiration, imaginaton and creativities and this accounts for the large quantity of precious cultural relics. After all, climbing 6000-plus steps to a height of 1400 meter above sea level can be a reinforcement of self-confidence. As Confucies once uttered the dictum stop Taishan - "The world is small".
Rain or shine all year round mountaineers carrying heavy loads of food and household items slung from the ends of shoulder poles, work their way, step by step, up the mountain, wearing flat the soles of their shoes on the rugged rocks while the stone steps shine from their sweat. It is they who have developed this remote and wild mountain and made it habitable for human beings. Men today take an even greater interest in climbing Taishan Mountain. Taishan Mountain is approximately 20 li in height from the base to the Jade Emperor Peak. 6,700 steps lead up to a spot where hills overlap and where you find beautiful waterfalls and oddly shaped pines and cypresses. The scenery changes with each step.
Mt Tai has a lot of scenic areas and it is one of China's mountain parks and is a natural museum of history and art. They are Wangmuchi (Heavenly Queen Pool), Hongmen Gong (Red Gate Palace), Nan Tianmen (South Gate to Heaven), Bixia Ci (Azure Cloud Temple).
Taishan Mountain has 72 majestic peaks, magnificent waterfalls, centuries-old pines and cypresses and fascinating rocks. There are five tourist zones and two routes up the mountain - one in the east and one in the west. They meet and Zhongtian Gate and there are 6,293 steps in the nine kilometesr leading to the top. Scenic spots include Longtan Reservoir, Zhongtian Gate, Five Doctor Pine, Duansong Hill, 18 Turns, South Gate to Heaven, Bixia Temple, Zhanglu Terrace, Sun-Watching Peak, Moon-Watching Peak.
The four wonders of the mountain are Sun Rises from the East, Golden Belt along the Yellow River, Beautiful Sunset and the Sea of clouds. Other attractive spots are the Rare Rock Dock, Fan Cliff, Aolai Peak, Black Dragon Pool, Longevity Bridge, and the Dragon Pool Waterfall.
Running from Songshan Valley to the South Gate to heaven, on the top of Taishan Hill, is a path with 18 turns consisting of 1,580 steps. It looks just like a ladder shooting up to the heaven. Although the path is little more than one kilometer long, it rises 400 meters. The steps along the path are made of Tianshan schist.
The best scene is probably the sun rise. Once the sun appears on the horizen, it sends the first beam through the leavies of pines onto the rocks still shadowed in darkness - a magnificent scene. To see the sunrise, people climb to the summit at first light. When darkness recedes and day breaks, a ball of fire appears over the horizon. One mountain after another catches the sun's beams, until everything comes alive. The mountain was included in the UNESCO world heritage list in 1987.
Along the way, we met Frank, a tourist guide who helped us get a hotel on the summit and showed us around and explained historical facts. Later w came across a stone carver who had just finished carving azure cloud temple except for the fact that he miscarved azure which read "azuie." We pointed out the mistake and by doing so stirred up a heated discussion which resulted in phone calls to the local government to get permission to change the word. They told us the would make new stone, after which w pointed out again that this isn't really necessary as te 'i' could be changed (somewhat) into an 'r'. This entire back-and-forth of discussionos took about 30 min. All we had in mind pointing out a grammar mistake.
We stayed in a hotel at the summit and didn't get up for the sunrise (a least didn't get up). I can't bear being out there at 5am in the morning with hordes of noisy people pushing and shoving, yelling and singing, spitting and smoking and talking on the mobile. There is nothing serene about it. The next day, we went back a differnt trail, via Peach Blossom Valley which I enjoyed very much as it offered a beautiful and relaxing scenery and no people. After getting lost, we hitched a ride back into town juts in time for sme food and meeting up with Frank again who bid us farewell at the bus station.
After Heather went back to the US, I readied myself for my trip around eastern China. I decided to visit Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Suzhou. My first stop was
Luoyang famous for its Longmen Grottoes and GuanLin Temple. In Luoyang, i was taken care off by Lee who is manager of a travel agency. He had booked a room at the Tian Xiang hotel for 100RMB and had someone pick me up at the train station. Ahh, the luxury of organized travel. I met with Lee for breakfast at a fancy hotel that had a rotating restaurant. He gave me some tips as to what to see in Luoyang and assured me take care of me throughout my travels in Henan. So, I toured the city by foot, the old town, the food market, and the little alley ways near the canal. I got lots of starres and 'laowei' calls which I was not used to anymore as the majority of people in Beijing is used to seeing foreigners.
After 2 days in Luoang, I continued to
Dengfeng, home of the famous Shaolin Temple. I waisted the better half of the day sitting in a bus at the Luoyang bus station waiting for the bus to Dengfeng to fill up. I got to Dengfeng's main bus station and was greeted by some curious locals offering their car/service to me. I struck up a deal with Guan who used to teach english at a school there and who also was a kung fu student at a local martial arts school for 3 years. Here, I stayed at the Shiku Martial Arts school for 2.5 days and for the exorbitant fee of 400RMB (exorbitant to me but otherwise a very reasonable fee)I got my own room with shower, free meals and training in the morning and evening. I received some training but spent most of the time exploring the surroundings and hanging out with the wonderful teachers Fan HuiLing and Chen XiaoLeng at a girls martial arts school neaby.
Though I came to Dengfeng to visit the famous Shaolin Temple, the droves of people and the steep entrance fee of 100RMB made me change my mind. There is nothing enjoyable about visiting a "Chinese scenic spot" during national holidays. Talking about scenic spots and tourism in China, I have been thinking a lot about tourism's implications on nature, environment, people's life and the economy. Tourism with chinese characteristics is very different from tourism in other countries; at least as far as I have observed. There is nothing intimate, relaxing, reflecting or enjoyable, let alone memorable about visiting tourist sites in China. One can argue that, to see the real China and enjoy unspoiled nature one should skip the tourist sites and go off the beaten track. The fact is, there are very few unspoiled or unexplored places left in this huge country. It seems that with a population of over 1.4 billion, people have discovered and tamed all but the most hidden places of their country. In addition, there is an entrance fee to pretty much every temple, park, mountain, lake, minority village, etc. Commercialism in the form of hordes of hawkers, restaurants and hotels at these sites attests to the resourcefulness of the people living in these areas and is a constant reminder that one is seen not as a mere human being showing interest in history and nature but rather as a walking money dispenser. Yes, there are busloads of people visiting the Grand Canyon in the US, the glaciers in Chile and Argentina, hordes of people tramping up to Macchu Picchu in Peru and tourists and locals competing for hiking space on the famous trails in NZ, but never have I felt that my space is so controlled as in China. There is little freedom of movement, almost no room to explore or discover things on your own, let alone having some privacy.
From Dengfeng, I took a bus to Keifeng, where I stayed one night and 2 days. Tired of seeing more temples and historic buildings, I opted to visit only one place, the Iron Pagoda. I strolled through the city, taking backstreets that few tourists have seen to take in the old charm of Keifeng. On a historical note, during the Spring and Autumn period, the place became the fief of Duke Zaung of the State of Zheng who started to build a city. He named it Kaifeng, meaning "opening up new territory." After the Warring State period, it was also called Bianliang. Kaifeng was a capital for 7 dynasties and was one of the six great capitals. The city was also known for its silk products and embroidery. Wars and Yellow River floods caused a lot of damages to Kaifeng but many cultural relics and ruins remained. Now part of the city is reconstructed to resemble the old Song dynasty.
The Iron pagoda is situated in the north-east corner of the wall, in a pleasant park that is adjacent to the Henan Art Institute. The pagoda is made of glazed brown tiles and is about 55m high. I climbed up the stairs of the pagoda to the top from which one has a small window view of part of the park or city (there is no plattform, you look out of tiny windows one your way up to the top). After that, I continued my stroll around the city and eventually came across the nightmarket. This market is a madhouse, offering all kinds of food, fruits ad drinks in addition to clothes, sunglasses, paintings, etc. The weather was hot and humid, so before taking the night train to Hefei, I had one more shower.
The next day, I got to Hefei around 7am where I met up with my friends Joline and Nathan. We had time to kill as our train to Huangshan didn't leave until 12ish. The 7 hour train ride was SLOW but we got to Tunxi eventually where we hunted for a hotel. We finally settled on a 180RMB room for 3 people later we found many small hotels in a alley next to our hotel. There, te prices were 20-30Y per person. For the uninitiated, you got to bring lots of money to Huangshan for transportation, hotels, food and the vey steep entrance fee of 200RMB for the mountain. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/anhui/huangshan/a ttractions.htm> Huangshan is the moste visited mountain in China . We hiked up the western steps with was a beautiful and long hike (15 km) and got to our hotel around 7PM. We stayed in Xinhai hotel where we paid 90RMB per person for bunkbeds and no shower. But it was ok for one night and we had at least the opportunity to wash off in the sink.
Anhui is a very green province and construction is going on everywhere. I would have liked to stay in a small village for a view days but my wallet felt drained after just 3 days in Huangshan so I decided to head to Hangzhou for 3 days before embarking on my trip
to Putuoshan .
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