A Successful Day of Pagoda Hunting

I didn't have a coffee all day yesterday.  Instead I started out the day with a green tea (actually 2) so I thought there might be a chance I could kick my coffee habit for the rest of my China holiday.  Well guess again.  I went for a walk around Dengfeng this morning, and what did I happen to run across?

"Coffee Talk" - now what was I to do?  Someone went to all the trouble to setup a coffee shop in the middle of nowhere (essentially) and I happen to stumble across it.  Well of course I went in (I think I gave the barrista a shock that she had an actual customer) and ordered a "na tie".  It was "feichang hao he!" and even came with a small plate of strawberries.

So much for kicking my habit.  Oh well I AM on holiday.

I have more pics of Dengfeng but I'll save them for later, when I've done a more complete inventory of the town.  Suffice to say it's a "thumbs up" place to visit.  (Except for the life of me I can't find anyone who sells post cards!  You post card people may have to wait until I get to Xi'An next week.)

In the afternoon I went pagoda hunting.  I paid another 50 RMB and set off in search of the elusive Songyue Pagoda (actually 嵩岳寺塔 - "song yue si ta" - Songyue Temple and Pagoda).  This time I let a cabbie take me up to the temple for "shi kuai" (yes I know it's a rip off).  I took a look at the temple (法王寺 - "fa wang si") and then set out on the trail the cabbie pointed me at:

What's this?  I never saw a pagoda in the temple!  Maybe the trail leads to it ...

No such luck!  The trail just lead to another summit.  I didn't bother climbing all the way (plus I ran out of water) so I returned to the temple to see if I could track down the pagoda!

Going through the temple was like peeling back the layers of an onion.  Every time I thought I'd reached the end I'd peek around a corner and find another set of stairs, another temple, another Buddha.  Until I got to the end, and found a large reclining Buddha, "in the position he was in when he expired."

Up the stairs to the first temple ...

Behind it another one ...

... and another ...

The famous reclining Buddha seems to be in the final temple.  Still no pagoda.  But wait, I found a trail out back of the last temple, leading to a set of stairs along the rear temple wall.  By this time I was starting to feel like a bit of a sneak, and was starting to prepare my excuses if someone caught me nosing around.

Found it!  Tucked away in the woods, with several smaller pagodas, it feels good to be at the end of my quest.

But wait!  Now the driver is telling me that for another "shi kuai" (yes I know it's a rip off) he can take me to the Sonyue Pagoda.  Didn't I just see it?  No, apparently what I just saw was some kind of "lesser pagoda".  Songyue Si Ta actually turned out to be a bit of a let down once I found it.

All in all a successful day.  Coffee (I will definitely be back to Coffee Talk) and many pagodas.

Tomorrow I'll continue my inventory of Dengfeng, and hopefully find the elusive "Duck King Beer City" restaurant.  It's on Google teasing me, but I haven't yet been able to find it!

少林寺 (Shao Lin Si, the ancient Shaolin Temple, birthplace of Kung Fu, and biggest disappointment ever)

After my tiring day yesterday hiking to the summit of Junji Peak (and my fruitless search for the Songyue Pagoda) I was all set to take a nice relaxing day off.  However when doing a bit of googling in the AM I met up with a group of young Chinese tourists who invited me along for a "traditional Chinese breakfast" and a trip up to the famous Shaolin Temple.  Well who is going to pass up an invitation like that, eh?

The traditional breakfast consisted of 豆浆 (dou jiang - soybean milk), 包子 (bao zi - buns with meat and veggie filling) and 油条 (you tiao - deep fried dough):

I actually recognized the names of these dishes from my online Chinese lessons!  Valarie is going to be pleased to hear that when I have my next class.

My Chinese friends gave me their English names - Bonnie, Brian and Melody.  I guess they felt it would be too difficult for me to remember their Chinese names (which is probably true).  So I gave them my Chinese name.

We grabbed a cab to the Shaolin Temple, which is about 10 km outside of Dengfeng.  The temple was full of young kung fu students and tourists, and for the first time since leaving Beijing I saw foreigners other than myself!  In fact I was not even the main center of attention today, these fellows were:

Well I got into the spirit of things and had my picture taken with them as well.  They were from different countries in Africa and when they found out I was from Canada started speaking to me in French.  "Oh I speak a little," I said.  "We're trying to just speak English, though, because we need to practice."  "That's fine with me," I said.

We saw a kung fu show, which I thought was pretty lame.  "What did you think of the show?" Bonnie asked me.  "Oh I thought it was pretty interesting."  "I thought it was awful!"  So much for me trying to be the polite Canadian.

I thought the monestary itself was pretty uninteresting, after awhile all these Chinese temples start to look the same.  "What do you think of the monestary?" Bonnie asked me.  "It's pretty nice."  "I think it's not that interesting.  After awhile all these monestaries and temples start to look the same."  So much for me trying to be the polite Canadian.

The obligatory pose ...

Young kung fu students, hundreds of them.  Apparently all they do all day, every day, is practice kung fu ...

A short walk past the temple, the Pagoda Forest.

They may have thought the temple was "boring" but I've never seen anyone have so much fun taking pictures:

Overall I'd rate the Shaolin Temple as a "can miss" tourist destination.  Other temples and monestaries are much cheaper and more convenient to visit, less crowded, and more interesting.  However it's tough to visit this part of China and NOT visit the place where Shaolin Kung Fu was created over 1500 years ago ...

We stopped for lunch on the way home, at a small local eatery.  (Fun fact - lunch for 4 cost about the same as my coffee the other day.  I really need to kick this coffee habit!)  Here is a pic, some veggies and noodles also showed upon the table a bit later on:

The stuff on the left looked like seaweed, but it tasted really good.  I asked what it was.  "We don't know."  Some local thing.  I forgot to ask what it was called so I won't even be able to order it again, I can't translate "glutinous seaweed looking thing" into Chinese.

I got back to the hotel at about 3:30 and promptly fell asleep for about 4 hours!  Don't know if it was the 2 days of walking or missing my coffee this morning!  Well I've hit all the premier tourist destinations around Dengfeng now, so I can afford to relax for a few days now before I head to Xi'An.  Tomorrow I'm going to stroll around Dengfeng and look for some interesting restaurants ...

Song Shan, China's version of the Grouse Grind (of course it's bigger)

Today I went to the Sonyang Scenic area, which is a park close to my hostel, for a nice relaxing day in the park.  This is where my cab driver dropped me off yesterday, when he was supposed to be taking me to my hotel.  Here's where I wound up instead (which is also where I had a nice breakfast this morning by the way):

Doesn't it look nice?  Who wouldn't want to stumble across a place like this when you're wandering around lost in China.

Of course my day couldn't start (or end) without even a small adventure.  On my way out I asked my hotel if they serve coffee.  "Just sit down and wait awhile," an old Chinese guys said to me.  We sat awhile and then he called someone on his phone.  "Hey there's a laowai waiting for some coffee."  (I don't know that he knew I spoke a little Chinese.)  Anyways I was on holiday so no rush, but after an hour (!) someone finally shows up to serve me a coffee.  I order the "special" which is over 50 RMB, but which turns out to contain a healthy shot of whisky!  NOW I feel like I'm on holidays.

Anyways off I went for a stroll around the park.  I went to the Songyang Academy first, as I'd bought  ticket.  (I also bought a ticket for the Songyue Pagoda, but more about that later.)  It was unremarkable.  I must be becoming jaded because all these buildings are starting to look the same.

Then I set out for the peak.  I had the usual crowd of hangers-on, a group of young students (maybe 15 years old) and the usual collection wanting to take my picture.  I've made the observation that based on age the Chinese will react to a foreigner saying "ni hao" as follows:

   Under 10 - wonder and fright (mostly fright)
   11-25 - thinks foreigners are cool, and especially if you talk a little Chinese (and if they have studied English at all will want to chat to you in English)
   25-49 - non-deterministic - some smile and say hello and others just turn a cold shoulder
   over 50 - just laughs at the thought of a foreigner trying to speak Chinese

At any rate Songyang is home to Junji Peak, the highest peak of the Song Shan range, at a tad under 1500m.  This is also known as the Chinese version of the Grouse Grind (because that's what I've named it).  Judge for yourself:

It took about 2 hours to climb to the peak, and this (above) is what I was looking at pretty much the whole way.  Of course this (below) is the view on the way down:

It was all worth it, because I knew there was a cold beer waiting for me at the bottom.

Rested and refreshed, I went ff in search of the famous Songyue Pagoda.  A cabbie offered to drive me, but I've been burned twice already, so decided to walk.  Big mistake!  The view is nothing like the hike to Junji Peak.

No more being a cheapskate for me.  I must have made a wrong turn, because after another hour of hiking I got to a signpost pointing me back in the direction I just came!  Groan.  Anyways back to the hotel for me, a nap, and maybe I'll try to find the Yongyue Pagoda some other day!