Giant Budda and 1st evening on the tiles
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2006
1
9
14
Trip End
Sep 09, 2006
Yantai,
China
Friday, May 12, 2006
Today I took the bus with ben to Nanshan(around 1 hour south west of Yantai) where he was getting his tattoo finished (a bamboo forest on his calf) to see the famous Nanshan Grand Budda statue of Sakyamumi. Its 40 meters tall, weighs 380 tons and is made of bronze and tin. It really was an incredible sight and was surrounded by amazing views, many temples, pagodas and ancient gardens. It took a while to climb up the steps and I had to keep stopping as it was quite steep but it was worth it as the views really are breath taking once you got to the top. Underneath the giant Buddha in a dark room there is 999 miniature bronze Buddha lit up with (electrical) lotus tea lights. This room was very atmospheric and one of my favorite sights of China so far. The grand Buddha plus the little Buddha make 10000, which is supposed to make you feel purified and tranquil, which I can vouch for (or it may of been more of been more the fact that I had boards of Canada and Zero 7 on my i pod and had just hiked up this hill.)
The night before had been our 1st night out in Yantai, which was interesting to say the least
999 little Buddhas Temple
. Something had been bothering me about Yantai, it is a seaside town and smells and has similar weather to say Brighton for example. However It was only over the weekend that I realized that for Yantai the sea and the port is still its main source of income, and there were always many little boats and big boats coming in and out of the harbors. At home most boats tend to lie unused and shipbuilding not the same as it used to be. Imagine my shock at wandering into the bar to find real sailors. They couldn't stop staring at us, and being mostly from the Netherlands were rumored to have later drank the bar dry. It was so funny, it looked like they hadn't seen a female for years and to make matters worse were all about my dads age. This made for some light entertainment on our nights out. We also met over the weekend a group of guys from England and some Americans who are all over here studying/working and are all living together, whom we saw again on Saturday night. There are only 2 ex pat bars (and 2 clubs, as yet unvisited) that are any cop (and by that I mean not /strip bars/saunas) but that doesn't mean to say the music is any good by western standards. On Saturday evening we had the pleasure of the company of some Chinese sailors (who were scarily persistent) and some Chinese students. The Chinese in Yantai seem to have a style of dancing which is, different shall we say. And taste in music which is just terrible (think late 90s cheesy pop songs speeded up to early 90s rave music) But until about 12 its your usual mix of rnb dance and pop which is actually becoming more and more appealing. But me and Helen still managed to have loads of fun and the measures were half and half in 'Cape of storms' bar and 'Havanas' club so I cant complain too much. Anyway got to go to class now, its guess the verb time everybody. M xxxxxxxx 
