After coming down the top of the mountain yesterday, I took another bus today to the middle of the mountain. It was a different situation today since it is a holiday weekend in China. The bus station was crowded and everything was a lot slower. Buying a ticket meant I had to go through the Chinese style pushing and shoving today. I even woke up early so I’d have a head start, but I was locked in my hotel for a while since it was early!<\/p>\n
I did get on a bus and took it to the middle bus station. Then I walked up to Wannian Temple. It was a lot warmer here compared to yesterday since I was at least 1000m lower today. I was wearing three shirts today, but I only needed one. I walked to the 1000 year old Wannian Temple. I noticed one man just pointed a camera directly at me and took a photo. Kind of funny taking a picture of me just because I’m a foreigner. I noticed the same thing happen to me a week ago near Lijiang too. <\/p>\n
Later I walked to Qingyin Pavilion, famous for two bridges over two deep parallel streams cut through the rock. Then I wanted to walk up the mountain to the most scenic areas. This was unfortunately through the “Monkey Zone.” It was similar to a zoo, but Chinese style with pushing and squeezing your way through the path. In the middle of all this, a monkey was down by my feet clawing on the plastic bag I was carrying. The monkey was grabbing onto it and I was grabbing onto it. It was like a nightmare. The bag tore open and my water bottle fell out of my reach off the path. The monkey left and I was able to move on.<\/p>\n
Once past this area there was virtually no one on the path and I was able to continue in peace (with the exception of some monkeys trying to frighten me). Most people have sticks to scare them away, but I had nothing. When a monkey blocked my path next to the same area, an employee with a stick got him away. And for other monkeys I just walked quickly past.<\/p>\n
Next I had to walk up the mountain, but the water I was saving was all gone. I went on anyway. And I walked up a vertical 400m to Hongchun Terrace. When I got here there was a large group of art university students drawing. By the time I got here I was sweating a lot and needed a rest. Some of the students started talking to me and then asking for photos with me. Then they wanted group photos with me. I was like a celebrity up there! Hongchun was a nice quiet temple right in the middle of the mountains. I figured it won’t get much better than this, so after a while I walked down the mountain to the bus station.<\/p>\n
I notice no cars or buses were moving either direction on the road from the bus station. The road must be blocked somehow and I don’t think it is a good situation waiting around here as more and more people fill the station. I had three choices: 1. Wait 2. Walk along the main road 3. Walk the high mountain path back. I decided on the crazy choice, going up the mountain and getting back to the town before it got dark. It was 4:00 in the afternoon right now.<\/p>\n
I walked up and up and then down and down. I was almost running down the mountain to get back before dark. On the way back I quickly visited some monasteries, including Leiyin and Fuhu (with an impressive hall of 500 arhat statues). In total, about 2.5h to get back that way, but I was sure tired after these two days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After coming down the top of the mountain yesterday, I took another bus today to the middle of the mountain. It was a different situation today since it is a holiday weekend in China. The bus station was crowded and everything was a lot slower. Buying a ticket meant I had to go through the … <\/p>\n