Adventure #1 Qing Shan Mountain
So in the heart of Chengdu, there is a mountain. Its like the only big mountain around. They call it "The Mountain." It also happens to double as a Daoist temple complex. That temple complex also happens to double as a hostel. That hostel also happens to double as a live monkey preserve. Wait, did you say monkey preserve that you can both sleep and worship in?! Umm yeah, we totally needed to check this place out!
However, our story begins with a snag. Turn out there was an itty bitty 8.0 earthquake that rocked Sichuan province and almost destroyed the cool monkey temple we were going to stay at. When we got to "The Mountain," they told us that the temple was being rebuilt, and that we would have to try another temple about 1/2 way up the mountain. We were kinda razzed, but decided that we had come like thousands of miles to see cool temples (and hopefully monkeys) and sleep in one. So we elected to hike up the mountain with 1,000's of Chinese folk and see what we could see. Here is our quest.
Sam having his picture taken by me at the gate to Qing Shan Shan....
One of the 6 Chinese girls who took a picture of him at the gate!
One of my favorite shots of the trip. This is Sam ascending the stairs into the temple we stayed in. Such a cool feeling to walk into a thousand year old temple.
Remnants of the earthquake damage.
Another cool pagoda shot.
My favorite pagoda shot of the day. I was standing here for like 25 minutes just taking a break, and I didn't see a single person. We were way up in the jungle of the mountain.
One of the Daoist temples that was carved out of a cave. We can't take pictures inside, but there is a few statues of the Daoist deities, and a guy who tells your fortune if you pay him.
Sam and I trying to make a good pose for the cover of our new title album "Insane Buzzsaw Bugs: Sounds of Synthetic Nature"
One of my b/w shots of a pagoda in the bowels of the Daoist mountain.
This was taken in the hostel room we stayed in overnight in one of the temples on the mountain. We had two beds, two mosquito nets, a table, a tv, a hot water jug, and a light bulb.
One of the pathways we took during our exploration of the mountain. Just stairs, everywhere..
One of the many historical markers in Qing Shan Shan. This one gloats about how old the Daoist guys lived on the mountain. I didn't bring up any reference to Gen 5:27 for proprieties sake.
More stairs, more cool shots of stairs...
Chinese-English translation: Beware of falling meteors!
Lovely lush green jungle. It was breathtaking.
Adventure #2: Leh Shan "Home of the Largest Buddha in the World"
After we finished exploring the holy Taoist mountain, we decided to explore the holy Buddha mountain....or cliff...or statues. So we took a 3 hour bus to the largest Buddha in the world. It is an awesome site, the only trouble is that half of Asia was there the day we went too. It was packed with tourists, but we were victorious in our viewing quest.
Wicked cool stone art of the Dao.
Sam splashing his face with the water from the "holy fountain." I teased him for desecrating the most sacred fountain in western China, until another group of 10 people did the same thing 30 seconds later.
Sam deciphering the ancient texts of the Leh Shan temples.
Meditating, concentrating the chi, pondering the Dao, gathering universe juice...whatever you call it.
The largest Buddha statue in the entire world (and the longest line in the entire world waiting to take a picture below it).
The reed tunnel out of the Leh Shan. Bye bye Big Bhudda!
This was the terminal at the Chengdu airport that we were stuck in for 5 hours trying to get out of the town after our excursions to Qing Shan and Le Shan(This was one of the craziest experiences of my life by the way)
Up next on the list of China posts: Amazing Guilin
2 comments:
What an awesome trip! Beautiful, fun, interesting! Thanks for documenting. Did you ever see any monkeys?
no, no monkeys. (at least not ones that weren't made of stone) :(
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