Wudang Mountain

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It's funny on CCTV 9, the only state run english channel they keep running inside china travel destinations for commercials and Helen and I have heard them all so much that I will frequently imitate the commercial as it plays on the tv for Helen's amusement. Anyway Wudang mountain has been the commercial for the past couple of months and coincidentally we spent the last days of September there. Wudang kung-fu originated there and the popular tourist destination is filled with ancient pathways, temples and traditions still in use today by the practicing kung-fu students who live there. We took the train there on Thursday the 30th of September. Thankfully this time we got beds, or cots, that were FAR more comfortable than the "soft" seats that we had for our last train ride. There are 4 levels of travel by train, standing, hard seats, soft seats, and beds. The trip was great actually and we got to the mountain chain near dusk.

Unfortunately though Friday had intermittent rain and so long treks up the mountain were difficult at best. We waited through the day to see if the rain would let up and by 3pm we decided it was now or never to do the great climb to the top of the mountain. At the peak was a great temple appropriately called the heavenly temple. This temple was protected by the golden gates, as you will soon find there relevance. So we hiked up the mountain that had stairwells through the entire trip but as you can imagine was still quite an exercise. We spent about 3 hours climbing with infrequent breaks of no more than 5 minutes each. After about 3 hours we were nearing the top but dusk was fast approaching. The groups of tourists that earlier were both in front and behind us had almost gone back but we were sure to continue on. I had kept repeating in Chinese a slogan I had made during our travel up the mountain: Persistence guarantees success! until we were only a half hour to the peak. We stopped at what looked like a work site for a new hotel being developed near the top of the mountain when some tourist came down from the peak looking disgruntled. Helen asked them "How was the heavenly temple?" unfortunately they told us that they didn't know, the golden gates had closed at 6pm and they could not get in. We were a little disappointed but we couldn't stew for to long as night time was coming and some of the passageways back to our hotel were unlit. We tried to race against nightfall but it was of no use and soon it was pitch black. Thankfully though we came across a convenience store further down the mountain and they had a flash light. We made it home safe and sound while escorting some teenagers who were in a similar situation as us but without a flash light.

Helen seemed crestfallen as we both knew that the same long trek in the morning would be impossible due to our muscle fatigue from the long hike. I was a bit happier though being content with getting some good exercise and knowing there was still plenty to see down the mountain. The next day we traveled down the mountain and got to see some Shaolin and Wudang Kung-Fu experts along with some native monkeys and beautiful scenery. The trip was an enjoyable one for both of us, and the last day made up for the previous ones. We got home on Saturday night and I prepared to go back to school for Monday.

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