Taiyuan and the sacred Wutai shan

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With a 35 minute delay, MU5690 took off from the small Baotou airport at 14:20, and landed some 50 minutes later at Taiyuan, Shanxi province. For its size and population, I reckon Baotou could have an upgrade in both aiport facilities and number of flight and destinations as well as frequency available... The flight was pleasant, with a gradual ascent and descent. First crossing the yellow (not as much as being brown) river just south of Baotou and lots of farmland, the scenery changed to mountains and nearing Taiyuan, a craggy landscape, where each piece of land and even hill seemed to have been used as it was all terraces, appeared through the plane window.

After landing it was a slow taxi ride of around 40 minutes on bad roads to the train station. It being the first really hot weekend in the whole of China, with the windows open we were nearly choking on the fumes and dust combined with the hot, dry air. The roads really were surprisingly bad, seeing it's the capital of the province and we were driving on the main road from the airport to the centrally located train station. It might have had something to do with the fact that that same Monday, it officially still was a public holiday, but the traffic was just horrible! Everything from buses, trucks and cars to motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians were all fighting for the same piece of bad road. Happy that we had finally arrived but with our return trip in the back of our mind, we headed into the train station first, where we got the terrible news that no train tickets were available for the next two days (we were leaving on Wednesday night) to get back to Baotou.

With nothing to do about that we crossed Jianshe Lu and checked into one of the first hotels we saw on Yingze Dajie, in army terms so well named the National Defence hotel, (we were sure to be safe!), and for 180 Yuan per twin room, it was a very good deal. Asking the hotel about the train tickets, we were told we could book them within the hotel... Not sure about this, we followed them down into the booking office in the basement anyway, and 10 minutes later we were the lucky owners of four soft sleeper beds! Well not literally yet, in fact we only lost 400 Yuan, but were told that we could pick the tickets up later on that evening. Apparently hotels in China reserve tickets for their guests, so it's always worthwhile to ask them if you haven't had any luck at the station itself.

Dinner was at some restaurant on Wuyi Dongjie. Meanwhile the rain, as forecasted for the three days we were going to be away, started coming down with thunder and lightning in the background. After picking up our tickets from the hotel, we got into a taxi to look for a bar. As usual, you ask the driver if he knows a good jiu ba, and he'll drive you to one. Somehow this seemed to be a problem in Taiyuan. The first driver took us to the other side of town, to some KTV next to a large hotel. We politely told him that it was not exactly the thing we were looking for. Wanting to change taxi (or driver, really), we got out and sheltered from the rain in front of a shop. Asking a young guy also hiding from the rain, he guided the next taxi driver that came along to a bar. Upon arriving, again we saw it was a hotel. We got in anyway to have a look and found it dark, empty and with staff sleeping on chairs and sofa's.
Seeing us, they jumped to their feet, disco lights were turned on, music came blasting out of the speakers and the whole thing was turned into a lively bar (well, one without much 'life') just for us.
We appreciated this so much, that we ordered a (cold, Carlsberg!) beer which soon became a table full of bottles. Playing dice-drinking games, we finished all of them and headed back to the hotel for some beauty sleep.

The next morning at 7, we were all downstairs, ready to go to the east bus station, a short 10 Yuan taxi ride from the train station. The bus didn't leave until 08:50, so we passed the time staring at the first Chinese monks I had ever seen. Special about these are that they're not dressed in the usual orange like in Laos or Thailand, but rather a grey-ish colour. On top of that, they weren't male, but female! Interesting! The bus pulled out of the station with a 10 minute delay, after which we stopped at the edge of th city to take on fuel. At 09:20 we were finally really on our way!
Just outside Taiyuan, looking out the bus windows, the landscape was the same craggy landscape I had seen from the plane. It looked like a very ancient land, with all its cracks and crevasses, much like the outback of Australia really. This continued for a long time, passing large mountain ranges to the east. The road went through Xinzhou, after which we took a right turn and started to climb slowly in to a side valley. As we continued, that valley started to thin and twist. More and more bends in the road, which at the same time started to climb more steeply. Thanks to Wutaishan (Wǔtái Shān 五台山) being a major tourist attraction in China, we were seated on a very good bus that had no problem winding its way up this spectacular road. The vistas were simple amazing, looking back down upon the section of the road we had just came from. Fantastic! A 30 minutes or so before arriving in Taihuai (台怀) village, a large toll gate was put up over the road, and we were all asked to get off the bus to pay the 168 Yuan entrance ticket to the 'park'. On top of that, a 'busticket' of 50 Yuan was added, making the total 218 Yuan!! Thinking this was quite expensive, I paid my fees and hopped back on the bus.

Note: If you're visiting, especially a short time like us, and you enjoy walking, refuse the 50 Yuan bus ticket. It's a tourist bus that drives the whole day up and down Taihuai town. You can walk these short distances yourself when visiting temples, and save yourself the money....

Getting off the bus in Taihuai, a sweet old lady and her husband followed us in their mini-van, urging us to hop in and take a look at their accommodation. They had a photo book with pictures, and it seemed fine to me, especially for the price of 50 Yuan a head. It was still outside the main season, so prices were down.
My fellow travellers preferred a more upmarket hotel, so after a short walk we decided on the aptly named Xin Long VIP hotel, we checked in at 160 Yuan per twin room. Promised hot water, and a quiet location to the south of the town, I guess it was an OK deal. Lunch, although more expensive than anywhere else in China, seeing that all the food has to be trucked into the town, was great! The tang du liji, jie dan xi hong shi and gong bou ji ding all tasted as good as the jing jiang rou si and Qingdao beers.

The afternoon we spend drifting from one temple to the other. First, we headed up Dailuo Peak (dàiluó dǐng 黛螺顶) on the eastern side of the Qingshui 'river' by chairlift, and checked out the monks using large wooden poles to carry their goods up and down the 108 carved granite steps (the same number as the number of beads on a Buddhist rosary). Checking out the view of Taihuai and the valley it lies in, with its snowy peaks in the background, we savoured the fresh air and 'noiselessness' of the countryside. Walking back down the fore mentioned 108 steps, we came across two people crawling their way up the stairs step by step. Kneeling down on one step, with their heads kowtowing on the step above it, then standing back up, raising one step, kneeling, kowtowing, getting back up and repeating those same steps over and over all the way up. One of the two was an ordinary woman, seemingly on pilgrimage. The other a man dressed in monk's garments. The thing with him was, that whilst doing this religious ritual, at the same time he was begging for money. As far as I know, a monk is not to have any worldly possessions, and having learned in Thailand and Laos that there are many 'fake' monks, I chose not to give him any. We would encounter many of these so called 'monks' throughout our stay in Taihuai.

Wutai Shan’s name means “five terraces,” which accurately describes the five flat peaks of this sacred spot - north, east, south, west and central peak.

Back down, it started to rain so we sheltered in one of the many little restaurants that are scattered throughout the little alleyways that make up Taihuai town. All built with the same grey brick for esthestic reasons I'm assuming, the restaurants are joined by dozens of souvenir shops basically selling all the same products and specific little shops that all seemed to be part of a 'monopoly'. We saw a 'fungus monopoly' (see photo), a 'souvenir monopoly' and a 'grocery monopoly' amongst others. We met some great looking Tibetan monks in that restaurant, extremely friendly and very different from the local ones. Wearing bordeaux red garments with a yellow rope around their waist, they politely said hi and stared at us for the remaining time there. When the rain subsided and our afternoon beer was finished, we walked up the hill to the Xiantong temple, the largest and most important in Taihuai. An old monk, telling us he had lived there for 6 years now, welcomed us in. Climbing the stairs, peering into the numerous rooms and halls dedicated to gods and statues, staring at monks doing their daily chores in front of their living quarters, we spent the good part of the afternoon wandering this place on top of a hill, overlooking the town and the valley. Walking back down, just before 6, we were told the head back the other, very long way, since the front gates had been locked. No way, that was not our idea. When we got to the front gate, the same old monk came out of his quarter, letting us through again. It's always good to have friends on the inside! With the rain starting up again,we had a quick look at the large white stupa dominating the skyline of Taihuai, before making use of our 50 kuai bus ticket and hopping on one of them to head the 1 kilometre south.

After returning to the hotel, we learned the hot water wasn't working yet, so we settled in to have a rest and watch some TV instead. Walking through the poring rain early evening, we managed to find a restaurant nearby, having all the usual dishes with a few beers to swallow it all down. With the plan of getting up early and hopefully being able to climb a hill somewhere, we retired to bed and slept soundly.
I woke up dreaming somebody ripped off my nose, later that day coming to the conclusion that Kerstin whom I shared a room with must've woken me up by pulling my nose or something like that, which she sternly denied, (I later found a close-up picture of myself sleeping on my camera, which sort of confirmed my suspicions) but after opening the curtains and seeing a clear blue sky greeting us to a brand new day, I quickly forgot about it and had a very short, very cold shower.
We woke up the guys, got dressed, and were out by 06:30. After a quick stop at a convenience store right next to the hotel that fortunately was open at the time, buying sweet cookies and drinks, we made our way onto the main road.

We were stopped by a shopping cart on 4 wheels, with a friendly guy shouting the only English word he knew: TAXI! Sure,why not, how much to Nanshang temple(南山寺) , please? After disagreeing with a price that didn't match the 1 km trip,he agreed to a more reasonable 10 Kuai, so we wormed our way in, legs thrown over our shoulders and heads out the window. After crossing the stream boastfully called Qingshui 'river', we arrived at the base of our destination; Nanshang Si.

The first part was a paved road all the way up to the temple, snaking its way up which we short-routed by walking in a straight line. Although a little strenuous, we cut some time and were able to marvel at the sight of the temple, its surroundings and the views from it, just as the sun was stroking the mountains / hills south of it. After taking the necessary pictures, we were greeted by a friendly monk, who guided us to the 'latrines with a view (and a smell)' from where a narrow path led up the hill that was going to be our destination that morning. That path first followed the outer wall of the compound, soon leading into the forest mainly made up of 'not so green yet' - pine trees. The 'trail', if there was any soon vanished, so it was up to our own boyscout talent to guide our way up, Using the rising sun and the slope of the hill we were on as our guide, we made our way through the pines onto a ridge. We all saw glimpses of deer (presumably) with white fur. Unfortunately no pictures of it, that would have been cool... From the ridge we were looking south at the 2474 m 'south terrace', the southern of the 'wu', 5 mountains that make up the national park. After a nice breather, and a cigarette of course, we decided that going back the same way was going to be boring, so opted for the adventurous way back; A slow decent through the pine forest, down the slope that would lead us back into the village. At first it was lovely going, hugging trees on our way down for support, not forgetting to thank them for it, naturally. As expected, we soon hit the bottom part of the tree line, changing into thick undergrowth, in this case thorny bushes.... Slowly making our way through, we came upon a dry waterfall, which wasn't too overgrown, so followed this down for the remaining part. Stumbling over rocks, and nearly twisting an ankle or two, we made it down into the valley from where we walked back into town along a paved road. A fantastic morning, that made our trip to Wutaishan definitely worthwhile.

Very lucky with the weather, soon after coming back into the village clouds gathered again, and the sun disappeared. After a quick lunch it was time to head back to Taiyuan to catch our evening train to Baotou.
A word of advice; getting a bus ticket back to Taiyuan, just get it at the bus station on the day of departure instead of trusting your hotel. We missed our 2 o'clock departure, and instead had to take the last bus out at 3, because the mini bus that was supposed to pick us up from the hotel to take us the 2 kilometres to the station like promised by the hotel, never arrived. The bus left 20 minutes late, like always, and even headed back towards town, after the driver realised he had apparently taken the wrong road (the one we had came from on the way there). Instead we took a lovely road, through narrow valleys, intersected by a small river. On each side, hills changing into proper mountains appeared, showing their colourful lines indicating their different rock layers and with that their old age.
Accompanied by the usual loud and annoying game show on the TV in the front, we got back into Taiyuan at around 7. Some of us were not hungry, so we decided to head back to the good old Defence hotel for beers, with the ones that were hungry grabbing a burger across the road.

The train departed nicely on time, just after 10, and thanks to the cooperation of two nice Chinese fellow travellers, we were able to share one soft sleeper compartment with the four of us. (they had given us tickets in two separate compartments of course) The train ride went smoothly, and I slept quite soundly actually. Although it was one of the infamous'green' trains, the oldest and slowest ones available of all trains in China, this one was really nice. Some woodwork, and constantly being cleaned (even the toilets were smell free!) and a lovely woman in the dining car that took care of all our needs and urged us to eat in time (yes, mother), our trip soon came to an end with the 11:20 arrival in Baotou.
A successful trip indeed!

Here's a fantastic interactive website if you're interested: Wutaishan

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Photos

Monk carrying a wooden pole
used for carrying stuff up and down the hill to the temple

Taihuai town
with snowy peaks in the background

One of many little shops in the village
There were quite a few other 'monopolies' around as well

"The key to my heart"
Here you can 'lock' your love for somebody for ever and ever...

Comments

[maarten]

hey hey, how maak jij doe 180 graden panorama's ? bewerk je die op je laptop of doet travelblog dat automatisch