黄山 Huang Shan Yellow Mountain

Not sure why it is the yellow mountain unless it refers to the dead grass in winter, because most of the rocks are pinkish granite from their high feldspar levels.

This last weekend I went to Huang Shan. Probably the most famous mountain in china. It is often referred to in classical Chinese poetry and often depicted in Chinese classical painting. It is a collection of granite domes in southern china. When people talk about going to Huang Shan they talk about ‘climbing’ the mountain. This actually either means climbing the concrete steps that serve as a path or riding the cable car to the top.

Unfortunately for our visit it was rather foggy and it was difficult to see much. Nevertheless it was a good time. There were actually very few people actually climbing the steps. 20-30 at most were stair climbing. The rest of the people in the 100’s rode the cable car to the top and it is the low season.

Crazy Observatory at the top




Fellow stair climbers, they may or may not be sore from the quantity of stairs.

Awesome mud
From a temple near the mountain
Cool Bugs found on the way

Tomorrow I am going to serve as an extra with about 500 american looking people for the shooting of a movie called Kite Runner. Don’t know much about it expect I might get a minimal payment and food maybe catered by a Canadian company. The scene is supposed to be set in sanfran in summer so I am to wear summer clothing with a jacket that I can take off when they are shooting.

癸街

Another week of class done. Another weekend gone. Only a few left.

This weekend I started out by a nice all you can eat buffet at noon on Friday. Lots of seafood and fruit, it was great. Then we went to a park, only to find that it had closed early...apparently a winter thing. Still wanted to stroll around so walked for an hour south to Tiananmen square. It got dark just as we arrived, but we still walked around.

Then we got on a bus for a while…then on another bus for a while, an hour or so later we ended up on a street full of restaurants, met some friends and went to a restaurant. Turned out to great, fantastic Chinese food. By far the best meal I have had in china so far.

Afterwards went and tried the night life again, and it wasn’t so bad this time. Heard a Spanish guy play a guitar.

Saturday I went to a Internship Networking Tea…a required attendance for my internship class. It was not so interesting. A few awkward employers looking for interns for next semester.

Afterwards a friend told me about a MEAT restaurant..lots of BBQ and I went with some different people to go eat..turned out to be the same street I was at the night before. Excellent food again. Afterwards, I tried the nightlife again and it was even better than Friday night.

Thank you, China

China unblocked wikipedia, yeah! I can read about stuff agian.
China blocked blogspot. Boo! I cant read blogs, even my own anymore..but i can still post and read comments.

enjoy

潘家市场和故宫

This weekend I went on a shopping spree with some professional shoppers. I didn’t buy anything. I did meet some lawyers from LA who were on vacation. I looked at lots of old stuff possibly antiques or more likely old dirty reproductions. Afterwards I went to a clothing market by myself. I hadn’t been to this particular one before, and it was packed I was pretty much shopped out so I didn’t buy anything, but I will probably go back and find something warm.

Sunday I went to the famous Forbidden City 故宫. It is big. There are lots of buildings inside the walls, lots of big halls and lots of smaller courtyard type arrangements. Most of the buildings have been gutted and filled with museum displays. Other buildings were under restoration. Way more people than I ever imagined, both inside and outside in Tiananmen 天安门 square.

佛教 Buddhism

This last weekend I went to Wutai Shan( 五台山) for a little relaxation, learning about Buddhism and mountain climbing.

On the way there we stopped off in a town called Datong (大同) to visit some grottoes. There were lots of Buddhist sculptures and some were even more more impressive than those we visited on the silk road trip. However, 大同 is a big coal city both for production and for use. The sky was black with coal smoke and the sculptures had a significant coating of black soot. Most sculptures were black or dull in color instead of their intended brilliant variety of color.

大同 was depressing.

五台山 was fun. We got to talk with a monk for several hours, learn how to meditate in the proper Zen fashion, or at least learn the very basics of meditation. The monk was insisted that meditation was dangerous and we should find a master to teach us if we wanted to go further. We visited lots of Buddhist temples some were Zen Buddhist and some were Pure Land Buddhist.

The planned mountain climb turned out to a be pleasant walk down a dirt road to a temple situated on the top of bare peak exposed to a bitterly cold and strong wind.

The noodles we got to eat and see prepared were awesome. As was the wassail I prepared the night of the trip departure.