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I know, I know, more than half a year after my China trip and I still haven't posted all my photos. But give me a break, I completely filled my two-gig memory card during the course of the trip!
Standard warning of extreme image-heaviness applies.
7月27日06年
Three nights of roughing it after our hotel in Chengdu. The first night at a nunnery, the second at a monastery, and now at another monastery, rather larger.
The architecture of all three has been similar-- rectangular buildings with sweeping eaves that ascend up the slope around rectangular courtyards.
Photojournalism: Emei Shan
Emei Shan is a decently large mountain sacred to Buddhism, home to a number of monasteries and temples. Oh, and monkeys. It's also home to monkeys. We spent the bulk of our time there hiking from one place to the other. It was very tiring-- hot and often steep-- but mostly I had a good time. Well, except for one day, where I was in a great deal of pain for certain reasons. But overall, not bad.
Actually I have no pictures of the monkeys, interesting though they were; I decided that I would simply beg pictures off of the other people I was traveling with, but as I'm out of contact with most of those people, no pictures.
This is the first place we stayed, a fairly small nunnery a little off the beaten track. This is one of the main courtyards.
I found it to be quite charming, though difficult to take good pictures of.
Incense burning in one of the censers.
The entire mountain was lushly forested and sparsely populated.
The cablecar/ski lift that took us the first part of the mountain to a truly stunning view.
And at the top, this monumental golden statue.
Looking back the way we came, these elephants carrying Buddhist symbols lined the steps.
The statues was really very cool.
Attempting to capture it's true color.
A typical picture of Jo, our tour leader.
The temple buildings behind the statue were also painted gold.
They were very ornate and detailed.
The statue as seen from the other side of the temple building . . . I mentioned that it was huge, right?
The view was absolutely astounding. We were well above the clouds, which were rising on updrafts from below us.
Looking back at the statue. In the very far distance, so far that it was hard to tell if they were clouds or not, you could see some of the peaks of the Himalayas.
I attempted to get a picture of the distant mountains, with severely limited amounts of success.
More temple detail.
Going down the other side of the temple . . . I thought it looked like the statue was sitting on the roof.
There was another temple building close by, but the way to walk over was blocked off. Clouds kept coming up in wisps and curls to obscure the view, it was breathtaking.
The statues actually had a room in its base that you could go in and circumambulate, as per Buddhist tradition.
Insence sticks burning before the statue.
After that it was back down the cablecar, and the rest of the afternoon was spent hiking along trails through dense forest. This was a pavilion we encountered along the way, on the tiny promitory between two rivers.
Details thereof:
Supposedly the two rivers are two dragons. They were great martial artists, and used to play with this rock in order to refine their skills. The pack and walking stick next it it are of course mine.
The story of the two dragons has a sad ending: one of the dragons fell in love with a human man and became human herself so that she could stay with him. There was a mistake of some kind, however, and she was killed. Her sister-dragon came for revenge, but was defeated: some say that she died, others that she escaped back into the mountains and continued to train until she would be strong enough to avenge her sister's death.
Melons cooling in a pool of water.
The bridge at the base of the final, torturous ascent to our next resting place.
The signboard for the nunnery we stayed at that night.
This is the enterance courtyard. There were many plants and two small pools. A monk had picked up a large, bright green cricket from within the courtyard. The insect was missing a leg, and he showed it to a young girl as it climbed over his hand, speaking seriously all the while. He then went and carefully put the insect on one of the small bonzai trees that sat at the edge of the courtyard.
The main courtyard.
The painting in front of the main worship hall was so beautiful it seemed to glow.
This is an ornate lantern kept inside the monastery.
I was in too much pain to take many pictures the next day, and the day itself was marked by unpleasant experiences: a child pulling off insects' legs and impaling them on sticks to make fans, a monkey badly wounded with a flap of skin hanging off it's arm, mosquitoes and mosquito bites a constant annoyance, other unpleasantries. There were good things, too, though . . . two young monkeys playing a game of tag ran around my feet, one of them grasping my walking stick in his small hand as he waited to see which way his companion would go. I've never been so close to a purely wild animal before, one that was entirely without fear. It was surreal.
And this field of tea bushes somehow made all the unpleasantness worthwhile.
The monastery at the bottom of the mountain, where we stayed the final night, was the largest and most ornate. This is the front gate.
A pavilion inside.
The gardens were also quite lovely.
One of the many interlocking courtyards.
One of the back courtyards.
Perhaps the best thing about the monastary was that it had a fairly large cat population. Numerous shy kittens were darting here and there, playing in the hallways and skulking along the edges of the courtyards. I couldn't catch pictures of them, since they were fairly shy, but one consented to bat at the dangling strings of my camera bag in a fierce and predatory and entirely adorable manner.
A doorway entirely made of carved, lacquered wood.
Stairs to one of the outer buildings.
A pattern of potted plants.
Graffitti in my room.
And after a morning spent swimming in my clothes at an under-construction (and thus cheaper than usual!) government spa, we were off to Xi'an.
Standard warning of extreme image-heaviness applies.
7月27日06年
Three nights of roughing it after our hotel in Chengdu. The first night at a nunnery, the second at a monastery, and now at another monastery, rather larger.
The architecture of all three has been similar-- rectangular buildings with sweeping eaves that ascend up the slope around rectangular courtyards.
Photojournalism: Emei Shan
Emei Shan is a decently large mountain sacred to Buddhism, home to a number of monasteries and temples. Oh, and monkeys. It's also home to monkeys. We spent the bulk of our time there hiking from one place to the other. It was very tiring-- hot and often steep-- but mostly I had a good time. Well, except for one day, where I was in a great deal of pain for certain reasons. But overall, not bad.
Actually I have no pictures of the monkeys, interesting though they were; I decided that I would simply beg pictures off of the other people I was traveling with, but as I'm out of contact with most of those people, no pictures.
This is the first place we stayed, a fairly small nunnery a little off the beaten track. This is one of the main courtyards.
I found it to be quite charming, though difficult to take good pictures of.
Incense burning in one of the censers.
The entire mountain was lushly forested and sparsely populated.
The cablecar/ski lift that took us the first part of the mountain to a truly stunning view.
And at the top, this monumental golden statue.
Looking back the way we came, these elephants carrying Buddhist symbols lined the steps.
The statues was really very cool.
Attempting to capture it's true color.
A typical picture of Jo, our tour leader.
The temple buildings behind the statue were also painted gold.
They were very ornate and detailed.
The statue as seen from the other side of the temple building . . . I mentioned that it was huge, right?
The view was absolutely astounding. We were well above the clouds, which were rising on updrafts from below us.
Looking back at the statue. In the very far distance, so far that it was hard to tell if they were clouds or not, you could see some of the peaks of the Himalayas.
I attempted to get a picture of the distant mountains, with severely limited amounts of success.
More temple detail.
Going down the other side of the temple . . . I thought it looked like the statue was sitting on the roof.
There was another temple building close by, but the way to walk over was blocked off. Clouds kept coming up in wisps and curls to obscure the view, it was breathtaking.
The statues actually had a room in its base that you could go in and circumambulate, as per Buddhist tradition.
Insence sticks burning before the statue.
After that it was back down the cablecar, and the rest of the afternoon was spent hiking along trails through dense forest. This was a pavilion we encountered along the way, on the tiny promitory between two rivers.
Details thereof:
Supposedly the two rivers are two dragons. They were great martial artists, and used to play with this rock in order to refine their skills. The pack and walking stick next it it are of course mine.
The story of the two dragons has a sad ending: one of the dragons fell in love with a human man and became human herself so that she could stay with him. There was a mistake of some kind, however, and she was killed. Her sister-dragon came for revenge, but was defeated: some say that she died, others that she escaped back into the mountains and continued to train until she would be strong enough to avenge her sister's death.
Melons cooling in a pool of water.
The bridge at the base of the final, torturous ascent to our next resting place.
The signboard for the nunnery we stayed at that night.
This is the enterance courtyard. There were many plants and two small pools. A monk had picked up a large, bright green cricket from within the courtyard. The insect was missing a leg, and he showed it to a young girl as it climbed over his hand, speaking seriously all the while. He then went and carefully put the insect on one of the small bonzai trees that sat at the edge of the courtyard.
The main courtyard.
The painting in front of the main worship hall was so beautiful it seemed to glow.
This is an ornate lantern kept inside the monastery.
I was in too much pain to take many pictures the next day, and the day itself was marked by unpleasant experiences: a child pulling off insects' legs and impaling them on sticks to make fans, a monkey badly wounded with a flap of skin hanging off it's arm, mosquitoes and mosquito bites a constant annoyance, other unpleasantries. There were good things, too, though . . . two young monkeys playing a game of tag ran around my feet, one of them grasping my walking stick in his small hand as he waited to see which way his companion would go. I've never been so close to a purely wild animal before, one that was entirely without fear. It was surreal.
And this field of tea bushes somehow made all the unpleasantness worthwhile.
The monastery at the bottom of the mountain, where we stayed the final night, was the largest and most ornate. This is the front gate.
A pavilion inside.
The gardens were also quite lovely.
One of the many interlocking courtyards.
One of the back courtyards.
Perhaps the best thing about the monastary was that it had a fairly large cat population. Numerous shy kittens were darting here and there, playing in the hallways and skulking along the edges of the courtyards. I couldn't catch pictures of them, since they were fairly shy, but one consented to bat at the dangling strings of my camera bag in a fierce and predatory and entirely adorable manner.
A doorway entirely made of carved, lacquered wood.
Stairs to one of the outer buildings.
A pattern of potted plants.
Graffitti in my room.
And after a morning spent swimming in my clothes at an under-construction (and thus cheaper than usual!) government spa, we were off to Xi'an.
