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...