Spring and Yuntai Mountain

---

Spring and Yuntai Mountain, Spring has come to Nanjing

Nanjing is a beautiful city now, but it wasn’t always so. Back in the 1930s and 40s after the Japanese had invaded and occupied Nanjing, killing hundreds of thousands of Chinese, the city was a mess. Many destroyed buildings, ruined roads, etc. and no money to fix it up. To hide the destruction, the Nanjing natives planted trees.

After I heard that story, I wondered about Beijing Xie Lu (Beijing Street West) which has beautiful old plane trees (from the sycamore family), all pruned to shade the street on both sides. The housing for the military was in this area. Are these trees some of those that were hiding destruction?

Nanjing is the same latitude as Atlanta, GA and a lot of the plants are the same. I was hunting for azaleas and finally found a lot of dark pink ones on our campus. They are generally pruned low so I didn’t recognize the shape of the bushes.

The suburban campus where I have my classes was like a huge lawn. In February the landscaping department (which we all greatly respect) started digging a lot of holes. We now have a variety of trees all over the campus and they look wonderful. It’s large trees and understory trees. Japanese maples, southern magnolias, Japanese magnolias, Japanese cherries, ginkgo, locust, etc. A water truck hoses them down daily. I’m amazed by the large (20 inch diameter) trunks planted that look totally bare but shortly start sprouting branches. I think these are the plane trees that provide great shade across a road.

Trip to Henan Province

In April, the Foreign Affairs office, that takes such good care of me and the other foreign experts hired by the university, took us on a four day trip to see Yuntai Mountain (Yuntaishan). http://www.yuntaishan.net or the English site http://www.yuntaishan.net/waiwen/e05.htm We took a soft sleeper train up and back and stayed one night in a hotel there. The soft sleeper has compartments for four people and is really very comfortable. However, in the winter the train is too hot, (see the Xian blog) but in the spring, it’s just right. Our compartment going up was Linell and I, a Chinese Canadian woman and a Japanese woman. Coming back it was three Americans and the Japanese teacher. We had a good time traveling. We shared our food and laughed a lot.

The first day we climbed a short way and then took a boat up river and later took a cable car to the top of a mountain. To get on the car, you had to take a flying leap. Quite a challenge to some of us. I missed once on the return trip, so they sent another car and slowed it down. Look at the pictures. It’s a beautiful place and there weren’t many crowds here.

Yuntai mountains are a new tourist site. Several Chinese on our trip said they wanted to bring their families before it got too expensive. As with any tourist site in China, I’m very impressed with the people management. Our bus drops us off in a big parking lot. Site busses come and pick us up and take us up the to the base of the mountain. There you can choose to walk up the mountain, to watch the Kung Fu demonstrations, to visit the shops, and there are probably other things I didn’t see. Our group chose a morning hike up the mountain and an afternoon hike up a different path. I started up but changed my mind when I realized it was all steps up the mountain. (My legs have limited step capacity.) Linell stayed down with me on the first climb and two of the men stayed down with us on the second climb. I never asked them what their reasons were.
We had many discussions about the geology of the place. Were these incredible mountains formed by volcanic action, by erosion, by glaciers, etc.? I hope that the geologist in the family helps us out here with a comment ;-)

Our lunch was very interesting—donkey meat, bee larvae, rabbit meat, mutton, beef and some common vegetables. I was so taken with the donkey meat I bought some as a present for my children. (Guys, I hope you’re looking forward to eating it!)

The famous Shaolin temple is here in Jiaozhou City in Hennan Province. The women’s champion Wu Shu competitor is from here. (Wu Shu is a martial art, like karate.) “Shaolin Temple is also very famous for the Shaolin Kung Fu. Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Yufeng Peak at Dengfeng County of Henan Province in South China. It was built up in the 19th ruling year of Emperor Xiao Wen in North Wei Dynasty. According to record, Shaolin Temple was originally constructed in the period of Southern and Northern Dynasties. Shaolin shadowboxing became popular in Sui and Tang Dynasties, and soon grew stronger by absorbing the advantages of many other schools. It finally became the largest school of martial arts in China with branches all over the country.” From http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/kung-fu/shaolin-kungfu.htm.

We watched a Kung Fu demonstration on a raft on a small creek in the tourist area. The leader was incredibly good, very smooth, graceful, and in control of all his muscles. Next came the students and the contrast was obvious.

Yuntai Mount is incredible. I was awestruck by nature, and by the thousands and thousands of tourists snaking their way up and down the mountain to get at least a short look at the world from the top of the mountain. Walking to the top of a mountain is a spiritual experience here that is greatly valued. People will make a mountain if the town doesn’t have one. This area of great mountains is truly spiritual.

---

Photos

Yountai Mt Waterfalls
One of our group leaders, Cai Neng, took this photo of the waterfalls. It is a new tourist area in Hennan Province.

Young boy buying flowers for his mother
March 8 is international women's day and children honor their mothers.

early spring
The old campus has a lot of flowering trees. From late February through the fall there are flowers blooming.

red blossoms
Most of the trees are pink, but here's red and I saw a lot of white.

girls enjoying the pond
I love seeing the landscaping around this old pond. I'm not the only one. There are always people here.

early spring
The old campus has a lot of flowering trees. From late February through the fall there are flowers blooming.

flower seller helping the boy
This flower seller helped the boy make his choices for his mom.

planting new trees
The new campus is getting lots of new trees. From March to May they have become established and are a big improvement.

She sells potted plants
On a back street, we met this retired lady selling her potted plants. She gave me several aloe branches for my skin.

St. Patrick's Day party
I went to a St. Patrick's Day party and ended up singing with the performers. Here it's "Danny Boy."

Ladies doing spider weaving
These ladies sit in front of the textile store and will repair torn clothes with very fine hand weaving. It's called spider weaving.

My tailor
Here's my tailor and in the background some of the fabrics in this store. He's great. He's doing a cotton suit for me for summer.

Our group going to Yountai Mountain
Here's our group led by the university foreign affairs office. American, Japanese, Canadian, Chinese, etc. You can't tell a nationality by looks.

How did this mountain evolve?
Help! We discussed for days the possible history of these mountains. Can anyone tell? Was it erosion?

close up of mountain
Here's a close up of the mountains. Most of them looked like this.

bee larvae and rabbit meat
The brown plate is bee larvae.

donkey meat
This donkey meat is a speciality of the area, along with the bee larvae, rabbit, mutton and beef. They gave us a lot of meat dishes obviously.

Kung Fu demonstration
The Shaolin headquarters are nearby, so Kung Fu is everywhere. This demonstration was beautiful. It was performed on a float in the large creek with recorder music in the background. Haunting and graceful.

Splendid mountains
There are mountains every way you look.

Occupied cave house
We passed a lot of cave houses--common before the tourist area was developed. This one was occupied. The man came out and drove away. I wish I could have seen the inside.

cable cars looking down
This is the cable car line we rode. It's a very steep hill. We debated if it was steeper than standard for cable cars. Of course, once on the car, we had to decide it was fine...or else!

Cute boy playing with bottle cap
See the new toys the boy has, but he was having fun with the cap from the water bottle. He was also tired from the climb.

water and mountains
Our boat ride up the river took up along a flooded valley with more beautiful mountains, pairs of wild ducks, and evidence of other wildlife. At one point you could hear the music from a Buddhist monastery on the hill.

Comments

[Ellie]

Diversity in China
I was wondering if you have seen any Africans or Black people in China? Have you seen Black tourists or ex-pats? Just curious. Ellie Hooks

[John Miller]

Yountai Mountain rocks
Susie ... it looks like a layered limestone ... and the rock looks like it has fossils in it. Faulting and uplift may have been involved ... but the major action was erosion and solution of many hundreds of thousands of years. The rocks may be or Ordovician and Silurian age 445-415 million years ago. Go to the Institute and ask them for more info. If you want to know more ... visit the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology site http://www.nigpas.ac.cn/Englishpage/home1.htm

[howard romaine]

spring there and here ATLANTA
Dear Sue, this is SUCH A WONDERFUL JOURNAL, and the creation of it so inspiring for future models of communication directly between people. I must work now, articles, briefs, etc. but will look at this more carefully soon, and add further comments. there is a gathering of old Bird folk the end of the month...40th anniversary of the Coffin's..wish you could drop by..maybe the 41st..love and congrats on your travels and creations..Howard M. Romaine, PO Box 60066, Nashville TN 37206, 615-268-9570

[teddi]

Yountai mtn.
Yup, I agree. I think it's probably erosion mixed with earthquake lift.

[Gailey]

Hey, Susie! I notice you did not comment on the taste/texture of the bee larvae... As usual, your photos are beautiful.

[Peggy]

Looks like you had a great time...those mountains must be beautiful!! I'm back home...had a great time....