Shanghai

We took the fastboat back to the mainland, followed by a two hour drive to Shanghai. Once in Shanghai we met up with some other friends at dinner, Susan Zhang and her husband David. I met Susan in the summer of 2007 when she taught an immersion class in Chinese language in Redding. Afterwards we took a stroll on the Bund and also in a shopping area.

Shanghai's crowds, traffic and lights were the total opposite of what we had experienced during the two weeks in remote mountainous areas of China but we enjoyed it just the same and it was nice to be able to finish the trip just the way we started - with friends.

Top Right: Right to Left: Hannah and Michel Czehatowski, Susan Zhang and her husband David.

Top Left: View across the river from the Bund.

Bottom Right: On the Bund. The skyscraper on the opposite side is like a huge television screen with commercials played out on the building.

Bottom Left: Mark Van Loan in a Shanghai shopping district.

More Putuo Shan Sights

Top Right: A 1,000 year old camphor tree that is 20 meters in height and two meters in diameter. Trees of this size are rare.
Top Left: (Lt to Rt) Mark Van Loan, Hannah Czehatowski and Michel Czehatowski in front of the character "xin" or "heart" carved in a large rock.
Center: The characters for Buddha (top of picture) blending into the character for "heart" bottom of picture. This was carved in stone.
Bottom: A balanced stone.

Monk's Spade

There was a small open market area near the temple and we stopped to take a look. I spotted a Chinese man who was about my size but much heavier trying to lift the Monk's Spade and he was only able to lift it up a few inches - at least that was the impression I got from watching him. Liking martial arts and having seen Monk Spades in the movies and books I just had to try lifting it. I thought I might embarrass myself and only get it up an inch or two like the other man but to my surprise I lifted it right up. It was much lighter than I anticipated but it was still pretty heavy. My estimate was that the thick back end weighed about 40 pounds and the half-moon front about 20 pounds. I'll have to do some weight lifting in preparation for the next time I see one of these things!

Top Right: Michel Czehatowski preparing to lift the Monk's spade.

Top Left: Lunging forward with the spade.

Yungang Grottoes

Yungang grottoes (Cloud Ridge Caves) is one of the four major treasure troves of Buddhist art. There are 53 caves containing over 50,000 statues. The caves stretch for about one Kilometer from east to west.

The statues range in size from huge (7 meters) to only a few centimers in height and are over 1,000 years old.

Pictures:

Top right: Buddha in a cave.

Top Middle: Buddha seen through a hole in the cave wall.

Top Left: Detail of Buddha carvings.

Bottom Right: Hannah Czehatowski, Mark Van Loan, and me in front of one of the statues which gives perspective on the size of these fantastic sculptures.