25. From the Golden Peak to the Golden Monkeys of Mt. Emei

So, we are now at the peak of Mt. Emei.

For centuries, devout Buddhists have paid pilgrimage by trekking up the thousands of steps it takes to get up the mountain. The temples were initially developed, interestingly enough, about the same time as when the early Christians were starting to spread the gospels, at around 25-220 AD. Some said that having completed a pilgrimage up the mountain is already a major spiritual reward, not including the health benefits of the walk.

But for us mere tourists, we are supposed to enjoy the four famous view: The Sunrise, The Cloud Sea, the Buddhist Light, and the Saint Lamp. Each view is to be seen at a different time of the day, morning, day light, late in the afternoon, and at night, respectively. In this afternoon, we did see the sea of clouds rushing up the mountain side, slowly engulfing the silver Palace.

A few steps upward, we reached the Golden Palace, Jinding. which is now clothed in sheets of modern golden cladding. It is not clear what the real purpose of this building is all about, but it's architecture, though quite standard, also seem quite exquisite and clean.

But what was more interesting is actually behind these large temples. For there was quite a lot of construction still going on. Since the peak is at such a high altitude, the question that always arises is how do they move all the construction material up the mountain when there are no roads. The romantic answer is shown by this next photo: all material were borne on the backs of laborers. But in reality, I also saw some hoisting cables at the back but still, the last few steps were on human backs.



If you look at the picture closely, you would see that these two are standing still with their load resting on poles. What we learned was that these bearers would take up a load, walk up the flight of stairs and would always stop completely still for a few minutes to catch their breath, and then resume the way up. This of course gave us tourists a perfect picture taking opportunity!

Apparently, this is what they do every day, day in day out, for $30RMB (~$4USD) a day. That's quite a way to make a living! I suppose they are physically very fit and perhaps also spiritually satisfied for doing a religious deed.




On our walk down the mountain, we were repeatedly warned about the ZhangNie monkeys that roam the peak area. The sign here said that too. But, alas, right after I took this picture, this monkey jumped me, wanting to take away a white plastic bag that I was carrying that contained a local delicacy. I am happy to report that, thank you very much, this monkey business did not harm me nor frightened me. Indeed, I was quite pleasantly surprised by all the attention!




Mt. Emei was the last stop in our tour. We went back to Chengdu, had a great dinner, and flew back to Guangzhou the next day.

24. A Blue Road to the Golden Peak of Mount Emei

What, a blue road? You must be kidding! Just wait a minut or take a sneak peek below.

But first, after that very interesting giant buddha in LeShan in the afternoon, the bus took us west to the HongZhuShan Hotel just inside the Mount Emei (pronounced Er-May) Scenic Area. HongZhuShan used to be Generalisimo Chang-Kai-Shek's residence in the early 1930s. Since then it has been re-decorated into a very nice, quiet hotel nestled among trees and mountain sides. When we opened our room windows, we could see terraces of tea bushes grown right outside and one can taste the humidity.

An interesting modern feature in the hotel is that the corridor lights both turn on and off automatically by sensing whether there is motion in the hallways. This is a nice energy saving idea that I think also pleases hotel guests. The hotel's dining room, the Madarin Cafe, is known as one of the finest in the area. On this day, we had a real fine Szechuan dinner there but I can't really say it was spectacular.

Early next morning, we started our climb up Mt. Emei. Mount Emei is not only famous for its sceneic beauty, but when we were young, we used to read in kung-fu novels about the (usually pretty) swordswomen who are nuns and supposedly practice their swordsmenship on the mountain. No, we didn't see any, not in this twenty-first century date anyway. The entire area is of course dotted with many temples and pavilions. May be there are nuns there had we visited them.

There are several ways to climb Mt. Emei. Our tour guides were very thoughtful and arranged for us to take the easiset way up - by bus, then by cable car, ending with just a slight walk up a few stairs to the peak.



Oh yes, I did not forget the blue road. Because the drive up the mountain is through narrow lanes and is almost always foggy any time of the day, only local designated drivers are allowed to drive the tourist buses. To remind them of the fact that they are entering a 'drive-with-caution' zone, the first kilometer of the road up is painted blue. Presumably the blue color would alert the driver. We were impressed and wondered if this idea can be applied elsewhere.



The cable car was a fun ride through the clouds and mists. When one emerged at over 3000 meters (~10,000 feet) in elevation, the air was crisp and thin. Each step seems harder to walk now.

But everyone went oooh and aaah when we came to this panorama at the mountain top. It is a giant four-faced Buddha!








click to enlarge

23. A Buddha by the Rivers of LeShan

We all thought, what's left of this trip now that we have already been to the major scenic area - Jiuzhaigou? The flight from Huanglong took us back to the Kempinski Hotel in Chengdu. The next morning, our capable bus driver went south and by noon we reached the city of LeShan(乐山), situated at the confluence of three rivers.



What made LeShan famous is the Grand Buddha shown in this photo. The Buddha is so large that one can even see the location from Google Earth, just type in these coordinates: 29°32'48.77"N, 103°46'9.27"E.

The Buddha was carved into the river side rocks beginning in 713 AD, during the Tang dynasty. It took 90 years to finish this historic project. At 71 meters in height, it is the largest ancient stone-carved buddha in the world. We were told that the reason the monk HaiTong built a buddha here was because quite a few people who sailed through these treacherous waters perished. So the monk decided to invoke the powers of Buddha. Whether it has helped or not I would not know, but it certainly makes this place very interesting and very impressive.

Because this is where the waters of Min Jiang, the Dadu He, and the Qingyi Jiang collide, when we sailed on the boat, we could clearly see how the different colors of the waters got mixed mid-stream. The Min Jiang's water has a yellowish color while those of the Dadu are black. The Min runs faster while the Dadu holds it own.

The engineering of the Grand Buddha was also very sophisticated. There is a drainage system carved into the rocks so as to minimize the erosion of the statue by natural elements. It is simply amazing how the Buddha has been so well-preserved for over 2000 thousand years.


This photo shows the same kind of ferry that we were on. On top of the rocks, there is an elaborate park that includes pagodas, several temples and towers. But we did not have time to visit there. But just seeing the Grand Buddha was a real exciting visit.

Late in the afternoon, we continued on to the Emei Shan Scenic Area and checked into the very interesting Hongzhushan Hotel.

22. Falling Waters And Rotating Wheels of Jiuzhaigou

That second night in Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟) was capped off with a Tibetan song and dance show at the hotel where we stayed - the Sheraton. While the show was colorful and entertaining, the artistry were somewhat less than what we saw in Chengdu...

click to enlarge.

None the less, I think this is a nice photo of the colorful costumes on the performers. The locale and other photos can be found at the hotel website:Sheraton Theater


Instead, we were rewarded by the a natural water show when we went up the western gully the next morning. The thousand-meter rise in elevation took us to the mountain top where the primeval forest still remains. Supposedly, all the trees in lower levels were cut down in the late sixties for fuel. That's why the trees are still small in this photo. We only got to see the primeval forest at the peak.

click to enlarge.

There are 5 major waterfalls along the gully, Jungle Fall, Panda Fall, Pearl Fall, and the spectacular ShuZheng Fall. (We already saw the Nuorilang Fall yesterday.)Just before the water drops like pearls into the Pearl Waterfall, a walkway has been built over the precipice allowing the feat of walking on water. Pearl Fall is massive but delicate as the majority of the water rushes down at the ends.

click to enlarge.

Interestingly, the roaring water emptied into the calmest lake in the whole area - Mirror Sea, i.e., Jing Hai. The lake's water is so clean and sheltered from wind that you won't see any ripples at the surface; instead, what you see is the bottom.

click to enlarge.

Finally, our group ended up at a Zhang/Jiang cultural village, the Shuzheng Stockade. Under the color flags are a complete set of Tibetan prayer wheels mounted all around the platform. If you are a Buddhist, you would then walk past each wheel shown here and turn them once. Though I'm not, I did turn the wheels and ended up at this last wheel. I guess that is what life is all about, going around in circles and keeping the wheels turning!

(Note: As my Shuzheng Fall photos were left in a compact flash card that I left in Hong Kong, I'll post them later here.)

21. Nine Villages in Two Gullies - Jiuzhaigou

Whereas Zhangjiajie provided the heavenly joy of seeing the natural beauty of mountains that soar into the clouds, Jiuzhaigou let us earthly folks revel in the natural beauty of water as gravity guides it lower.

The name "Jiu 九(nine) Zhai 寨(village)" says that there are nine villages originally in this area. They are the settlements of the native Chinese minority tribes of Zhang (Tibetan) and Jiang people. The word "gou 沟" literally means a gully, i.e., that part of a mountain valley that has water running through it. Where the water is slowed, large pools of water are formed. Normally, we would call such fresh water bodies lakes. But since the Zhang/Jiang people are so far from seeing a real ocean, they can only dream of seas. So, every lake in the Jiuzhaigou area is named a "Hai = sea". The entire area is a y-shaped gully that starts at an elevation of 1990 meters, rising to the top 'Hai = sea', the Long Sea, at 3150 meters. The park entrance is at the north end, the tail of the 'Y'. Today, we went up the east branch.

As we stayed at the new Sheraton Inn, we can almost walk to the park entrance. Along the path, we can already see a rushing stream of pure and cold water. Our tour group was ushered into the Guest Building and they took a photo of the group. This photo is then printed onto our entrance ticket. Ah! Digital technology is indeed ubiquitous. But as we shall see, this scenic park is right up there in adopting modern measure to keep the park in great shape environmentally.

Because by late October, the peak summer season is already over, large tour buses and personal vehicles are no longer allowed inside the park. Instead, the park only allows a fleet of 25-passenger mini-buses to be ran and they would follow a group and turn off the engine when not needed. The interesting thing is that these are not really 25-passenger buses but what Americans would normally call 9-passenger minivans. Now you figure out how to fit 25 people into a 9-passenger minivan, and I have not even counted the driver and 2 tour guides!

So, what do you see in Juizhaigou? Nothing other than blue skies and even bluer lakes, eh, I mean, seas. As we walked up (or down) beside the gully, the place is dotted with large and small waterfalls. The most spectacular, for the first day, is the Nuorilang Falls (诺日朗瀑布) which is supposedly the widest highland fall in the world. While it is no challenge to Niagara Falls in size, the fact that foot paths have been laid so one can get real close to it made it a wonderful experience.


Click to enlarge

There are of course, plenty of websites that document the beauty of Juizaigou, e.g., in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiuzhaigou_Valley (this one explains everything) and, in Chinese: http://www.cpanet.cn/zxyz/yuan-j/index.htm (great professional photos). But the photo posted here is mine, slightly digitally enhanced.






For those whose major activity during a tour is shopping, Jiuzhaigou does not disappoint either.
What I can't understand is that every one of these stalls is selling the same Tibetan handicraft. Now, how do you decide which stall to buy from is a mystery to me. One nice tip though; you can buy a very nice and very real-leather cowboy hat for $15-20 RMB (less than $3 USD) depending on your bargaining skills!





As we rode the environmentally-correct buses up the gully, the air gets thinner, the temperature drops, your ears pop, and the scenery gets even better. When we got to the Long Lake, everyone thought that it looks just as nice as Lake Louise in Banff, Canada. But to me, this is better, this is a place discovered for years and still remained pristine.




But that is only half of the Y branches of Jiuzhaigou.

20. Flying Into Yellow Dragon - Huanglong

After that event-filled day in Chengdu, we were scheduled to fly into JiuZhaigou first thing the next morning. We all woke up at 5am for the bus ride to the Chengdu Shuangliu Airport which is 16km out of town. But once we checked in, we found that our flight has been indefinitely delayed due to the snowy conditions in the JiuZhai-Huanglong Airport.

So we waited in the hot airport. Since I am dying for a cup of java, I tried the airport cafeteria. Incredibly, the only coffee I can order form the greasy dog-eared menu is a RMB $45 (US$6) coffee served in a paper cup! The girl there assured me though that it is indeed freshly-ground coffee they specifically prepared for me. Wow!

But the Sichuan Airline was quite nice. First they provided free breakfast, then later, they shipped everyone to the airport hotel and gave us individual rooms. We were also provided with a free lunch at the airport hotel. Our tour guide made a high-level decision and decided that we should be provided with better food in another 5-star hotel. So we went there but we had to rush back when the airline resumed the flight in the early afternoon.

Now, we are flying into an airport that is about 3500 meters (~11,000 feet)in elevation, comparable to Pike's Peak's 14,000 feet elevation. The view from the air was spectacular, see the photo I took close to our landing.



You have to understand that this so-called airport is really just one single straight pavement laid down in the mountains. The plane landed just like a fighter jet landing onto a carrier. It had to brake immediately and then had to do a 180 degree turn-around at the end of the runway so as to be able to taxi back to the terminal.

All of us were worried; not about the plane but about our ability to survive in such high elevation! Well, first I felt the chill immediately, then I felt a little dizziness because of the low level of oxygen in the air. But this dizziness passed quite quickly once we got into the tour bus. The air, though thin, is squeakly clean and the sky is a luscious blue. How nice.

The airport is known as the JiuZhai-Huanglong because it is situated equally far from both Jiuzhaigou (九寨沟 = Nine villages Gully) and Huanglong (黄龙 = Yellow Dragon). Both are UNESCO world heritage scenic areas in the north-west corner of Sichuan Province.



The bus wound through beautiful mountain roads and we saw, in a distance, spectacular snow-packed peaks basking in the late afternoon sun. Huanglong is famous for its calcite deposits that flowed down in colorful pools:



There is also a colorful waterfall. But really, Huanglong is just the appetizer of what comes next. The bus had to wound through the mountain roads to get to our next destination - JiuZhaigou. It went down roads that are named as 1 to 19 hair-pin turns before we got to sleep in our hotel late at night.

19. Pretty Puppets and Ugly Faces

Our first day in Chengdu ended on a big bang - many bangs on flowery drums in a variety show at the Shu Feng Ya Yun 蜀风雅韵 Tea House. Literally, "Shu Feng" means the airs of the province of West Shu, ie., Sichuan and "Ya Yun" means artistic tunes. The tea house is in the center of town inside the Chengdu Culture Park and our tour bus driver had to maneuver through very narrow streets to get there. We all thought we were going to hit something but amazingly, at the end, the bus emerged among dense groves to a tiny parking lot and we were surprised that it was filled with large tour buses.

Since it is a tea house, everyone was served a cup of tea on a bamboo shelf right in front of the seat and a bowl of water melon seeds to nibble on. Although the place was 90% filled with tourists, there was only one to two groups of non-Chinese tourists. So, this is still an un-discovered gem known only to Chinese travelers!

Even though it was only a one and a half-hour show, the program was excellent and consisting of a Sichuan opera, a comedy show, musical instrument solos, a marionette show and a hand shadow show. But what every one came to see was the famous "Sichuan Changing Faces" show.

First, the stick puppet show:



The stick puppet was hand manipulated by one single person and in this Sichuan version, one can see every movement of the puppeteer and yet it does not distract from the performance of the puppet. Apparently, this is an ancient art that has been touted as having been around for two thousand years. The puppet was simply beautiful as the story told was about a fairy who descended from heaven and fell in love with the beauty of our world.


Next, the world famous face change show. For those who has never heard of the art of face changing, this is quite an incomprehensible act somewhere between magic and dance - the actor first put on a colorful mask on his face and perform dances. Then, in the middle of a movement, in an instant, his face color changes to a different face mask with a totally different color. The very skilled performer can change the face so smoothly and fast that the audience can only ooh and ah and wonder how it can be done. In this show, the actors went through 5-6 faces (I lost count while enjoying the art). I think the world record was something like 15 changes. If you want to search on google, here are the two Chinese words to copy and paste: 变脸. Amazingly interesting!

18. Generals and Poets

Our Chengdu tour started with the archaeological sites I mentioned before, then a 'hot' lunch (in the Sichuan sense), and in the afternoon, we visited two shrines, one dedicated to a well-known ancient general and the other to a famous Tang dynasty poet.



The first is a shrine to Wuhou, 武侯祠 (http://www.wuhouci.net.cn/). Wuhou is more popularly known as Zhugeliang 诸葛亮, a prime minister of the kingdom of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. This temple is built about 200 years after Christ, so we are talking about the time of the Roman empire. Walking through it does give me a feeling of history.

If you are wondering why there is a shrine just for Zhugeliang? I believe it is because Zhugeliang has always been considered one of the geniuses in Chinese history. He was not only smart, resourceful, with wide knowledge of both the literature and military strategies, but also he was known for his dedication. He served the king faithfully till his death just because the king took pains to recruit him. The photo shows his image in the shrine.


In the shrine, there are a series of figures of all the well-known generals that I had read about in my youth. But I'll show you a not-so-well-known one: General Liaohua. There is a Chinese saying that is often quoted: 蜀中无大将，廖化当先锋. (Roughly translated: there are no great generals in Shu so we ended up having to have Liaohua be the leader.) This saying is used in modern day to describe how companies that are so short of talent that they'll draft any one to be a leader. Alas, whether Liaohua was a great general or not of course is debatable and our tour guide, you can see his hand there, insisted that he was unfairly treated by history. C'est la vie!


杜甫草堂 (Dufu's Grass Hut)
Tang dynasty is well-known for its great poets and the 300 Tang Poems, a collection of poems from the period is often found in many Chinese family libraries. Dufu is a prolific and well-regarded poet who happened to live in Sichuan and so they have dedicated this shrine to him. What's interesting is that this place is called simply Dufu's Grass Hut - but it has very nice ponds and rows of bamboos. Ah, the serenity of the place, especially since it was raining when we visited, soothed me.

17. Up on a Tree and Down in the Ground

We flew into Chengdu at night and checked into the Kempinski in the center of the city. The Kempinski is a 5-star hotel but incredibly they turned off the air-conditioning for maintenance for a whole week and the day we arrived, it was hot, humid and no air-conditioning! The first night was therefore, shall we say, a sweaty sultry Sichuan night. Even though the air-conditioning came back next day. I must say we did not find the Kempinski as appealing even though it features some very modern room furnishings.

But this sad start in Chengdu is more than compensated by our agenda the next day. Our new tour guide, a very sincere young man, took us to five wonderful places. I'll start with just two for now: a panda bear reserve and an archeological dig that unearthed vases that seem to have come out of a Mayan (i.e., Mexican) site!



Our first stop was the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It is here that the first successful artificially-augmented conception and breeding of giant pandas occurred. This is a world-renowned institute that also allows tourists to both see, and on occasion, to touch and post with the pandas.



On this day, no posing with pandas were allowed but we did catch a few pandas up on a tree. At the time, we also saw six pubs in the nursery. They are about the size of a small dog. It has been rumored that a pair of them has been promised to replace the aging pair in a Hong Kong Park.



Our next stop is the archaeological site known as SanXingDui, literally "Three Star Mound", which is about 45km outside of Chengdu. From this photo, you can see the amount of funding that has been spent to make this into a monumental museum. But I thought that the designer of the museum seems to have forgotten that the figures from the dig should be the star rather than his/her architectural design. For details, see: http://www.china.org.cn/e-sanxingdui/jingtai/6.htm


I took only a few not very good photos. This one shows a major find, a bronze human head that is hollow inside. What struck me was how the features shown do not seem to me to be Chinese but more like Mayan. I think I'll want to do some more research on this interesting site that unearthed no written records.

And that was just for the first morning in Chengdu.

16. Rocks And Sands of ChangSa

ChangSa is a major city in the province of Hunan. It is in the north eastern end of the province. The name ChangSha literally means 'long on sand'. While I do not know if the city is named for its sands, I thought it may be fun to see what ChangSa offers in rocks and sands.



This is a street scene in a typical weekday afternoon. Even for a mid-size city in China, the streets are already filled with vehicles. When we were there, the city was going through its drought season, not much rain, and hence, everywhere one looks, it indeed looks sandy and you can almost breathe the sand in your nostrils. But there is also a very nice downtown with a pedestrian mall.



We visited one of the oldest university in the world and it is called Yue Lu Su Yuan 岳麓书院. This is where famous Chinese scholars once studied and taught. For example, Zhu Xi 朱熹, a 12th century AD Song Dynasty scholar, was a resident here. And in the courtyard is a large stone shown here. It is a specimen of the locally quarried stone - a chrysanthemum stone. The flower patterns are natural and are the imprints from petrified vegetation. This piece is very expensive if it is offered for sale. Also, Yue Lu is the seventh oldest university in the world (with Cambridge being the oldest) and the current Hunan University is its direct descendent.



Then of course, since ChangSa is located on the banks of Xiang Jiang, the Xiang River, I've got to show a photo of the sandy beach on the river. The east bank of the Xiang river has been set aside for a park and that is where this photo was shot. No, we didn't sail on that sightseeing boat.

Next stop, ChengDu and onto JiuZaiGou!

15. Ancient Technology, Science and Marketing

Our tour bus took us into the city of ChangSa at night. After resting overnight in the 5-star hotel, the Dolton, we embarked on sights of the city. Our first stop turned out to be the Hunan Provincial Museum that has a very interesting archaeological dig collection called MaWangDui.

Mawangdui is an excavation site that consists of 2 hills with a saddle in between - hence the name literally means 'saddle mounds'. In 1972-74, it was discovered that there were 3 well preserved tombs of a Marquis(Li Cang), his wife(Xin Zhui), and a third person who is probably his son.

A detailed description of the site can be found in: http://www.answers.com/topic/mawangdui



As I toured through the collection of artifacts from almost 2000 years ago, a few items strike me as particularly worthwhile to mention. First, this photo shows the large tomb itself that is technologically very advanced. It uses layers upon layers of various wood materials, culminating in the huge wood planks shown, tightly fitted to preserve the body. Outside, layers of charcoal and clay were used to drain away the moisture. Indeed, the body was so well-preserved that a normal autopsy was conducted. The intestines were all still intact and they show it in a chloroform-filled jar!

Among the artifacts are many musical instruments from this ancient time - wind, percussion and string instruments. The amazing thing is that they have already devised a set of pitch pipes to standardize the frequencies and for tuning the instruments. Keeping in mind this is about the time of Christ and well before the word 'acoustics' was even coined.


Next, look at this gift box. Again, 2000 years ago, form-fitting individualized packaging for decorative purposes has already been invented!

Finally, we came across a set of manuals about how to conduct surgery of the inner guts, including the importance of maintaining a clean environment to reduce infection. That is advanced medicine way before western medicine started surgical techniques.

It seems to me sometimes we tend to think that science and technology were all invented in the west. This exhibit clearly shows that that is a myopic view.

14. Out of This World, Metaphorically

Leaving Zhangjiajie early in the morning, our bus got on the Chang-Zhang Highway and took us, through the city of ChangDe, to a place called TaoHuaYuan. Along the way, I saw that every valley between every hill is terraced for farming. While I don't know what was grown there, it was pretty clear that this is the heartland of China, where every arable inch is tilled, where peasants will dry their harvests smack in the middle of the road so buses and trucks have to swerve to avoid ruining the crops.

All of a sudden, we arrived at a legendary spot: TaoHuaYuan - The Peach Blossom Garden.



Since this is October, there are not a single peach blossom. Indeed, I didn't even notice any peach trees. But there is an interesting story behind this seemingly ordinary picture of a small water fall.

About 1600 years ago, a highly-regarded government official, TaoYuenMing, became tired of the politics in the court he served and decided to early retire himself. He started traveling around China and by happenstance, wandered into a wonderfully peaceful area where there was no government and only peasants and fishermen quietly living their lives. He penned the now famous Annals of TaoHuaYuan which has been one of the often taught ancient documents. The place we visited is the place supposedly TaoYuenMing discovered; although no one really is certain if this is indeed historically correct.

If you look at the photo carefully, at the left side, there is a dark grey spot hidden behind the green vegetation. This is the cave entrance to a tunnel that cuts through the mountain. We went through a parallel tunnel that was dug later and voila, emerged on the other side that is a small village - it is supposedly here that people have lived 'outside of this world'. As one emerges from the dark tunnel to the sunny stream and fields, it indeed feels like one is getting away from it all.

For those who can read Chinese, here is the site that explains everything: http://www.chthy.com/

For those who cannot read Chinese, just click on the map and you'll see what I mean by the tunnel leading to a village.

13. Kids in Baskets & Adults in Wicker Chairs

While going up and coming down the mountains of Zhangjiajie, I captured two interesting photos - they are the reliable local transportation systems.



This photo was captured while we were lining up to get on some modern air-conditioned buses. Notice both the old man and the woman have back packs on them. The backpacks are made entirely of bamboo, including the strap. It was an ancient design that has worked well for the Tu people. The baskets are used to carry everything, and in this case, a toddler who's obviously enjoying the ride. So if you think that the modern backpack was invented in the US, think again - these ancient people have already got it all figured out.



Walking up the perilous mountain trails of Zhangjiajie is quite a lot of work. There are ribbons after ribbons of stone steps that are narrow and slippery in the rain or fog. For those who cannot make it on their own, fortunately there are professionals who will take you on their shoulders. We passed by this station of carriers who for a fee will take any one, of any weight, up the stairs. The passenger is seated in the rigged-up wicker chair and two men will run up the steps; bouncing the chair up and down on those flexible bamboo poles. I think they are invoking scientific principles as in every bounce, they would have to carry only half a cycle of dead-weight. As long as they can take the peak load, it is much easier than using a rigid pole and having to carry the entire dead weight. As the trails are usually packed with tourists, those who walk often have to hurriedly get out of their way. To make more money, these carriers will also run down the hill. What a way to make a living!

12. What happened to the posts?

It's been more than a week since I have reported on our tour and you may begin to wonder what happened. Our tour group has traveled from Zhangjiajie to ChangDe, and then stayed in Changsa, Hunan for three days seeing various sights. Next, we flew to ChengDu in the SiChuan Province, flew to JiuZaiGou and then flew back to ChengDu, drove to LuoShan and stayed overnight in Ermei and then drove back to Chengdu. Finally, we flew yesterday to GuangZhou and took a long-distance bus back to Hong Kong. It was quite a trip with lots to report.

I have not been able to post during this time mainly because the tour guide has kept us very busy and very tired every day with lots of meals. In addition, some of the hotels charge quite a lot for an internet connection(in Changsa, the rate was 10RMB per minute, ~80cents US/min!). So, now I am going to go back and continue the travelog from where I left off.

11. Catching up on GuangZhou

We toured GuangZhou on Tuesday but I didn't have a way to post any photos. So here it is, a catch-up post.


First, a picture of the famous GuangZhou Shopping Center, SiLiPu which literally means "the tenth mile area". SiLiPu is filled with old and new shops with a large area roped off from traffic - a typical square-like street that is typical in many Chinese cities. While Beijing has the HuangFuJing Street, Shanghai has the HuaiHaiLu street, SiLiPu is GuangZhou's equivalent.



Since GuangZhou was one of the first Chinese cities to have high rise apartment, it may be interesting to show one. Notice that they are all eight floors high without elevators. The reason is simple, the building code requires that any building with more than 8 floors must have an elevator and since no developer wants to spend that extra dollars, most of the condominiums are 8 floors high; just like in this photo. I've seen the same phenomenon in other Chinese cities, QingDao, in the Shantung province, has the same requirement. But, very quickly, modern skyscrapers replace these 8-story apartments.

The food in GuangZhou is just delicious and reasonably priced. But that's a topic for another catch-up post later.

10. Beautiful Zhangjiajie

This is our second day in Zhangjiajie. Yesterday it was rainy and cold. Today, the weather is beautiful, not too hot, not too cold, just right. Yesterday, we were in the CiLi Area. Today, we toured the XuangZhi area which is only a few minutes from our hotel in PiPaXi. Today's tour is all inside the Zhanjiajie National Park - the first national park of China.

First, a photo from yesterday's trip to Lake BaoFung. This is the mountain lake that I mentioned yesterday. See how beautiful it is:


Using your imagination, you might be able to make out the silhouette of a toad with his (or may be her?) tongue sticking out. Anyway, this area scenic area is filled with such rock formations that jut 1000 meters straight up into the air. Since China has a long cultural tradition of naming everything, each mesa has been carefully looked at by many learned people, and the poets among them would give each a three- or four-word artsy name. When I get home, I'll post a list of such names, not that if it matters at all.

Yesterday, we saw the rock formations buried in misty rain clouds. Today, the weather cooperates so here is a must see photo of Huang Si Jia:



This formation has been named the Five Fingers Rock. The entire area is just stunning. I took the photo from another mesa that is across from this group. Of course, we got there by riding a cable car that takes 50 people at a time up to the peak every 4 minutes. There was a long line but it was worth the wait.

Basically, the whole Zhangjiajie area is just like these two photos. The local natives all belong to the family of Tu (literally meaning earth people). The women dresses in multi-colored cloths and are very fond of singing short tunes (Sang Ge). The food here is simply prepared but the chef in our hotel created a variety of tasty dishes. Two specialties I'll mention are tiny river shrimp the size of your fingernails stirred in a red sauce and JingBian Yu (Golden Whip Fish), tiny fish that resemble smelts that are deep fried till they are crunchy. Yes, we ate the whole fish, head, tail, and all - and it's delicious.

Tomorrow, we'll leave Zhangjiajie and head for ChangDe and a place known as Tao Hua Yuan, still all in the province of Hunan. Stay tuned and I hope the next hotel will also have an internet connection!

Links to Zhangjiajie

While I have not been able to post photos yet, here are the links to where we went:

宝峰湖风光(34张) : http://www.zhangjiajie.com.cn/zjj/zjjnew/bfhfg/index.htm

索溪峪风景区(61张) : http://www.zhangjiajie.com.cn/zjj/zjjnew/sxytp/index.htm

天子山风光(83张) : http://www.zhangjiajie.com.cn/zjj/zjjnew/tianzisan/index.htm

Of course, these are professional photos. But I did buy the book and it costs only $10RMB.

9. Open Our Door and Reach Out to the World

Whoa! This is going to be my first post from China. We traveled to the City of GuangZhou (aka, Canton) via train from Hong Kong on Monday 10/23/06, stayed that night in an airport hotel, and then joined our tour group from the US on Tuesday morning 10/23/06. We spent the day touring around GuangZhou and later, on an evening flight, reached Zhangjiajie in Hunan a little after 9pm. Since I didn't bring my laptop, it was not clear if I can blog on this trip. As it turned out, the hotel that we stayed in (does offer an internet-connected computer for only $10 RMB (~$1.25 US dollars per hour)! So here I am. I can't upload photos yet but may be able to do that tomorrow.

First, what does the title of this blog mean? According to our knowledgeable tour guide, the Chinese words for the city of Zhangjiajie, 张家界, were purposely selected by city elders in 1994 and it was quite a story. Zhangjiajie stands for 3 Chinese words: Zhang (张) which usually represents the Chinese surname 'Zhang' but the word also means 'open' as in 'zhangkai' (张开). 'Jia' (家) is the word that means 'home', but together with the word 'men' formed the phrase, 'jiaman' (家门), which means 'door'. The word 'Jie' (界) is half of the phrase 'Si Jie' (世界), meaning 'the world'. So taken together, the three words Zhangjiajie really were intended to mean the wishes of the local people to open their doors to the entire world, letting their natural scenery be enjoyed by everyone. This is really quite a long-sighted view. No wonder, the Zhangjiajie area has been selected by the UN as a World Natural Heritage Site. It has also been the shooting location of several Chinese movies, one example is the 2002 French-Chinese movie: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (小裁缝).

The scenery we saw today were just like those misty mountains one would see in a Chinese watercolors painting. There is a waterfall that spewed out from the midst of rock formations, just like from the scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. The entire area is dotted with soaring peaks with spotted fine needle pine trees. The mountain lake is large and pure, as it was raining when we were sailing on it; this would have been a scene from our imagination. But too many tourist are there already, including us! But the natural beauty has not been spoiled.

I hope I can post some photos later.


Originally

8. Amazing Library 2

I forgot to include a photo of the library before so here it is. Also, the library has 11 floors. Previously I said there were 10 floors, that is because I've been confused by the floor naming convention in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, the first floor is called 'ground floor', then the second floor is called 'first floor' etc. So a building with eleven floors will have the top floor labeled '10th floor'. If you think that this is confusing, wait till you step inside any building's elevator and try pressing the number 6 to reach the seventh floor!

7. The Long and Short of Cheung Chau

Cheung Chau 长洲 is one of the so-called remote islands of Hong Kong. While the Hong Kong main island, the Kowloon pennisula, and the New Territories including Lantau are where almost the entire population of Hong Kong resides, there are a few populated islands - Cheung Chau, and Lemma Island are the two largest.

We visited Cheung Chau yesterday. The ferry from Hong Kong to Cheung Chau took a leisurely one hour through very calm waters. Since it's still steamy hot (at least to us), we paid the extra $6HKD for luxury class seats, i.e., it's air-conditioned! The total fare is $17.50 HKD, not bad for a short cruise through the harbor. For our return trip, we took the 'Speed Boat' which cut the trip time to a half-hour and the fare up to $22.00 HKD - still very cheap by US standards.

The photo is the old Cheung Chau pier which now seems to be just a place for old folks to hang out and enjoy the sea breeze. I thought the sampans parked along side look really cool.

We strolled around the island faithfully following the tour map provided by the Hong Kong Tourist Association. It took us up and down the island, through the beach where there were only a few bathers since this is a week day. The rest are small one-car wide streets lined with smelly shops that sell dried sea food and baked goods. We also see some of the temples, here's a nice looking one:



It is actually right smack in the middle of the island at the peak. The god worshipped inside is the most famous general in historic Three Kingdoms period - General Kwan who is now worshipped by businessmen and policemen as their patron saint.

Cheung Chau was supposedly, at least from what I've heard, a very nice weekend resort with luxurious cabanas and hotels. Alas, we didn't find any. Instead, the hotels and buildings everywhere seem run-down and neglected. It seems the booming economy of Hong Kong has passed by Cheung Chau. I feel sad. I went there when I was a teenager and enjoyed the trip a great deal then.

Luckily, just when we were ready to sail back in the late afternoon, we came across these wonderful kindergarteners. The teachers were taking them on a field trip to purchase fruits from the fruit stand. They were totally cute. See for yourself!

6. Skyscrapers Dressed in Green

Anyone walking around Hong Kong these days can't escape seeing many skyscrapers wrapped in green. No, those are not Halloween costumes for buildings. Rather, the buildings have been covered up so that repainting and maintenance work can be done. The green plastic is a net of scaffoldings that keep the dust in.

Apparently, many buildings in Hong Kong have never been repainted since they were originally built in the last century. During these long years, the residents had also altered the design, adding rooms to what were supposed to be verandas. My understanding is that there is now a Hong Kong government initiative to get these building to revert back to the original architecture and adhere to building codes. So, everywhere, you'd see buildings dressed in green. I think this is a good development. In a few years, Hong Kong may look great again.

5. Shanghainese Dishes in a Cantonese Town

Since we arrived in Hong Kong a week and a half ago, the food here has been great. Without any particular planning, we seemed to end up eating at all the Shanghainese food restaurants here. Guess what, even though Hong Kong is famous for Cantonese food, Shanghainese food has also come a long way - and our taste buds told us that this is not the old Shanghainese food.



So far, we've been to Xiao Nan Guo 小南国 on Hennessey Road, Lu Yang Chuen 禄杨春, and Xin Ji Si 新吉士 in Wanchai. The best dish so far is a 'dandelion wrapped in tofu skins' dish. Only the Shanghainese would eat dandelion leaves as a delicacy. In this dish, the leaves are boiled, seasoned delicately, and then wrapped in a very pure tofu skin. The whole thing is rolled up and then sliced into sections, very much like how sushi is cut. The whole thing tastes very clean and light, the look is appealing, white rolls interspersed with dark green. I was impressed. But I don't have a photo so you will just have to come here to enjoy it. (Since this post, we went to the restaurant again and I took a photo of the dandelion dish.)I understand that these restaurants all have branches in Shanghai (or really, I should say that these Shanghainese restaurants all have branches in Hong Kong). I do have one of the restaurant's entrance shot though.



Xin Gi Si is a very nicely decorated restaurant with great services, but at a price. We had lunch there with about 10 of our relatives and the bill totaled over $1500 HKD (~$200USD)! But for that, we got to taste interesting dishes such as 'drunken crab' (raw crab marinated in wine), salted vegetable with stirred-fried rice cake, and then 'June yellow crabs' (crabs that are only available in June of every year - sort of a soft-shelled crab, all cooked in a black bean sauce.) Then of course, there are the very juicy pan-fried buns (with pork stuffing) that when we bite into one, all the juices squirt out and almost ruined our shirts!

4. Star Ferry and Hong Kong Haze

We took the Star Ferry from Central to Tsim Sha Tsui last week. I was troubled by how run down the Start Ferry Terminal has become. (Later, I learned that the Star ferry will be closed in November 2006). Years ago, both sides of the ferry piers were the heart of the city, always crowded with people eager to get across as fast as possible. Now, it's not even one-tenth it's former self. Only a few us tourists with cameras now ride the ferry. Everyone now takes the subway to cross the harbor or drive through the 3 tunnels. Here is a photo from last week:




While the ferry looks pretty much the same, not so about the air quality in Hong Kong. I used to remember that the air was crisp, the sky was blue and the sea was green. Now all we have is that the sea is dirty green and there is a haze covering everything, it is almost as bad as the smog in LA. When I look up at the sky during the ferry ride, there is no sun, there is no sky, just a grey haze. Very sad.

We crossed the harbor again today and this time we went from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wanchai. The ride is still very pleasant with a gentle breeze slowly rocking the boat. But the haze is back today, and it's getting worse.




The very tall building is one of the newest office towers in Hong Kong, it's the International Finance Center 2 (IFC2, IFC1 is a smaller skyscraper just next to it). This photo was taken this afternoon at 1:11pm... I am really disappointed that the haze has ruined an otherwise most beautiful harbor. Our friends told us that most of the air pollution are blown over from ShengZhen and GuangZhou and there is precious little the Hong Kong government has done or can do. In his Letters to Hong Kong report yesterday, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang has not proposed any long term solution other than some minor remedies - a 3.2 billion HKD package to retro-fit old commercial diesel vehicles with liquid natural gas on a voluntary basis. Yes, that's a 3.2 billion with a 'b'! Makes you wonder what does the news item mean.