China 2011-2012

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I'm going to be happy about the pictures I took. And not worry about the shots I missed.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I’d visited the Buddhist Temple. I stopped at the Confucian Academy. It was time to hit up the Daoists and see what they had going on in their temple.

There was no sign of Henry as I made my down to the curb on a chilly and foggy New Year’s day. The weather report had called for clear skies, but what do weather men anywhere know about the weather?

I had gotten better at my routine for hailing a cab and telling the driver where I wanted to go. I gave them my Yao Choo Zhonyue (Yao Choo courtesy of Mr. Ching). Pointing at the tourist map I have seems to be the most useful. I also need to cross reference it to the pamphlet I have to make sure I’m pointing at the right picture on the map. Originally I was thinking Zhongyue was north of town. Picture to map comparison showed it was actually east.

The fog seemed to be getting a tad thicker as I stood at the ticket window for Zhongyue. Firecrackers exploding echoed to me from the grounds. In front of the temple, vendors had tables set with what seemed to be large fireworks. They sold these long gold tubes with wood bases on them. They looked like either roman candles or bottle rockets. Using my vast intellect combined with the sounds of explosions, I deduced that people were coming to Zhongyue to light off fireworks to celebrate the New Year. This was going to be awesome.

As I made my way up the stairs into the first courtyard, I noticed a family carrying bunches of these candle rocket things. I decided to follow them to the fireworks field.

First stop was a pavilion, complete with Daoist priest and altar. He had some incense sticks to burn for 30 yuan. That was outrageous. I wasn’t go to pay that. I also noticed these thick incense sticks looked just like the larger roman candle rockets things. When I looked at the altar in front of the pavilion, I could see several of these huge sticks burning. The sticks weren’t fireworks, just really big incense. No fireworks for Greg. But I still heard the occasional sound of firecrackers going off and I swore I saw bricks of firecrackers in some my new families’s bags.

Beyond the first pavilion, are four giant statues of what are known as the iron men. If I checked my pictures I could tell you why they are called the iron men and what they do, but I’m busy writing. Suffice it to say, there were plates in front of the statues for offerings. And my new family seemed very intent on hugging one statue in particular and rubbing it’s belly as well as taking pictures with it.

As I wandered around doing my picture video routine, a woman came up and thrust some incense sticks into my hand. Before I knew it, I’m bowing at this little pavilion in the center of the four statues. The woman has taken my camera to take a picture of me in the act. Then I’m putting my lit sticks in the brazier near the pavilion. Yet another round of offerings in Mr. Ching’s name.

I knew what came next. I pulled out my wallet. I’m sure they said these sticks were thirty Yuan, too. But the Daoist priest manning the bowl, gave me back ten from my fifty and offered me that screw you foreigner smile. The priest did hit the gong when he took the offerings. I’m sure that made it all worthwhile.

There were some more ancient Stele in the fields on either side of the path. I visited them. When I returned, another vendor thrust two red envelopes with gold plastic rectangles in them into my hands. I reached for my wallet. They said twenty. I gave them a ten and my screw you Chi-com priest smile before walking away.

I followed my family hoping for big explosions. People asked me to take their picture with them which is an ongoing experience. I gave out Nei Hao’s to the people who stared at me. This got me Nei Hao’s in response and a lot of laughter. Look, Sang Yin, the upright bear speaks!

There were some nice big guardian statues on either side of the next gate. It’s amazing the detail that goes into these fifteen feet tall pieces. I’m not sure everyone realized that under each statue is another smaller statue. Under the one that was on the right, was a lizard peaking out from under the skirt. Opposite him under the other giant, was a man dressed in black looking around. I’m sure it’s all very symbolic and if I could ask, I would get a great story.

I finally made it to the top pavilion. I was operating under the no pictures in the pavilions mode because I’d been rebuffed when I had tried. Which was sad because that upper pavilion was quite beautiful. Plates were in the doorway on a little table. The plates were piled high with cakes and fruits and candies. People kept coming up and throwing more food on the plate.

While I watched one of the priests went into the back room and returned with a large red tub. He took the plates and dumped all the food into the tub, making room for more offerings.

In front of the last pavilion, down a small set of stairs, were two large ovens. They stood hot and ready on either side of the stairs. A group of women stood at one of the ovens. They were folding gold and grey pieces of paper into little boat shapes and feeding them into the flames.

My family continued to hang out at the brazier, adamantly refusing to light their firecrackers. I wandered into another hall where I saw an altar in front of an eight foot tall demon or god. I asked this priest who had been watching me as I watched him if I could shoot some pictures. He waved me the go ahead.

Now next to this god statue was another statue. To either side of this statue, like the first statue, were also two smaller attendant statues. As I stepped into the corridor, I noticed there were probably five or six of these each with two attendants. The corridor ended at a corner, like all good corridors do. I walked that way, taking photographs of each of the statues in the dim light. I pulled out the flash to better aid the picture taking.

When I turned the corned, I finally realized the Daoists had taken nutty to a whole new level. The corridor in front of me was really long. I could dimly make out the end of it. Running the entire length of this corridor was statue upon statue. They alternated Demon and God the entire like of this pavilion. My mind boggled at the sight of them. And each demon or god had two attendants. No two statues were alike and they went on and on and on. I wasn’t lugging the tripod (curse you, you fool. Didn’t you carry that damn thing up a mountain?) so I had to make due with overexposures and creative use of the flash.

As I’m taking my shots and going dizzy from the sight of so many statues, I hear drums and gongs going in the courtyard. A lot of them. Something must be happening in the main pavilion.

It turns out, they were holding a full ceremony complete with about ten Priests. Three Main priests were standing in front of the altar while the remaining priest were on either side of them chanting along and hitting drums and other noise makers.

Best of all, two other Chinese photographers were already shooting the ceremony. I figured one more laughing talking bear wouldn’t be noticed. I shot a lot. I mainly stood in the doorway. iI was nice enough not to use my flash, although the other photogs did.

It was also interesting to see the three main priests carrying this curved wooden board. When I did my interview of the Daoists who came to Los Angeles, I was asked to make a similar board for those Priest so they could do a ceremony, I believe, for the Tsunami victims. My board looked nothing like this board.

After awhile I figured I had bagged my limit of photos and decided to move on. As I left the pavillion and entered the forecourt, my New Year’s prayers had been answered. On the ground was the longest string of firecrackers I had ever seen. It had to be fifty feet long and made a big u shape. When that thing went off, I was going to be nearby.

But there was time and a thought had occurred to me in the pavilion as I still contemplated my corridor of statues. The area was built on a square. Directly across from my corridor was a building that looked exactly like it. I found the opening and went in. Sure enough another insanely long corridor full of unique statues.

I had only taken a few pics when I heard the unmistakable sound of firecrackers going off. They had lit the fuse on the mammoth strand. I ran over from the statues to watch and see what it would be like to photograph them going off.

During this entire time that I had been making my way up the temple to the top, the fog had been getting thicker and thicker. When the firecrackers started, I couldn’t see ten feet. Firecrackers, when they go off, while producing a noise pleasing to my twelve year old inner child, also produce a lot of smoke. It’s very hard to focus a camera on smoke, but I tried. The firecrackers didn’t seem like they were ever going to stop exploding. Smoke billowed in the forecourt so much I couldn’t see two feet in front of me. It was glorious, but made for crappy pictures. You win some. You lose some.

I went back to the room and downed my french cakes, salty-sweet rice cakes and some green tea as part of my healthy and nutritious lunch. My plan was to walk to the other end of Dayo street and find the CITS office and see if they could help me get to Longmen on Tuesday. I wanted to travel there to see the grottoes and Buddha statues.

I arrived to find them still closed. Since I had the afternoon free, I walked down to the center of Dengfeng. I wanted to see of I could locate the bank where I had changed money the first day I was in town. Not being able to use credit cards is indeed one giant pain in the ass. Despite Sal’s warning that he couldn’t give me directions to it, I did locate it. And in fine Chinese fashion, it was open on a Sunday. It was open on a Sunday that was also New Year’s day.

I walked into department stores to see what they were like. They sold stuff, Not so different. I did watch a man who was making cheese puffs with some sort of industrial engine on the street corner. His wife was busy sifting and bagging popcorn for sale. I would have bought a bag, but I got a gander at her less than hygienic hands.

On the way back to the hotel, I spotted another building with the ‘Chinese International Travel Service’ logo on the building. Crap. What if I had been going to the wrong one this whole time? And they were open. But the girl did not understand a word I said when I asked for Mr. Ching’s friend, Wang Yan Min. She made phone calls that didn’t help. I finally just left, but it did seem like I had been at the right office the first time.

I was feeling good about my navigational skills going around town. I spotted my river. I knew I just had to turn at the next block and I would be back at my hotel. It was a long block until my turn. The walk to the hotel after I had made the turn seemed to be much steeper than it should be and I was already really exhausted from walking all the way to CITS and the bank from the hotel. Although the journey did let me see a fake Apple store, which are all the rage now in China.

After looking up the hill and knowing I was wrong, I turned back down the hill. I made a left at the bottom and headed towards the river, hoping I would get another turn before I actually reached it.

I did. It was another slog uphill. I kept thinking I should get a Taxi. But I knew if I did, I would get in and the driver would drive me a block to the hotel and then laugh at me. But I eventually saw the big letters and white facade of the Rome Holiday hotel.

I finally reached Sal late after promising to call him at 3. They were still recovering from the night before. Phil had finally arrived. I told them that Shaolin didn’t open until 8 so there wasn’t any point getting there earlier. But Sal made a point of wanting to be there by 7:30. Just to be ready to race to the gate to start doing forms. I said fine.

[Drunk Monk]

Dengfeng is surrounded by Mountains. Really cool mountains. Who knew? It better be fucking clear tomorrow or there will be trouble.

If you had time, I'd send you to find the hanging bridge. It's a monster hike, makes the hike to Tamo cave into a cake walk, but it's awesome.

Looking forward to those photos.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Since, I had to be at the Temple by 7:30, I wasn’t going to get to eat breakfast at the hotel. No purple rice soup and buns for Greg. I stuffed my face with the buns and rice crackers I had lying around the room.

As is the case on this trip, I awoke at 3 and couldn’t return to sleep. One night, I snapped awake, looked at my watch and determined it was 4:30. I got up, showered and shaved and then started Skype to talk to Cindi. She wanted to know why I was up at 1:30 local time. No, it was 4:30 here. But when I looked at my computer clock it confirmed what Cindi said. Later when I checked my watch, it still said 4:30. When I was setting the alarm to make sure I woke up at the right time, I didn’t depress the button, so it had just stayed at 4:30.

The fog wasn’t quite as thick this morning when I arrived at the arrival area for Shaolin. But the wind still blew nice and coldly. I was a couple minutes early, so I wandered around looking at the closed stores, rattling the handle of the locked bathrooms. 7:30 rolled around with no sign of Sal.

He eventually rolled up at ten to eight.

The only people in front of the dragon gate when we arrived were the guards, ticket takers and monks. During the half mile walk from the gate to the temple, I was introduced to Philip, the fourth member of Sal’s quartet. He was planning to stay inside the temple. He also wanted to spend the night in one of the local caves. Feeling how cold it was, I didn’t think spending the night in a rock cave was not all that appealing.

To the amusement of all, I stripped off my outer layers, so I could do another self-portrait. This time I was wearing my Master Tu school t-shirt. Two visiting monks asked me to take their pictures. One of the guys was huge. He had studied at the Temple but had since left. Sal seemed to think the one monk had appeared in KFM. The beads on his bracelet were the size of golf balls.

Then I video taped Sal and the girls doing forms and weapons sets in front of the dragon gate. Sal’s stuff looked pretty good and so did Patty’s . But I think Natasha was too new to the routines because she made mistakes.

Tourists with their guides started to show up at this time. But they were very nice about allowing us to film. None of them walked into the shots to get their pictures taken. They even applauded the routines. The monks looked on amused.

The monks at the gate stopped me from bringing the big camera into the temple. At first they wanted to confiscate it completely, but settled on taking just the battery. Naturally, I had an extra battery in my backpack. But I abided by the wishes of the monk guards and elected not to use it.

Being honorable, was a poor decision, because I wasn’t in the temple more than ten minutes before I noticed the buttons on the back of the still camera weren’t working. I couldn’t get the preview to work. I couldn’t record video. Nothing. The only thing that might have been working was the picture taking part of the camera. I couldn’t be sure because the photo preview button wasn’t working. All I knew was when I clicked the shutter, the number of pictures left to take number on the screen counted down.

Patty and Sal’s cameras continued to work so I helped shoot with those. Admirers followed us and wanted to take pictures with the martial artists. The head of the warrior monks was there and he reluctantly took pictures with us, too.

One of the monks who trained with Sal at his Sifu’s school met up with us. He offered Sal and company critiques about their performances. We then followed him to the Zen tea shop next door to the main temple.

On the way out, my battery was returned.

The monk running the tea shop joined us and treated us to free tea. I tried to use the warmth of the tea to thaw my frozen camera. At least I hope it was frozen. I considered this might be a holdover from the camera’s crash to the ground at Taguo.

We heard music coming from the courtyard behind the tea shop. Brother monk said a performance was starting. The group immediately raced over there, using the seniority of the Brother Monk to get us beyond the guards. I was now back in the temple with the big camera and it’s battery.

Wooden benches had been set up close to a small stage in front of a tower. Audience members already filled some of the seats, but there was still plenty of room for us in this intimate setting. You could see the monks warming up to the side. I noticed one of the monks warming up with a Monk’s spade. I had read about this form in KFM and couldn’t wait to film it. At least I think it was the Monk’s spade.

The demonstration seemed to be pretty standard fare with a few exceptions. The group did an abbreviated Yi Jin Jing. A young boy came out and did some Tongzigong. He had a few moves I didn’t recognize and plenty that I did. There were some forms. There was some weapons including the Spade, which seemed very short. The monk also seemed a little blasé about doing it.

They did the nail through glass. One monk did the iron head demo by breaking a bar over his head. Then another young boy came out to do head rolls and he was fantastic. The best thing he did was to stand up on one leg and kick the other leg into a hold position behind his head. He didn’t pull it up there, he kicked it there. I was thankful I had the camera rolling.

They also did a fight set between staff and sword that was very good. Really fast. The blows and blocks were tight to the body. I should be filming more of that.
By this point, the back of my camera had thawed, so I could actually check that my camera was indeed working. All the stills I had been shooting were in the camera. Plus, I got to take stills of the demo. I also took photos of the people in the audience taking photos of me.

Brother Monk went with us to the pagoda forest. We found a spot in the back near some of the oldest pagodas and the unknown pagoda which celebrates all monks not just the famous abbots.

It was a good spot. Few tourists interrupted us by walking into the shots. Most just wanted to see what we were doing. The sun shined to help light the scene.

Patty discovered that she had left her shoes behind. We couldn’t film the three of them doing routines as Natasha and Patty had to share shoes. Some of the footage looked great, but again there was a glaring weakness. Brother monk offered tips on better routines.

Brother monk offered to take us to lunch at a local restaurant. I was a bit confused, because the only restaurant I had seen was the tea garden.

During the course of my trip, I had yet to stop for lunch. There wasn’t enough light in the day for me to take breaks. I was on vacation to see things. I could always eat when I got back to the United States.

However I bowed to the groups wishes and followed them to lunch.

A van picked us up next to the 500 Buddha hall across the bridge from the Dragon Gate. A road led up into the hills that I hadn’t noticed before. Up in this little canyon, high above the temple, were dozens of boxy houses and shops.

We stopped at this little restaurant. The Women in charge led us into a dingy poorly lit room. The table was covered with a thin plastic sheet. She gave us little tiny plates and plastic cups. She then brought us a hundred year old aluminum tea pot. The tea tasted more like warm water than actual tea.

Brother Monk ordered for the table. In case you don’t know, I am not an adventurous eater. I know the foods I like and stick to them. The thought of just eating whatever was put before me gives me the willies.

I ate to be polite. I concentrated on the dishes were I could see meat. Yes, dammit, I cherry picked. But it was very good. Much like in the states, they had brought bowls of rice to heap our food on.

In the second round of three dishes, Brother Monk explained to us there was a famous dish called ‘Ants climbing Trees’. So, famous in fact that I had actually made the dish from a Chinese cook book years ago. This dish was far superior. I helped myself to most of it. It’s basically spicy bits of pork and long thin clear noodles. Thinking about it makes me want more of it. I really need to go eat breakfast. But I digress.

After we ate, Brother Monk led us to a shop next to the restaurant. It was a supply shop that sold Feiyue shoes. Patty was able to replace her missing pair for a whopping 24 Yuan. Or about 4 bucks.

One of the sights that had been recommended that I see and hadn’t was the nunnery near the temple. Eventually, Brother Monk figured out where I was talking about. that was supposed to be our next stop on our itinerary.

Instead we went up these steep stone stairs to the top of a dirt mound to the west of the temple. There were two leafless trees and plenty of broken concrete. We were surrounded by a thicket of bare branches. If I was going to choose a scenic location to film, this would not be it. I mentioned the spot didn’t seem very evocative of China. I was told by Sal it was a very famous spot where they shot a lot Shaolin instructional DVD’s. To top if off, Sal wanted to shoot a twelve form set using my camera and Patty’s. It seemed like a big ego stroke.

I was not enthused by the location or what I was filming. I was also very conscious that it was getting late in the day. The Sun sets at 4:30 in this part of China. I felt we were wasting time here when we could be filming in more scenic locations.

We also spent a lot of time getting Phil to find us. Sal wanted him in the demos, too. Phil was busy arranging to stay in the Temple. He already had gotten permission from the abbot when he spoke to him earlier. I tried to get them to bring me to the Abbot’s office, but I was looked at like I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Let’s just say I didn’t film all the twelve forms of the set like I was supposed to. If there was point to care even less, I would have. The capper was Natasha asking me to tape her doing the Wu Bu Quan. Ha! This is the basic form that is the heart of the Zombie movie I was making in the United States.

Eventually we moved on up the trail to the Nunnery. There were more stairs. Would it kill these people to put in an escalator? Would it kill me to lose some weight and get in shape? Probably.

There was still some sunlight entering the canyon when we arrived. There were three stone ledge leading up to the gate, along with more stairs. Sal was in his get busy mood. I was in my catch my breath while I wandered around mode. I told them to take a break while I recovered.

One of the reasons to come to this temple was you were supposed to be able to see Damo’s statue from it and the trail to his cave. Sure,enough you could. You could also see the exceptional set of stairs leading up to the cave. The pros and cons of attempting the climb today warred in my head. I really felt the trip to China wouldn’t be complete without visiting that cave. I also didn’t want to have my pre-50 coronary.
The kids were getting antsy by the time I came back down the stairs. We did some more filming of forms and weapons. It could have looked better, but oh well. We even got Phil to do some stuff.

Afterwards, I explored the grounds of the nunnery. I irritated some dogs back in the living quarters of the nuns. I’m thinking they don’t speak English, either. I lit more incense for Mr. Ching with the help of one of the nuns. The wind was blowing so hard it kept extinguishing the candle I was using to light the sticks. But I eventually got it done. I even got to put it right on the altar instead of in the brazier outside.

Sal and the girls were filming their own little fight scene film when I came back. I sat at the top of the steps and watched Sal in action as a director. During a break in their filming, I snuck back up the trail to see what was behind the Nunnery. I got a really clear view of the statue on the hill and the stairs. It didn’t seem like it was all that far away. But those stairs continued to cast a shadow over my heart.

As we walked back down to the entrance of Shaolin, I told Sal and the girls about my plan to go to Longmen grottos on Tuesday. In my manipulative mind, I thought if I could get Sal to go maybe he could find a way to get us there. I’d been calling and emailing Mr. Ching’s travel agent but hadn’t received any response. I really wanted to go and was willing to make a deal.

Sal and company thought it sounded fun and decided to go to Longmen, too. He was sure his landlady at the hostel could help us get there. This would be the same landlady that invited us to the martial arts demonstration that turned out to be a song and dance festival.

Since Sal’s compact flash card reader had died, he opted to come over to my hotel room to use mine. My paranoid mind proposed it was also an opportunity for himto get the footage I had shot on his computer.

We solidified the plans to go to Longmen which is just this side on Langyou about thirty miles east of Dengfeng. His landlady had indeed known the buses to get there, but it was going to be a little tricky. We would have to take a bus to a taxi to get there. As we Skyped later, we set the departure time for 6:40am

Another day of the bitter and the sweet.

[Drunk Monk]

chi ku - cherrr (rhymes with myrrh as in gifts of the magi - not to be confused with gifts of the maggi, which are banned in most countries and will get you 10 years at the gulag in the PRC easily) kooo

eat bitter

It's really the first lesson any China traveler gets. Here in America, they often add 'to taste the sweet' to the end, but back in China, it's often just chi ku.

Can't believe y'all went to Longmen by bus. That's just crazy bitter. Don't tip Sal for that.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

That lesson is coming.

If I do tip Sal, it will be from somewhere steep.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Light incense at as many altars as I can for the DM and take pictures in my 'Got Qi' T-Shirt. Today I accomplished both.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

That will make a good author photo on the dust-jacket of your book. What book? The collected travel essays, of course!

[Drunk Monk]

We can certainly use them now.

Is that blue sky behind Tamo? Nice!

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Much as I hate to do it, I have to reference a Steinbeck work. It was the best laid plans of mice and men. It’s like I’m working with Lucy Jr. Only after she pulls the football away from my kick, she punches me in the head.

Louyang is the next big town over from Dengfeng. According to the map, it’s about thirty five miles away. Our destination was the Longmen Grottos which are located 6 miles before you get to Louyang. The plan as such was to take the Louyang bus from Dengfeng and the driver would let us off before we got to Louyang. We then would take a taxi from that nebulous point to the Grotto. This was according to Sal’s singing sensation and hostel owner.

In a strange twist, Sal and company showed up in the taxi at my hotel right on time. I piled into the front seat and we drove to the bus station. It was still quite dark as the sun doesn’t really start heating up in these parts until around 7:30. At the station, Patty bought us a breakfast of raw potato strings wrapped in a flour tortilla. I was originally skeptical of the dish, but it turned out to be quite tasty. I think there might have been some cheese in the middle which kicked it up a little.

In my travels, I usually find out when my particular mode of travel is leaving and show up at the appropriate time. For this trip, I keep getting taken to bus stations with no idea of when buses will be leaving. The plan being the buses are always leaving why not just show up and wait.

When I am on a vacation, I would rather spend my time doing things. I’m probably not going to come back this way again. I might, but just in case I don’t, let’s fill every moment with seeing new things and acquiring new experiences that the country has to offer. Let’s not plan poorly and waste our time sitting, hanging around in some dirty municipal bus facility surrounded by smokers.

The bus left at seven. I tried to get more details about the plan from Sal. I asked him to talk to our driver about when the buses returned from our drop off point. I was told they run all the time and not to worry. I was also told that he hadn’t really figured out how we were going to get back from Longmen.

What?

The great thing about the buses I’ve noticed,in China they seem to stop at random spots for people. We’ll be cruising down the freeway and suddenly we’ll pull over in the middle of a long stretch of nothing to pick somebody up. How did the driver know this person needed a lift?

We also did something I have never seen a bus do in the middle of a journey. We stopped to get gas. I thought we were pulling over to get another stranger when I saw the filling station coming up and the driver started slowing down. But no, he pulled up to the pumps and started topping off the tanks.

This was probably the first really clear day I have had on the journey. And with the skies relatively haze free, I got to see things that had been hiding in the fog during my seven day stay in Dengfeng. For instance there is a giant mountain at the edge of town. It gives a whole new dimension to the town. It’s one of those mountains that rises abruptly from the plane rather than sloping up gradually like the Sierras. I knew there was a holy mountain around from all my reading. But all the fog and haze made me forget that we were supposed to be right next to Songshan. The clear skies finally gave me a view of it.

I was watching the mile markers on the freeway so I could calculate where we should approximately get off the bus. I didn’t want us miss it, extend our trip and go all the way to Louyang.

Signs for the Longmen Grotto Service Area started showing up on the freeway signs. Lot’s of signs in China that I’ve seen have English and Chinese on them by. I was excited to see the 500 meter marker. I was less than excited to see the driver go right past the Longmen Grotto service area. Of all the possible place for us to stop, I would have picked that one.

The area we drove through became more and more populated. Highrises were visible on either side of the freeway. There was a lot of construction going on.

The driver yelled out something that had the words Longmen in it. I looked around, there were shops and building everywhere. No sign of UNESCO world heritage site. The bus stopped on a busy street on the outskirts of Louyang. If there were lanes on this street, there would have been six. The Chinese don’t really understand the concept of lanes, though.

This was the point where we were supposed to pick up the taxi to take us to our destination. A green taxi appeared and we got in. The driver made a u-turn through all the traffic to get us going in the opposite direction. A short ride later, we were at the entrance to the pedestrian walk way leading to the park. This way there plenty of shops for us to browse before actually got to the ticket booth.

Why Longmen? I was searching the internet for things to do and this came up. It was a cliff facing the Yi river that had hundreds, if not thousands of Buddha’s carved into the rocks. It could arguably be described as the world’s largest altar. The UN thought enough of it to put it under it’s protection.

We were almost there. My camera trigger finger was itching to go work. But first the girls needed something to snack on. It’s odd that I, the overweight one, never wants to stop for food and the little people are constantly questing for snacks.

At the ticket booth, Sal tried to lay out the plans for the day’s events. I told him to go on without me as I was going to be moving really slow taking pictures. I brought up the fact it took me two hours to get from the ticket booth to the front gate at the Shaolin temple. God knows how long it was going to take me to get through a picture taking cornucopia of this magnitude. We planned to meet back here at the start at 1pm.
As I strolled, I did my Nei Hao and picture taking routine with the local men. If I set up the tripod, I usually had someone come to take their picture with me. It is all very strange.

The first section of carvings I came to was pretty stunning. Imagine a fifty foot cliff face with hundreds of openings carved in it. The holes can be anywhere from a one foot across to three or four feet across. In each and every opening, there is a carving of Buddha. There are also statues on either side of the Buddha. In the bigger caves, you get panels of hundreds of Buddhas. They are every where. On the rock face itself are more carved representations.

Stairs led up to a much bigger opening. Here in a cave twelve feet tall was a Giant Buddha statue. Next to him, were his attendants. Age had done it’s work eroding the features, but it was pretty impressive. On the way back down, were more smaller caves. More Buddhas.

I stopped and looked at some information stands. This first section was the small section. It was still about 400 feet long. If I were running the place, the one thing I would invest in would be a bunch of do not touch signs. Whenever the railings allowed people to get right up to the carvings, people had to reach out and touch the stones. Those carving were going to be gone in no time.

Also in this first group were three pretty big caves. In each one was different aspect of the Buddha with different hand positions. Patty and Natasha were thrilled to find one of the Buddha’s making the peace sign. Pictures were taken.

It’s good I saw this section first. If I had seen this section last, it would have gotten a yawn. Think of it as an appetizer for the upcoming great meal.

It seems to me if you want to see something in China, be prepared to climb steep steps. The better the object for viewing, the steeper the steps. And more of them. The Chinese love steps. I just wish they knew theory about how to build them.

The stairs to the next section were steep and plentiful. From the bottom, you could just see the head of the Buddha peaking out. It had to be huge.

As is my wont, I made my slow laborious climb up the stairs. People took pictures of me, with me. The view at the top of the stairs was amazing. The sun still shone on half of the cave. The cave opening before me was three sides of a rectangle. The longest side was 80 feet across. The two sides were probably forty feet long. In the center of the long side sat the Giant Buddha. And I mean giant. At least sixty feet tall. And unlike many of the other statues, it still had plenty of detail. It was the most amazing thing.

To the left and the right, were more giant statues. The ones on the left in the shadow, didn’t have quite the detail as the main Buddha. Some appeared to have been broken. Or maybe mother nature had done her work. The ones to the right had plenty of detail. Once again, amazing. I took a lot of pictures. This might be he day when I took the most pictures.

Now the statues were in a bit of a recess. Shadows were starting to creep across the Buddha as the sun dipped behind the cliff edge. The thing about taking pictures of something that big, you kind of need to be far away to take a picture of the whole thing.

The way the Longmen park is set up is that there are bridges on either end of the park. The bridges cross the Yi river and on the other side are even more but less spectacular caves.

I decided to race across the bridge to take pictures of the Buddha before it was completely in shadow. I didn’t skimp on my picture taking on the way over but I did make my way quickly.

My haste was rewarded. The sun still shone on all the right spots. I climbed up to to a little platform in order to take an encompassing picture of Longmen. And another ‘Got Qi’ picture.

The caves on this side of the river didn’t allow picture taking, at least that is what the sign said. Plus, from the road, I could see plenty of more climbing. I decided to pass.

On this side of the river, there was a temple nestled high up on the cliffs that I had been photographing the entire day as the sun started to shine on it more and more. Did you catch the two words high and cliffs?

I climbed. I bought water at the top from a strategically based vendor lying in wait just beyond the ticket entrance.

This aerie was supposed to be a pretty famous site. The only empress of china used to hold court here. Famous poets had retreated here to write their poems. One of the building was used by the Koumintang to plan the destruction of the communists back in 1938. But most of it had been rebuilt. It looked great but you could tell all the building were relatively new. It was more like a recreation than an actual historic building. It did offer great views of the grottos across the river.

The journey through Longmen ended in a park which contained the tomb of a famous poet called Bai Lon(?) There were also plenty of Steles with poems on them. In the spring, when all the flowers were in bloom, this park would be something to see.

This ends the sweet portion of the day. Let us now return to the bitter portion of our journey.

Just before getting to the Bai Lon park, I had caught up to the group. There was no longer any need to meet back at the ticket booth as per original plan. There were taxis right here that could take us to the next point in our journey. What that point was I was still pretty hazy about.

But I could read a map and I could recognize landmarks. I could see the bridge we had passed over as we drove by the Longmen Service area. It seemed we could take the taxi to that service area and maybe get our bus back to Dengfeng without having to go back to the suburbs of Louyang. But to do that would have taken a bit of planning and some forethought.

At some point in the Bai Lon park, Natasha had become separated from the group. We thought she was behind us in the park. We made our way to the gate and waited for to catch up. As I sat, I listened to the ticket booth welcome people in it’s mechanical voice every time a ticket was scanned.

We waited about twenty minutes. Sal went back into the park to look for Natasha. He didn’t find her. We were all certain she was still in the park. A half hour went by.

Natasha had gone to our designated meeting place. The meeting place to go to if we were separated. She finally came back across the bridge to us to find out why we hadn’t gone to the meeting place as well. Anger. Grrr.

I floated my idea of taking the taxi to the service area. Sal countered there wouldn’t be any buses there and it would be best to go to the bus station, the bus station in Louyang.

The drive in the taxi took us about forty five minutes to get to the bus station. Half way through the journey, we passed the spot where our bus had dropped us in the morning. The street we traversed had a massive construction project occurring on both sides of the road behind this blue fence. Buildings were being torn down. The street pavement was gone, dirt left in it’s place. Traffic was atrocious as pedestrians and cyclists tried to cross in front of us.

Traffic in China is one giant rolling game of chicken, played by pedestrians, motorcycles and cars. Everyone plays. If you want to cross the street, you step out. If you have the balls, you just walk in front of the cars. The cars don’t seem very intent on stopping. You pass into oncoming traffic despite the density of traffic. One of the drivers main weapons is the horn. It is sounded to tell everyone else you are coming and they need to get out of the way.

Along this street to the bus station was the worst I had seen it. We came to one intersection, using the term loosely, where it was just everybody struggling to get through. We were there for ten minutes as people jockeyed for openings to get by, At one point a vendor push a rolling tray covered with confectionary bread showed he had the biggest balls. Looking neither left or right, he pushed right in front of the taxi. He didn’t stop for anything.

The thought keeps occurring to me is how could you ever negotiate this while being drunk.

The driver dropped us across the street from the downtown Louyang bus station. Going ten miles in the opposite direction from Dengfeng hadn’t done my disposition any good.

Sal asked if we should go get some food before getting on the bus. I suggested we find out when the buses left and base our dining plans on that. I was told the Dengfeng buses left from this particular station every twenty minutes.

We agreed to walk a block to see if we could find a McDonalds. For a man who craves all things Chinese and waxes rhapsodic over their cuisine, Sal sure needs to get to McDonalds a lot.

Across the street from the bus station was the train station. And in the train station was a KFC. That was fine by me. Sal’s memories of a nearby McDonalds he remembered from a previous trip started to surface. It was supposed to be only a block or two away. I asked him what if he remembered wrong? Patty assured me Sal knows these things.

We went to KFC. There was a delay as Natasha navigated the picture menu presented to us at the counter. It didn’t seem like it should take that long to point to what you wanted and pay your money. I ordered first while she looked. I was almost done eating by the time she decided what to order.

It just so happens, there was another bus station on this end of the train station, too. We just had to walk a few yards to get to it rather than going back the block and crossing the street to the other bus station.

Sal went and got us tickets. Our bus would be leaving in a little over an hour. I thought you said the buses left every twenty minutes? Those were the buses at the other bus station. Since we had time to kill, I suggested he should run up the block to find his McDonalds since he hadn’t really eaten anything at the KFC. He said the blocks were too long and plus it might not be there anymore.

I need to start bringing ready material with me on theses jaunts. The rest of the group whipped out their phones and started playing games. I spent the time reviewing pictures on my camera.

We went out to our bus at ten to four. The bus had already been taking on passengers unbeknownst to us so it was quite full when we got on. I go to sit next to a nice Chinese man. I had to carry my camera bag on my lap the entire way as it didn’t fit in the over head. It only took about ten minutes for my legs to cramp up.

The drive banality was lessened somewhat by the movie playing on the TV. I had made it a point to sit up front to be closer to the screen. On the way out, they had shown a movie with English subtitles. We sat too far in the back to read any of it.

The movie on the journey back to Dengfeng was not subtitled in English, but it had enough action that I enjoyed it anyway.

The bus made it’s way back through the streets the taxi had driven. Traffic was still insane. I used my camera to try and capture some of the traffic on video. After about a half hour from the bus stop, we made the turn where our bus had dropped us in the morning. Finally, we made it to the freeway. I waved as we passed the Longmen Grotto Service Area.The ride back to Dengfeng took almost two hours from Louyang.

We didn’t have to stop for gas on the return.

Exhausted in my hotel room, I was gladdened somewhat to take some pictures of Songshan mountain that was still visible in the darkening sky.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I was just facing the distinct possibility of having nothing to read on my twelve hour flight home, which included a ten hour layover on Beijing, when I found a forgotten book in my bag. Whew.

[Drunk Monk]

Ahhhh, Longmen. What a journey to get there. We'd always just rent a mianbao (one of those ubiquitous white minivans). Taking the public bus is just crazy. You're American, dammit. Sure you save a lot of kuai on a public bus, but consider how much would you drop for such a ride in America.

There used to be a rifle range near Longmen. You could go full auto with some wacky Russian gun. You would have liked that Greg. Not only would have relieved your frustration, but it was tripod mounted. I imagine that's gone now.

Cheese. mmmm. There are two things I really miss in China - American music and cheese. BTW, are you sure those were potatoes? They eat all kinds of weird roots in snacks like that. I once had one that was more like radishes. It was harsh.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

As is usually the case, I was obviously wrong.

I'm glad you laugh. That is why I exist.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

While talking to the Queen I realized I had miscounted my days left in Dengfeng. I still had one more day of excitement here in town. For unknown reasons, I had ordered my room in Zhengzhou for the right day, it’s just there was a day between when I was supposed to depart Dengfeng and arrive in Zhenzhou.

This necessitated another round of pantomime at the front desk to keep my room for one more day. The only way I know if I have done this right is they give me a ticket to get my meal on the proper day.

Ever since I had been to the nunnery and seen Damo’s cave, the thought of coming all this way and not going to the cave bugged me. I didn’t like the idea of not seeing one of the cornerstones of the legends surrounding Shaolin Temple.

Faced with the extra day, I decided I would make the climb. Yes, I was psyched out by the view of the stairs from the nunnery to leading to the top. But it also looked closer than I had been anticipating.

I told Sal of my plan. He and the girls decided to join me. I later learned that in all the many times Sal had been coming to Shaolin he had never visited the cave. He also indicated he was going to ask the monks to get into the Temple for free. I told him that he should asks the monks if they knew of a trail behind the Wushu school that might take us around the stairs. Without bothering to ask anyone, he told me he thought such a trail probably didn’t exist.

The thought of any way to avoid those stairs kept jabbing my weak body, so I pushed to make sure he asked. He agreed.

The monks were going to be available to guide us from 9-11 or from 2-5. Hmmm, I wonder what time Greg chose? Since the monks were available at 9, Sal suggested we get to the Temple at 9:30. I queried this statement but agreed on the meeting time. I was tired of hearing the questioning tone in my voice.

For my entire stay here, it has been foggy. In Zhengzhou it might have been something more than fog because the air had a certain tang to it. So, it was almost with giddiness that I saw the perfectly clear blue sky above Dengfeng. Songshan mountain glowed yellow in the dawn light. As is usually the case when I am in a tall building and faced with a beautiful shot, I tried to break onto the roof. The doors were all locked. I settled for pictures from my window.

It was a long time until the meet up with Sal and I had nothing better to do, I went to the Temple. I could get a bunch of shots of formerly foggy shots now brightly lit. Never mind that credo about being happy with the shots I got. Time to get better ones.

Sal and crew found me euphorically snapping away at 9:20. There was some confusion about where to actually meet the monks taking us past the gate, so we walked back up to the road to await them.
We were one seat shy in the car, because the monk brought a driver in the car to get us. The girls went ahead while we waited. I took more pictures of the Damo statue.

They drove us right into the temple grounds to the warrior monks training room. I let Sal go ahead while I snapped pictures outside. When I went into the hall, Sal was doing a sword demo in front a couple of the older Shaolin monks. They were nice enough to applaud when he was done. I taped the end of the routine. Then I filmed around the hall but was then told they don’t allow filming in there.

If you are expecting an exotic chinese training facility it wasn’t. The only illumination came from the dirty side windows. A group of younger monks were beating up a heavy punching bag attached to an old metal frame. There were flags and a giant drawing of Damo on one wall. There was a slightly raised training platform covering half the floor. It was plywood on 2x4’s covered with a thin covering of aged black vinyl. It used to be just concrete in there. The plywood and vinyl was an upgrade.

The monks didn’t have time to join us so we were going to make the climb on our own. Sal had asked about the Wushuguan trail but was told it was difficult to find and we would probably get lost. The stair trail was our best option.

I put a little distance between me and the group as we walked to the trail head. Patty and Sal were having a fight I didn’t need to hear. Plus, I was eventually going to slow way down. I figured to get a head start so I wouldn’t hinder their progress too much.

Did I mention how beautiful the day was? It needs mentioning again. It was a crystal clear blue sky. The air was cold and refreshing and I was hiking to one of the most famous spots in all of Chan Buddhism and Martial Arts.

I bypassed the trail to the nunnery to avoid the nunnery stairs. The path I was on was nice and paved. I asked a Chinese gentleman if I was on the right path to Damo and he agreed. The others missed the turn and went by the nunnery again. I could hear them talking all the way across the canyon.

After several sets of stairs, I arrived at my first rest station on the trail. A monk was there selling trinkets, food, and drinks. He had two scruffy dogs that were lounging on the prayer mat in front of a small altar. When I petted the small dogs, I could feel their ribs through their fur.

One of the dogs elected to follow us up the trail. He followed us almost all the way to the cave. I was tempted to see if he would carry my tripod. Yes, I carried my tripod the entire way. One hand on the tripod over my shoulder, the other pulling myself up the railing.

The next segment was probably the hardest. It had lots of steep stairs not just the one visible from down below. I’d walk a bunch of steps then commence panting to get my hear rate and breathing under control. At the second waypoint, I bought an ice cold green tea from that vendor. I drank it too fast and got a nice cramp for my pains. I waited. It eased.

I finally made it to the steps I had been fearing. I took a break by photographing my companions with the valley as a backdrop. But enough waiting. Time to climb.

It wasn’t as bad as I envisioned nor as long as I thought it was going to be. I was confused to find myself at the top of the stairs but not dead from exertion. The dog just leapt up the stairs like it was nothing. Stupid taunting dog.

There were more stairs but the worst was over. After a couple more rises we made it to the cave. Along the way, Natasha took a picture with a couple. The man had kissed her during the shot and professed his love for Natasha. The woman with him was less than happy at this admission and stormed down the mountain.

There were a group of women stationed at the entrance to the cave. It was a small little setting. They had built a stone platform in front of it. You pass through an arch to get to the small cave. Next to the arch was a stele telling the history of the cave and Damo’s nine year stay in it.

There were also two nuns present. One was at the arch. The other sat in the cave. Patty was disappointed to find out you weren’t allowed to take pictures in the cave.

I wandered around taking lots of shots, dawdling while recovering my breath. I took group photos of the female vendors, the nuns, and our group. I think the Vendors were selling some sort of Shaolin medicine because the card I was shown had pictures of mushrooms on it.

I went into the cave and lit some incense for DM. The nun there showed me were to kneel and laughed when I said Nei Hao. I took her picture in front of the arch.

Famously, there is supposed to be rock that has the image of Damo on it. It appeared like a picture because Damo spent nice years facing this rock. I likened it to the shroud of Turin. I asked Sal where was the rock. He said how could that be possible that a man’s face appeared in the rock. I said but it’s one of the most famous myths. He continued to deny it’s possibility. I told him possible or not, where was the rock? He reluctantly admitted he didn’t know. Phil said later it might be in the temple where we had seen the demo.

Sal decided it was time to go and told the group to get moving. Yeah, that’s the wrong approach if you want me to move. I stayed behind while they continued the climb up the stairs to the massive Damo statue on the peak.

I took some more pictures and thanked the nun. I gathered my stuff in preparation for the climb. The nun pointed to a trail at the back of the little platform. She suggested I take that trail rather than the stairs to the statue. Thank you friend, Nun.

It had stairs, but it also sloped around to the backside. The ascent seemed much gentler. After a couple of minutes of climbing, I came out at the back of the statue. Sal asked how I had got there. I told him the nun showed me this trail.

I took pictures. I marveled at the view and the thought of them building this statue way up here. There was another altar that needed donations and incense lighting. There was a nun sitting next to the small altar. She was chanting along with a radio playing in front of her.

While we waited, the group of vendor woman showed up from down below. They had come here to pray and make offerings, as well. They burnt some of the bottle rocket incense sticks.

At this point, Phil had caught up to us. Sal had tried to get Phil’s attention on the way up by yelling his name repeatedly from the platform as loud as he could.

The nuns and vendors burned offerings in the fireplace in front of the altar. They knelt and prayed. Sal grew bored and decided it was now time for the group to descend.

I went with them and soon regretted my decision. Sal wanted to know how many stairs there were in the climb. He began to count aloud each step he took on the way down. I drifted to the back of the procession.

At the platform in front of Damo’s cave, I stopped all together. I needed one more look inside to further imprint it in my head. My favorite nun smiled at me as I looked around the cave. On the way out, I saw a pretty shot looking out from the cave through the incense in the brazier. The valley served as a backdrop. I knew you couldn’t take pictures in the cave but what about taking pictures out from the cave?

I mimed to the nun. She nodded. But she seemed to indicate I should take pictures of the cave. I made a few more gestures at the cave and my camera. She thought about it and then agreed. She also indicated she would take my pictures in the cave after I took hers.

I would be happy to do that. Very very happy.

I caught up to the group at the rest stop near the bottom where the dogs lived. The group was dining on some sort of noodle dish in a cup they serve everywhere in China. There is even a bowl of it in my hotel room. It was probably cheaper to buy it on the mountain. I just needed some water and breath catching moments. The dogs were under the table begging scraps from the silly americans.

I talked to Phil about his current stay in the temple. I wanted to know if he thought the temple was a viable thing or just a tourist trap. His experience indicated it was still a very spiritual place and they were still teaching the Shaolin way.

Phil is interesting guy. He had crossed paths with Jack Tu, Master Tu’s son, for many years and had once been good friends with him. They had both done K-star and The Disciple together. Phil had come in second in K-star. K-star was the chinese reality show sponsored by the Temple to find the next great martial artist.

As we walked down to the bottom, Phil talked about his experiences with Jack and why they are no longer friends. It gave me a slightly different perspective about the Tu’s.

When I had done the filming with Sal earlier, I had missed several of his routines. I agreed to film them on our way back down from Damo in the same place. Despite my rating and raving me about him, Sal has helped out in many situations. And he had gotten us into the park for free. Plus, I was in such a good mood from the hike, I was ready for anything.

Phil left us to go back to the temple. I climbed the stairs to the top of the dirt mound. Sal asked how the video I was shooting today was going to match up with the video I had already shot. I said it would be fine, because it would be. But Sal was unsure and wondered if I had enough batteries left to film the whole thing again with this camera. I was in a good mood and said it wouldn’t be a problem.

The dirt mound still looked bad, but I could now see the nearby Temple and the mountains behind it. Best of all the moon was just rising over the mountains. Be still my picture capturing heart.

We shot all of Sal’s forms. Then we shot some from the side so he could do inserts. Then we filmed Natasha doing Wu Bu Quan. Groups of people came up to film me filming Sal. At the end, I was still in a good mood.

Phil wanted to meet us at the front of the Temple so he could walk with us to the front gate. While the group sat awaiting Phil’s arrival, I wandered into the side Temple to take more pictures. I reshot this gold statue that looked completely different in the sunlight.

I almost went back into the main temple proper to keep shooting, but I controlled myself and left with the group.

But I dawdled. There were these long tailed birds. I’d been trying to shoot and there were a bunch of them flitting about the trees next to the river. But they could sense my camera and always flew away just as I was about to shoot.

I thought I saw them what looked like a nest and I tried to shoot them through the obscuring branches. When I focused on the nest, it revealed to be a bee’s nest. The birds were pecking at it for food. I also saw this other bird that was a vibrant blue color. My shots of it were slightly more successful than the pictures of the long tailed birds.

When I started searching for the group, I couldn’t find them. I had talked to Sal about calling him on Skype later so I wasn’t too concerned. I walked all the way to the road but they were nowhere to be found. I learned later they had stopped in the Wushuguan with Phil for some pictures.

I took the 2.50 yuan bus ride into town. I went to the bank to change money so I could have a hotel room the following night. I also wanted a little cash to buy trinkets if I went out shopping with Sal later. And yes, I stopped at the pastry vendor and bought more sunflower seed cakes.

I connected with Sal via Skype around 8. We would meet at the bus station at Noon. He told me how to direct the taxi driver to the bus station, laughing at my attempts at pronunciation.

I had my first small bit of Mao’s revenge and went to bed. I’m going to blame the cream puffs.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I would have blown the bucks on transport, but was unsure of how to do it on my own.

Plus, the buses are kind of interesting microcosms of the Chinese people. Plus, the money takers always mock me when they take my money. If anyone is saying rude things about me, it's them. I keep seeing in my head the movie where the people are talking sweetly in their foreign language. But unbeknownst to the hero the subtitles reveal he is about to be killed.

It's all denial. I wanted to take a mini-van. (Question for the trip came from Natasha. 'Why do they call them mini-vans?)