I know. I know. I’m way behind on the blogging. I don’t even know where to start. So I’m going to pretend like it’s the end of week 8 and see how it goes from there.
Tuesday morning we left Kunming for Jizu Shan, the first destination on our two and a half week "excursion." (Excursion is proving to be a fancy word for "vacation" where we go to cool places and see the sights.) Our program directors hadn’t taken students to this mountain (the 5th Holiest in China) in nearly 10 years, so we didn’t quite know what to expect.
Fun fact: Jizu Shan translates into English as Chicken foot mountain. Not a very attractive name for the place that honestly stands out in my memory as one of the most picturesque places that we went to on this trip (and Yunnan is a picturesque place in general). The sunrise and sunsets were absolutely stunning. Our first day we drove to a temple that was about a third of the way up the mountain and stayed in temple rooms. We had been warned that they would be “simple” conditions, and so we began the pattern of “roughing it” the first night (no showers/warm water, bathrooms outside) and then staying at hotels with hot water the next. However, there were electric heaters, which now have a VERY fond place in my heart. We spent the night there, and after breakfast saw a demonstration on Daoist taiji before we began the trek up the mountains. From the temple we could either walk all the way up (supposedly a 3 hour trek, which actually, according to those that did it was more like 2 hours) or take mules part of the way up and then either take a cable car or walk the rest of the way up (still reputed to be quite the hike). I opted for the mule and then the hike. (I wanted the exercise). Riding mules is one of those things that seems like it would be a great idea, but then after 20 minutes, you’re ready to be at the destination as its not the most comfy ride.
Almost at the top of the moutain- typical Asian Victory pose
The hike up was really good exercise, we kept climbing up and around, until suddenly we were at the temple!
The set of stairs that went STRAIGHT up- fortunately it evened out a bit after this.
Yet, after arriving there isn’t much to do until dinner, it’s just the mountain top and the temple. So I wandered around the ridge. Good and bad idea – there were LOTS more steps involved (and my legs were not used to so much “StairMaster” action. However, the Tibetan prayer flags waving in the wind/answering prayers were an impressive sight due to the sheer volume and come sunset time this area I had explored behind the temple was the BEST place to see the sunset.
That night, because our program is so small, all thirteen of us were able to crowd into one of our hotel rooms and watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi together. It was quite adorable. The next day I dragged myself out of my electric heater warmed bed (it was really cold- we were at like 11-12,000 ft elevation) because I was determined to see the sunrise and I’m SO glad I did. A group of us joined some Buddhist faithful praying/chanting at the rail. The Daoist priest who we had met the day before played his flute as the sun came up. . . and finally the sun rose. And I got my “Chinese tourist” picture.
My Chinese tourist picture
After sunrise and breakfast, we took the cable cars as far as we could down the mountain then walked the rest of the way down, to get on the bus and head to Dali. Dali was the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom way back when in the Tang Dynasty (or was it Song? I still don’t know. . . I think it was Tang). Anyway, the city is now quite modern, but the Old City is a big tourist site because everything within the old city gates has been restored and looks pretty. Dali was just a place for us to relax for a little bit, see an historic city, and our last chance to find places with Western food, etc. before going into our rural homestays in Shaxi. The big story of Dali was that we NEEDED to vote, only one person’s absentee ballot had arrived before we left, so we had to resort to the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot. It ended up being just a really positive chain reaction. Joe (from North Carolina, the surprising swing state) asked me about this write-ballot that I had been talking about and reminded me that I needed to mail mine. Then Courtney’s like, oh yeah! And so we head off to find a print shop, and Aly comes along to help us out. It was quite the ordeal to get everything printed out and sorted. Then we went back to the hotel to sign everything and we picked up Claire (the one who’s ballot had already come, but she still needed to mail it). And we had run told Tal what we were doing so she went back to the print shop to print a ballot out. Finally, a whole group of us descended on the China Post office, asking for two envelopes, and shipping huge envelopes back to various parts of the US.
Printing out ballot: 11 kuai; Mailing ballot: 18 kuai, Voting in the 2008 election: priceless. And knowing that your story could be used in some “get out the vote” campaign- also priceless.
So to celebrate, we went to this Western bar/restaurant called the “Bad Monkey” and had absolutely delicious burgers. In China.
Tuesday morning we left Kunming for Jizu Shan, the first destination on our two and a half week "excursion." (Excursion is proving to be a fancy word for "vacation" where we go to cool places and see the sights.) Our program directors hadn’t taken students to this mountain (the 5th Holiest in China) in nearly 10 years, so we didn’t quite know what to expect.
Fun fact: Jizu Shan translates into English as Chicken foot mountain. Not a very attractive name for the place that honestly stands out in my memory as one of the most picturesque places that we went to on this trip (and Yunnan is a picturesque place in general). The sunrise and sunsets were absolutely stunning. Our first day we drove to a temple that was about a third of the way up the mountain and stayed in temple rooms. We had been warned that they would be “simple” conditions, and so we began the pattern of “roughing it” the first night (no showers/warm water, bathrooms outside) and then staying at hotels with hot water the next. However, there were electric heaters, which now have a VERY fond place in my heart. We spent the night there, and after breakfast saw a demonstration on Daoist taiji before we began the trek up the mountains. From the temple we could either walk all the way up (supposedly a 3 hour trek, which actually, according to those that did it was more like 2 hours) or take mules part of the way up and then either take a cable car or walk the rest of the way up (still reputed to be quite the hike). I opted for the mule and then the hike. (I wanted the exercise). Riding mules is one of those things that seems like it would be a great idea, but then after 20 minutes, you’re ready to be at the destination as its not the most comfy ride.
Almost at the top of the moutain- typical Asian Victory pose
The set of stairs that went STRAIGHT up- fortunately it evened out a bit after this.
That night, because our program is so small, all thirteen of us were able to crowd into one of our hotel rooms and watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi together. It was quite adorable. The next day I dragged myself out of my electric heater warmed bed (it was really cold- we were at like 11-12,000 ft elevation) because I was determined to see the sunrise and I’m SO glad I did. A group of us joined some Buddhist faithful praying/chanting at the rail. The Daoist priest who we had met the day before played his flute as the sun came up. . . and finally the sun rose. And I got my “Chinese tourist” picture.
My Chinese tourist picturePrinting out ballot: 11 kuai; Mailing ballot: 18 kuai, Voting in the 2008 election: priceless. And knowing that your story could be used in some “get out the vote” campaign- also priceless.
So to celebrate, we went to this Western bar/restaurant called the “Bad Monkey” and had absolutely delicious burgers. In China.
1 comment:
Alison! Here I am on the bus to nyc reading your blog! This experience at the temple sounds so beautiful and endearing! I can't wait to get to talk to you over dinner in DC and ask you all about it! Stay safe and hope to see you soon!
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