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AlbertaTime
in China #7 - Cangyanshan Temple & Mountain AlbertaTime in China #8 - Tour of Cangyanshan Today's post is going to be about my excursion to see at least a small part of the beautiful Taihang Mountains. I had hoped to see the Guoliang Tunnel in the Taihang Mountains but, as I mentioned, my itinerary prevented that so, as a second Taihang Mountain choice, I picked Mount Cangyan, famous for Buddhist temples and beauty. My photos don't near do justice to the place but I'm so pleased to have visited the Taihang, I'm posting the photos anyways. Mount Cangyan is an arduous climb to the summit, but worth every step. (There is a cable car, but it was not in operation today which disappointed this lazy westerner at first , but now I'm pleased...) Here we go... This isn't an expensive trip if you're already in Shijiazhuang. First, you just have to start early enough to take the 1 RMB (16 cents) bus to the north bus terminal from downtown in time for 8:30, then 40 RMB (about $6.40) for the return tour ticket, then another 1 RMB home...so less than $20. Leave at 8:30, back at the tour depot by 4:30 or so. Here's the tour bus and the very helpful (although non-English speaking) bus tour guide...she's a fun person and doesn't need English to be great at her job.
The base at the Mount Cangyan site is beautiful in its own right. There are some souvenir stalls and such and some places to eat but no one pressures you and most folks bring their own food and drink. Almost from the very start at the base, I was adopted by four very good-natured young students who spoke no English but it hardly stopped us, and also a very helpful Chinese middle school English teacher (not related to the students) who told me later that I was the first non-Chinese person she'd ever spoken with (her English was exceptional but she says it's all from tapes and CDs and such...awesome). >:( The students were happy to be photographed, the teacher was camera-shy and so she declined. My student guides:
And here's some shots of the base...
To give you an idea where we're headed...
No problem...so we start, first here...
...then halfway up the first set of stairs...
to the first landing, with figures of the Chinese zodiac:
I thought someone said this was gonna be tough. :-* Next stop is going to be this arched bridge and bridge hall (from below)...
and here's a close-up of the bridge hall...excellent.
Oh. First, we have to climb these...and they're even longer and steeper than they look, and the dark archway you see is only about 2/3 up the set... :'(
...and here's a view of the bridge arches...from almost there...
...and a shot from behind the bridge hall and bridge, with one of my student guides, just so ya know I didn't steal these photos...and fake the climb ;) ...
...and a sign about the bridge and the hall on the bridge...
And what you see when you look opposite the bridge hall...
Then another much more gentle set of stairs gets us to a viewpoint with these buildings...
...and another gentle set of stairs to viewpoint with this view...
And this view of where we started...
...and the valley...
and this little arch that you walk through to do some more climbing. You'll notice a few steps past the arch...
Yeah... ...they lead to a set of steep, quite long and very rough hewn "stairs" around a ledge with just a metal pipe handrail that scared the $#@&*% of me so much I completely forgot about taking pictures. :o :o :o I nearly quit halfway through...but I was also too scared to turn around, so I kept on going. They lead here...finally...to a large quite open area with this temple where I'm sure lots of folks give thanks for surviving ;D ...
...and this view of a village area...across a gentle little dip...
...and this next temple...
How high are we? Remember when I mentioned the
teacher that was camera-shy? Here she is looking down from a viewpoint at
this level
OK, so now you just climb down and return to the base...some sights along the way in no particular order...
It was a wonderful day, but I decided not to go out for a long walk this evening. Go figure ;) |
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