Wu tang shan

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Wu tang shan, also known as wu dang shan is a famous mountain in the city of Shiyan. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. Wu dang shan is a popular place to engage in the art of internal gongfu and hails the title of being the birthplace of Taijiquan, (Tai Chi) - Master Zhang Sanfeng was inspired to create this style when he witnessed a viper and white crane battling. The sinnuous movements of the viper tired out the crane who thereby abandoned his prospective lunch.
So why
One of my colleagues set the trip up and extended an invitation to me to join her and her two friends on their trek to Wu dang. After a quick scan on the world wide web my interest was piqued and I signed on board.
- So i'm not an avid hip hop fan but find myself preferring the jazzy funk of neo soul. My roots however will forever be entrenched in Hip Hop- Back in the day songs like C.R.E.A.M. - Protect ya neck- Bring da ruckus... were what blasted on our boom box. How could I resist the allure of visiting the very place that influenced the naming of this famed hip hop group? So off I went!!!

The ride to Wudang shan was about 6 hours long by bus-For some reason ever since I arrived in China I cannot sit in a motorized vehicle and stay awake. The minute I sit down in a car/ van/ bus - I pass out - this ride was uneventful - the excited part of me kept wondering when I would see the mountains on the horizon. In a strange way there was no warning, it was like all of a sudden there they were, and even still you didn't get quite the right understanding of just how massive these mountains were.

The base of the mountain was host to a touristy village - promoting the many Gongfu weapons, and other paraphernalia--- 180 rmb later we were on a bus headed up the mountain. This ride took approximately one hour.... but it was on this journey up the mountain that you got a sense of just how enormous and beautiful these mountains were.

We reached our final destination at 7:00 pm - Yuewe hotel.... so what do you do on a mountain when it's pitch black and there's no street lamps to aid you in exploration?? - for once in my adult life I was in bed by 8:30- gearing up plans to make it to the summit of Wudang shan the following morning.


Summit --- heheh I make it sound like it's some challenging trek--- it wasn't. However trying to find the right connecting bus to get to the spot where I could climb to the top... now that was one hell of a challenge.


The weather was pea soup --- but the climb and view were still breath taking!

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Photos

Photo 2
Early morning outside my hotel.

Photo 4
This was inside my hotel - absolutely beautiful!

Photo 11
i'll love you forever ---- or until the man comes along and cuts off our lock.

Photo 12
The soup like fog didn't ruin the view--- on the contrary one felt like they were on top of the world