Jiuhua Shan, Mingyuan scenic area

We returned to the base of the mountain, had lunch, and then headed to the Mingyuan scenic area. Wu Han was very familiar with Jiuhua Shan and took us through side alley's to enter this nature reserve.

We also got to see a restored teahouse that was very beautiful.

Top Right: Man carrying heavy sacks.

Top Left: The beauty of bamboo in the forest.

Center Right: Bamboo growing in the forest.

Center Left: Michel, Wu Han, and Hannah Czehatowski touring a restored teahouse.

Bottom: Detail of the construction of the beams in the teahouse.

Jiuhuan Shan, Monk Wuxia

By now we had been in at least 30 different temples and though similar in layout they will have unique features. One of the temples on Jiuhuan Shan has imprints of the feet of a monk in the stone. The temple is built around the stone. It is said that a monk meditated there for quite some time and his footprints were left in the stone. Believers will take off their shoes and place there feet in the footprints. My shoe size is 12 and I stood in the stone footprints and they were much bigger than my feet!

We also saw the gilded body of Monk Wuxia. My understanding was that when a monk died they were put in a large jar and after three years the jar was opened. If the body was intact they were considered a saint. This was the case with Monk Wuxia. When they opened the jar his body was intact. It was later gilded and placed in the temple. We were able to see the gilded body.

Top Right: View of the other mountain we were on the day before.

Top Left: Inscriptions in stone.

Bottom Right: Locks.

Bottom Left: Mark Van Loan on the backbone of Jiuhua Shan.

Jiuhua Shan Temples

Once off the cable car there was plenty of more stairs. Supplies for the temples is carried up by laborers.

The other amazing thing about the temple, stairs, and walkways is that everything was carried up on the backs of men.

Top Right: Wu Han (left), Hannah Czehatowski (right) and Mark Van Loan in front of Hannah, ascending stairs on Jiuhua Shan.

Top Left: View of a mountain temple.

Center: Porter carrying up a heavy load of food up the stairs.

Bottom Right: The same porter going up another set of stair.

Bottom Left: Two laborers with a granite suspended between them carrying it up stairs. These granite blocks are used to make the walkway.

Jiuhua Shan

Sunday morning we were up early to go to the next peak. The trip involved another bus ride and then a cable car ride. Before entering the cable car Wu Han told me there would be two stops on the way up and not to worry. What he meant was that the cable car slowed almost to a stop at two places which just happened to be when we were suspended about 1,000 feet above the valley floor and the wind was blowing hard. The cable cars are grouped in three's and when you get off or get on they slow down a bit so you can hop in or out.

Top Right: Looking down soon after we started.
Top Left: A group of cars going down.
Center: The cable cars we rode are seen in this picture but are very tiny. You can just barely see a group of three cars at the right 1/3 of the picture.

Bottom Right: Zooming in on the cars seen in the picture above. Just past this ridge you are so high up you feel like you are in an airplane.

Bottom Left: Temple built on the side of the mountain.

Jiuhua Shan Temples Scenes

Top Right: Jiuhua shan mountain views.

Top Left: Relief of Buddha images.

Center: Detail.

Bottom Right: More views.

Bottom Left: Tomorrow's destination on another peak.

Jiuhua Shan - Abundant Clouds

There are many beautiful temples and things to see in Jiuhua Shan.

Top Right: Characters reading "Abundant Clouds". On the right side in smaller characters it says that this was written in the 57th year of the Emperor Kangxi (1711AD).

Top left: Hannah Czehatowski, Mark Van Loan (cowboy hat) and guide Wu Han walking to a temple. Wu Han, by the way, told us that if any monkeys come and bother us on the trail that he would take care of them. He said "they know the locals" and leave them alone.

Bottom Right: This is the temple on the mountain top that was seen in the picture two entries before (it's next to and above the turtle pictures).

Bottom Left: Detail

Jiuhua Shan Temples

After visiting the main temple in Jiuhua Shan we walked through a side street and onto other temples.

Top Right: Side street in Jiuhua Shan. You can hear water run through the drainage under the stone payment.

Top Left: Jiuhua Shan Temple.

Middle: Detail of stonework on the temple.

Bottom Right: Closeup of ornate columns.

Bottom Left: Stonework in front of the temple.

Jiuhua Shan

When we stepped outside the hotel the next morning a new world greeted us. We were in a small town surrounded by mountains. As we walked to the Huacheng Temple, the first temple of Jiuhua Shan, Wu Han explained the Feng Shui of the area. Pointing out that the mountains were like crouching tigers so the layout of the temple had a bow-shaped pond in front of it and along with the temple on top of the mountain in the distance it created a bow and arrow to counter the tigers.

The pond was a refuge for hundreds of goldfish and turtles. There is a Buddhist practice of saving rescuing creatures and freeing them and surrounding the pond there were stores selling turtles and fish that you could release in the pond.

All the Buddhist Mountains are dedicated to a special Buddhist Bodhisattva or Saint. Jiuhua Shan is dedicated to the Bodhisattva who is the guardian of the earth, Ksitigarbha (Dizang). One translation of his name is "Earth Store Bodhisattva". He is the Bodhisattva of Salvation. If you've been bad or done bad deeds, he's the one that decides whether to cast you into hell where awful things happen to you. The temples have statues and illustrations of people being burned, cut in half, tortured, etc. and it certainly does make the impression you don't want to end up there.

A Korean monk, Kim Kiao kak (Jin Qiaojue) arrived in Jiuhua Shan in 720 AD. It is said that he wanted to build a temple and approached the owner of the land. He was told that he could have whatever land his cassock covered. When he spread out his cassock it covered all the land and mountains around.

For more information on Jin Qiaojue, and Huacheng Temple see this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huacheng_Temple

Top Right: Turtles (picture by MVL)

Top Left: Picture taken from the front of the temple showing the bow-shaped pond and the temple on the top of the mountain (the arrow).

Bottom Right: Fish and Turtles for sale.

Bottom Left: Turtles.

Ginkgo, Motorcycles, Hefei, Jiuhua Shan

At the temple we were shown some nice trees. The first one, I understood to be a Bodhi Tree, the same type tree that Buddha sat under when he reached enlightenment. There were also some nice Ginkgo trees. Ginkgo is dates back 270 million years and is considered a living fossil. The leaves and nuts are used in Chinese medicine. Here's a link for more information on Ginkgo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba

It was now time to return to Chengdu. Our next stop was a flight east to to Hefei and then on to Jiuhua Shan. On the way back I snapped pictures of some motorcycle riders carrying various things. Many people have motorcycle's and if they are not solely used for transportation then they are loaded to the max.

Our guide Ying Ying took us to the airport and got us on the plane safely. It was late afternoon and we got into Hefei when it was dark. Our new guide was Wu Han. His chosen English name was Bob. Wu Han was self taught in English and never had English speaking clients before. In fact, I'm not sure that he even had talked to someone in English before us but he was thrilled to have the chance. Wu Han took us to a restaurant in Hefei and we were shown to a small room. It is common to have private rooms in restaurants. Ours was hot and full of mosquitoes which didn't settle down until the airconditioner cooled the room off. The food was good though and after dinner we headed off into the night to Jiuhua Shan. It was hard to stay awake as we had a long day. After riding for several hours and traveling up a mountain road on our last leg we arrived at our hotel and settled in for the night. We were to meet Wu Han in the morning after breakfast.

Top Right: Bodhi Tree.

Top Left: Ginkgo.

Center: A decoratively shaped Ginkgo tree.

Bottom Right: Motorcycle rider with large baskets. Helmets are not too common in China from what we observed.

Bottom Left: A rider with empty baskets stacked behind him instead of hanging on the sides.