The Liaoning Province is not a huge tourist destination but one place that the people here are very proud of is Qian Shan (Thousand Mountain) National Park. Altogether it is 125 sq. kilometers, 44 sq. kilometers (about 27 miles) of which is planned for sightseeing. It is a place sacred to both Buddhists and Taoists. They say that, "There is no peak that is not marvelous, no rock that is not precipitous, no temple that is not quaint, nor any place that is not quiet." I'm not so sure I agree with the quiet part but the drone of insects was a welcome change to the sounds of construction and traffic that I usually listen to.
When I arrived at the park, one of the first things I passed was a station with little open-air carts like the things Disneyworld uses to transport people from the parking lots. I was so excited to be in nature, however, that I opted to walk. I was given a map (albeit a rough one) but I chose to mostly ignore it. I was in my element! Tons of places to explore and all of them spectacular! So I wanted to just wander wherever struck my fancy.
I passed a couple of old ladies foraging in the woods. This place, one of the only undeveloped places I've seen, is a source of the more "wild" plants such as herbs for medicines.
I had only been walking for about ten or fifteen minutes when I became aware that I was being followed. The guy wasn't being particularly secretive about following me but when I made it apparent that I had noticed he tried to speak to me but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I called my assistant and let him translate over the phone and he said that because I was a foreigner and I was there alone (and of course the Olympics were cited), this guy was supposed to follow me around for my protection. I was really annoyed by this because it is difficult to be immersed in the grandeur of the mountains and the serenity of nature when someone is tailing you. I told Ricky to tell the guy to go away (in nicer terms) but Ricky said he couldn't.
I lost him soon enough when I veered off the main road onto a side path that began climbing higher and higher. I wasn't sure where I was headed and it turns out I was beginning the climb of my life--up the highest peak in the park. There were stone stairs that I was climbing but don't think it was any easier because of it! The stairs kept getting narrower and narrower and more and more steep. In some places they were no more than four inches wide and probably ten to twelve inches high. Sometimes the stairs were carved into the mountain itself and sometimes they gave up on stairs altogether and simply carved footholds in the rock. I'm not sure how high I climbed but it was definitely challenging and exhilarating. It turns out that there were two ways up the peak and I had taken the more difficult of the two (which I probably would have chosen anyway). When I finally reached the top, the views were absolutely breathtaking. The drama of the rising and falling of the thousand mountains is the kind of landscape China is known for. It was incredible to see the temples perched on the ledges like eagle's nests.
There are over thirteen temple sights in the park and I only got to visit some but the ones that I did see were very impressive. All of them were wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bright paint, murals, carvings, statues, candles, flowers, incense, bells, offerings, and more. People came to the temples to pray and pay respects. The air was filled with the heavy smell of burning incense and some of the incense sticks were so large they looked more like very large fireworks.
After climbing back down from the first mountain, I decided to take the cableway up another one, which again offered some magnificent views. From this location there was a mountain top walk, which I decided to take. It was two miles of stairs. Yes, my knees and my muscles are feeling it today.
I feel like I finally got a chance to see some of what China has to offer so I get some satisfaction out of that. Qian Shan was a breath of fresh air on so many levels. I will be returning to teaching tomorrow but, of course, I don't know what the schedule is!
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Me
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- Audra
- Who am I? No eye-deer! I am a composite of star-stuff trying to celebrate life while exploring her purpose.
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A Way to Save the World
"I would teach every child to read and write, give them access to stories about their potential, their power, their ability to contribute to the world. I would tell them that the future is as infinite as their dreams, and when they don't quite reach it, they are not failing but rehursing. And I would tell them that when their heart is broken, it heals back stronger with each tear. I would ask each child to plant a tree in her or his name and not uproot those that already exist. I would send each child to school and pray that she or he learns, among many other things, to speak even when silence is the law, to cry even when tears are condemned, and to laugh whenever laughter is crucial." --Edwidge Danticat
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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not out darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Nelson Mandela
1 comment:
very beautiful. Talk about exercise though! I probably would have died half way up the first mountain.
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