Sunday, June 1, 2008

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.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

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:




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.

Friday, May 30, 2008

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:
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.

More of Emei Shan





We headed down the mountain in the bus full speed. At least that's what it seemed like to us. We were hanging on pretty tight. To the driver I think it was just another day on the job. The driver's wife sat in the front seat and their little boy sat on the motor cover between them. As we headed into curves full speed and braked heavily the boy would slide back and forth or sideways depending on which way we were turning. There wasn't much for him to hang onto and I think it was fun for him. The mother finally grabbed him though and had him sit on her lap until they got off the bus at one of the stops.


We made another temple stop. While waiting to get tickets we were observing the activity below us when a donkey came walking, by itself, up the road. It was loaded down with two heavy baskets of bricks. Apparently it knew where it was going. A lady finally came running up to catch it and continued in the same direction with it.

There's always steps going up to mountain temples and our legs were developing calves of steel from all the uphill walking. The walk is always worth it though. The temples and the artwork is fascinating.

Top Right: Boy in the front of the bus.
Top Left: Donkey carrying bricks.
Middle: More Stairs - empty but they should have been packed with people. The May 12th earthquake really hurt the local tourist industry.
Bottom: Another Emei Shan temple