It’s Been Awhile

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Good Evening (Morning)!

I recently noticed that we have been posting our explorations on facebook more than my travel blog (So I am going to back track as well).

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This week we are on National Holiday Break. In the Republic of China, the autumn harvest moon is celebrated on the Full Moon of the Eighth Lunar Month. That happened to be last Monday. Consequently, the moon doesn’t like to always be accurate, so they made the first week of October the National Week.



So What Does That Mean For Us?

That means, a full week off to do absolutely whatever we want. No work (HOORAY!)

I’m sorry. I’m giving this explanation after the first Day of National Week when we went to Dafen Oil Painting Village. (See that thread, I will post that later. Cause today was so awesome).



I woke Blake up early this morning (and he didn’t even grumble!) and we headed to Huaxing Temple and

We started our lovely public transit trek 51 miles away to Huaxing Temple in the OCT East. 2 buses and 2 metro lines later, we were at the base of a mountain with a Theme Park (OCT East). After some frustrating negotiations about Cash vs. Phone App...we were boarding a tan van with some guy destroying his transmission thanks to his (lack of) skill of manual engines. I have never thought I was going to die, but this wanna - be Disneyland driver was wrecking my nerves .... TIC (this is China).



All this jerking around...and mis-translations and we were on the wrong bus, going around the wrong part of the mountain. I mean, can a girl catch a break?



We get on another tan bus with equally terrible driver (insert jokes about Asians and driving here) ...and this guy finally takes us to a busy parking lot with stairs, over 1000 if anyone is counting.

Thanks to my adrenal fatigue and needing to keep my heart rate under 130, it took us roughly 15 minutes to get to the base of the monastery. Yep. The base. That means more stairs (260 more to be exact) To get to our awesome Guanyin Seated On Lotus



Guanyin Seated On Lotus is 23.3m tall and is constructed out of gold copper and has four faces:

~Arya-avalo Kitesvara in the South (faces beautiful empty villas, similar to what you’d see at ski resorts)

~Songsi Avalokitesvara in the North (faces a city of sorts, DaMeisha we think)

~Bodhisattya Padmapani in the West (facing OCT-East, a theme park that resembles an Asian Dollywood)

~Shijianzun Avalokitesvara in the East (facing a gorgeous 18-hole golf course called Wind Valley)



The sculpture surrounding the Guanyin Seated on Lotus brings together Buddhism and is to relieve bitterness and stress. I mean, stress was definitely relieved when I got to the top. Huaxing Temple currently houses monks, and in one of the shops we saw a female who had taken a vow of silence (what’s a female monk? I literally had to look that up. It’s a nun. Like Catholicism).

While Blake and I aren’t Buddhists, nor have desires to convert, going to all of these Giant Buddhas are neat. We were the only foreigners there, which isn’t abnormal any longer But we have noticed That most westerners do not frequent the Asian tourist spots. We have found that we love them! Lunch was taken to the top: Water, cherry tomatoes, Gouda, plums, and baby carrots.

We then decided it was close enough to hit a popular beach spot: DaMeisha Park but once we got to the bottom of the mountain, we quickly found that the beach was closed until next year thanks to Typhoon Mangkhut from earlier in the month. Super sad face because it was hot, the sand was white, and the water was Cerulean Blue.

16,000 steps later, we were home. Exhausted. And once dinner was cooked, showers were taken, and we curled up in bed to watch TV. Tomorrow is a relaxed day but we are going to be exploring closer to home. Stay Tuned!

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