After spending my first two weeks exclusively in Beijing, this past weekend I got the opportunity to leave the sprawling metropolis and venture out into part of China's beautiful countryside. We had the choice of going to either Inner Mongolia or Wu Tai Shan. For whatever reason, Wu Tai Shan immediately seemed more appealing to me, so that's what I chose. Basically, Wu Tai Shan is one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism. "Wu Tai Shan" literally translates to "Five Plateau Mountain", and its geography aptly describes its name. More than a thousand years ago, when the first temples were constructed at Wu Tai Shan, they were built on top of each of the five plateaus. Today, these temples are still in use, but a much larger and more heavily trafficked temple has been constructed in the valley below these five plateaus. For Buddhists, Wu Tai Shan is an extremely sacred site at which many come to worship.
On Saturday morning, we ventured out from Beijing around 6 am via charter bus, due to arrive at Wu Tai Shan around noon. Although Wu Tai Shan is only 250 miles from Beijing, the trip takes about 6 hours because much of the route winds through a rural mountainous region of Shanxi Province (east of Beijing). The ride there actually didn't feel too long, as the route offered a tremendous view of the surrounding scenery, which mostly consisted of rural farmland. However, after about 3 hours, we got off the main freeway and began our ascent into the mountains, which took us through a few small towns. This being my first time outside of Beijing, I was both amused and shocked by our trek through these towns. One thing you learn when living in China is that, even in large cities like Beijing, traffic rules are actually more like suggestions. It is quite common to find cars (and we're not merely talking cheap cars) parked in the most unorthodox and inconvenient places; and as a pedestrian, crosswalks have literally no significance. But after going through some of these smaller towns, I have new respect for Beijing's relative traffic organization. These towns literally had vehicles parked in the middle of intersections, with trucks and buses struggling to navigate the narrow streets. We probably averaged no more than 10 mph. Another thing you get used to in China is being a "Lao Wai", which colloquially means "foreigner". People often give you strange looks or are abnormally interested in whatever you happen to be doing. However, outside of Beijing, in some of the more rural places, you multiply this experience by about a hundred. People literally dropped whatever they were doing and stared into our bus. Their expressions seemed to range from "oh look, white people, don't see that everyday" to "dear lord they must be lost". Although Wu Tai Shan isn't a huge tourist attraction, it receives a fair amount of traffic from Buddhists making pilgrimages to the temples. But in terms of foreigners, it is certainly not a common spot to visit. During our two and a half days there, I didn't see any other foreigners besides those in our group. Needless to say, we were a bit of an oddity to the locals, and even to those who were just visiting.
One other thing that struck me while driving through these towns was the juxtaposition (I realized that this word has become commonplace when describing my experiences here) of poverty and economic development/globalization. Many telltale signs of poverty were evident-- rundown buildings, trash in the streets, general disorderliness to name a few. At the same, though, you saw lots of new cars, modern clothing stores, and lots and lots and lots of construction. One quick note about construction in China. Everywhere I have gone, there has been construction, and lots of it. Even on the tops of remote mountains, there is construction. You often hear about China's rapid economic growth, but you really have to come see it firsthand to truly grasp it. And life certainly does not slow down as a result of all the construction. For instance, there was many a time that a road seemed to be being built as we were driving on it. Dodging dump trucks and backhoes is indeed just a part of life here. I have a lot of respect for our driver, because these roads would be hard to safely navigate in a personal car, let alone a giant passenger bus.
Eventually, after twisting and turning through the mountain roads, we reached the gate of Wu Tai Shan, where our tour guide met us. We spent the afternoon touring through the main temple which lies in the valley of the five mountains. The temple was spectacular (see pictures on facebook), and it was interesting to hear some of the history and lore behind Wu Tai Shan. However, one of the rules there is that you cannot take pictures of anything inside the temples, which unfortunately contains much of the spectacular and priceless stuff that makes Wu Tai Shan so sacred. Basically, there were shitloads of gold Buddhas and stuff like that. Pretty cool. After that, we walked up 1000+ steps in order to reach another temple. I'm not quite sure why it was significant, but the stairs were packed with people making their way to the top. The climb takes between 15-30 minutes if you go as fast as you can, depending on your ability. It was not easy, but there was a nice view at the top. It was about 6 pm by the time we finished, so we hiked back down and then drove over to yet another temple, where we were able to meet with a Buddhist monk and ask him questions. It wasn't terribly interesting, since the pace was significantly slowed because of the need to translate (I could have managed somewhat without translation, but I definitely wouldn't have comprehended everything) for everyone. It was pretty cool to hear about his life and how he actually became a monk.
The next day was entirely devoted to hiking to the top of one of the five mountains. Our itinerary had originally listed Bei Tai (the north mountain) as our destination, but for whatever reason we actually climbed Dong Tai (the east mountain). The only difference is that Bei Tai is a little taller, but I'm not sure there is a huge difference. We ventured out at around 10 am from a small farming village, where we ran into a few locals, who were all very kind and obliged to our picture-taking requests. The first hour of the hike was flat ground, as we made our way around the side of the mountain. There actually isn't a path up the mountain, and it is quite uncommon to climb since there is a road that runs to the top. However, up until that road was constructed (probably no more than 20 years ago), the only way to reach the temple at the top was to climb. In order to find the best spot to climb up, we actually followed a man who was herding a group of sheep, and he led us to the other side of the mountain. From there we began our ascent, which I can only describe as one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done. It wasn't necessarily the hardest thing to do, but the sheer length of the climb, as well as the high altitude, made for an exhausting journey. For whatever reason, I went pretty much as fast as possible. It's a strange feeling to describe, but when you are ascending the mountain, you feel a great motivation to reach the top, and excitement builds the higher you climb. The fastest person in our group reached the top at about 1 pm, and I followed in third about 15 minutes later. The last completed at about 2:15, and we ate lunch and rested at the temple. Although very tiring, the climb was easily the best part of the trip due to the spectacular scenery. It actually reminded me a lot of Washington, with lush forests and grasslands that filled the environment with vibrant shades of green. I got some good pictures, but they definitely don't fully the grasp the magnificence of the area. As part of our lunch, they gave us a Snickers bar. Let me say, that was easily the best Snickers bar I have ever eaten. Although I wasn't terribly excited about climbing that mountain beforehand, after reaching the top I realized how truly rewarding the experience was.
We slept in and came back the next day, and arrived back in Beijing in the evening. The ride back was pretty miserable, and everyone was quite pleased to get the hell off that bus. After getting back, a small group of us walked to a nearby restaurant that served western food, including pizza. It was refreshing to have a taste of home, especially after a long, tiring weekend. I am always amused to go to Western-style restaurants in China because of how they try to create the Western vibe. Usually they aren't very successful, but this one actually felt pretty authentic. I realized their secret was offering free booze to foreigners in exchange for letting them copy the music on your iPod. This is actually a brilliant strategy, because they just copied the music and put it on shuffle to play in the restaurant. From there, the rest of the vibe is easy to create. Add in beer and pizza, and you have a recipe for success. Not to mention, the prices are much cheaper than in the USA (although they are a little more expensive than a typical Chinese restaurant). Overall, a pretty good weekend.
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