Beijing - the last stop

We left on Saturday morning from Shanghai on a flight to Beijing. Once in Beijing we had a two hour layover in the airport before heading home and we had time to explore the airport.

Top Right: On the tarmac at Beijing airport. Passengers disembark from the plane and then take a shuttle to the terminal. This airport is huge and is set up to handle the immense crowds they expect for the 2008 Olympics in August.

Top Left: View inside the Beijing Airport. When Hannah, my son, Seth, and I first landed in Beijing in 1998 the airport was just dull, gray, plain concrete. It is now a world class airport and probably one of the best in the world.

PS: This is the last entry of our Buddhist Mountain tour. You can read older posts by selecting "older posts" at the bottom of this page or you can click on the small black triangle next to "May" or "June" at your left to see any other entries.

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.

Putuo Shan - Beaches

Putuo Shan has nice beaches also. We didn't see anyone swimming but the scenery was nice.

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.

Putuo Shan sights

As with the other areas of China that we traveled in there is an abundance of temples to see. The pictures are highlights from our travels.
Top Right: Metal bell
Top Left: Fish
Center: Characters carved in stone.
Bottom Right: Detail of characters carved in stone. Hai Tian Fo Guo
Hai means "sea", Tian mean "heaven", Fo means "Buddha", and Guo means "Country".
Bottom Left: Dragon wall

Behind the statue of Guan Yin there are temples and a huge stone wall covered in Buddhist art. Here are some of the highligts.
Top right: Picture of the wall which gives you an idea of the size.
Other photo's are details from the wall.

Putuo Shan - Guan Yin

Putuo Shan is considered the place of enlightenment for the bodhisattva Guan Yin.

For more information on Putuo Shan see this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putuo_Shan

Top Right: 100 foot tall (33m) statute of Guan Yin.
Top Left: Close up of Guan Yin.
Bottom Right: Statue found at the entrance to the temple.
Bottom Left: View taken from the base of the Guan Yin statue looking out to sea.