Wu Tai Shan

A weekend excursion to the highest mountain in northern China
  • DSC05239  Liu Zhi, my minder, in our private cabin on the night train to Taiyuan: two bunks, each with a TV,  room for a easy chair and our own private bathroom! Zhi spoke great English-what a pleasure!
  • DSC05240  But the accommodations at the Fengze International Hotel were even better than on the train!
  • DSC05242  When I put the card in the electric slot on the wall, the room came alive!
  • DSC05243  The room had the now-standard shower-fishbowl design so you can watch your sex slave take a shower.
  • DSC05245  It was all so amazing with great internet  and also so early in the morning (5AM) that I called Nikki on Skype.
  • DSC05247  Next day the first temple that the shuttle bus took us to.  The shoulder of Wu Tai Shan itself is behind.
  • DSC05248  An altar will exquisite painting.
  • DSC05249  Buddhas, the more, the better!
  • DSC05250  The temples had a distinctly Tibetan feel.
  • DSC05251  but also some typically Chinese details.
  • DSC05252  Buddha illuminated.
  • DSC05253  I love the tiles roofs!
  • DSC05254  The roof with planted larches in the back.
  • DSC05259  One of the temples on the North and highest Peak. It was cold enough for gloves which I had forgotten in Montreux!
  • DSC05267  A stupa and the ridge of the mountain that extends to the east.
  • DSC05263  While the top of the mountain is quite flat, it drops off quickly on the sides:
  • DSC05260  There was a fire in the cauldron by which to light your incense.  Another temple that we visited later sits on the East Terrace in the background.
  • DSC05262  The light, the resiny odor of the incense and the cold made Buddhism seem like the right way to look at the world.
  • DSC05266  Indeed, I quickly bought three sticks and got the going with the fire.
  • DSC05265  I bowed to the four directions, wafting the incense around me, and then placed the sticks upright in the cauldron. I recalled other moments in my life of great clarity when all the useless thoughts feel away.
  • DSC05268  Yeah...
  • DSC05269  The temple complex on the West Terrace, several kilometers away.
  • DSC05272  All the larch forests here were planted, sometimes far above climatic treeline so it was immediately clear where that was.
  • DSC05273  Far below us was Taihuai, the village that serves as the center of the park.
  • DSC05274  Whatever sticks up, in this case, a decent interpretative panel, gets drapped with prayer flags.
  • DSC05276  The flags flapped incessantly in the cold wind as was their destiny.
  • DSC05278  I was here and gladly so.
  • DSC05281  There was a second temple on top of the North Peak.
  • DSC05277  It had indeed snowed a bit.
  • DSC05284  Instead the compound was the entrance to the temple.
  • DSC05285  Zhi in front of a obelisk that means something.
  • DSC05283  The alpine environment of Wu Tai Shan.
  • DSC05287  The Buddhist environment of Wu Tai Shan.
  • DSC05288  Back at the pass a lion keeps a lookout.
  • DSC05289  Another look at the reforestation efforts. The North Peak is the center.
  • DSC05291  Gate to temple on East Terrace.
  • DSC05294  Ah, the light, the light!
  • DSC05292  Flags flapping along the parapet.
  • DSC05297  The ranges into the distance.
  • DSC05298  The North Peak from the East Terrace with the road over the pass between the two.
  • DSC05295  The valley leading down to Shahe, where we got off the train.
  • DSC05299  Sweeping ridgelines, and while not the Alps, more rugged than they first appear
  • DSC05300  Coal is the principal product of ShanXi Province. There are piles and stacks of it in front of every building. The air in lowlands shows the effects.
  • DSC05307  Keeping watch over the ranges.
  • DSC05308  Geometry and Terra forms
  • DSC05302  Ommm...
  • DSC05303  Deities watching the entrance.
  • DSC05304  The buddha at the highest temple on the East Terrace.
  • DSC05305  The wind penetrated the temple a bit and stirred all the tapestries
  • DSC05309  Banners and shelves awaiting buddhas.
  • DSC05306  Just wind and light.
  • DSC05310  Granite elephant outside our hotel, shrouded I know not why.
  • DSC05311  Shahe bus station. Well-swept but don't ask about the restroom facilities...