For the past four days, my program participants and I traveled to Shandong province, visited the Dai Buddhist Temple, climbed Mount Taishan, and stopped by Confucius's tomb at Kong Li. The Mount Taishan adventure was particularly cool; not only was the view from every direction breathaking and the temple complexes built onto the top of the mountain really cool (they are pictured on the back of the 5 RMB bill), but many of us opted to climb the stone staircase to the top of the mountain to earn the view (as opposed to taking the cowardly cable car up). The 7,500-step, 2-hour journey provided validating proof of the comically-long-stone-staircase-to-Asian-mountaintop-temple stereotype. Also, we got to get up ludicrously early to witness the sunrise from atop Taishan.
Of course, all of this adventuring also meant a fair amount of time spent on a charter bus. Rest stops allowed us to encounter such roadside delicasies as Dog Jerky and Fascist Plums (judging by the characters on the package, mistranslated from "French Plums"). While street vendors still try to catch our attention by yelling over and over "Hallo!" and "Coca Cola," my bargaining skills in Chinese have improved. One vendor walked up to me brandishing a bottle of water, asking for two RMB. I stopped walking, stared him in the eye, and firmly replied, "One." He blinked for a moment and relented. Victory was indeed mine.
The pictures that follow are 1) Part of the Dai Temple complex, honoring the Goddess of Mount Taishan, 2) the staircase we climbed up Mount Taishan, 3) Part of the temple complex on top of the mountain, 4) me in front of the sunrise atop Mount Taishan, and 5) Dog Jerky.
2 comments:
now, are we sure dog jerky isn't something like baggin strips harry? in seriousness though, i still think you overpaid for that bottle of water... if you had stuck with it you might have gotten it for .50 RMB
hope you can still breathe without medical support
Wow! Wow! Or should I say bow wow?! Hoping you did not feel the latest earthquake!
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