Buddha and the Temple of Awesome

The second day in Chengde we had a few hours before we had to catch our train, so we went to the Puning Temple Scenic Area. It's really a big Buddhist temple with a variety of different small temples and buildings, and the largest wooden Buddha in the world. Or in China. I'm not really sure which. Probably the world. Anyway, one of the other cool things about this temple complex is that it was built to to show some of China's diversity. The first section is Han style, but the second section is actually Tibetan style. Of course, from the front gate the Han section is the more visible of the two. But if you look up the hill, you can see the white of the Tibetan buildings.

Most of the small temples had statues of the Buddha inside of them that were pretty recognizable,

along with some statues of his disciples, which were less recognizable--at least to me.

There were also these prayer-wheel-things everywhere.

You're supposed to spin them while you pray so you'll have good luck for years to come.

Since none of us could think of a good reason not to spin a pole for good luck, we all tried it.

Then we climbed up to the next set of temples. It was a long set of stairs, but totally worth it.

When we reached the top we saw one really big temple,

a whole bunch of smaller ones,

and a lot of people burning incense. Well, to be fair, they had been doing it in front of most of the temples, but this was where I got the best pictures of it.

First, they lit their incense at torch-like contraptions.

Then they said their prayers, waved their incense and bowed in a couple different directions, and put their incense in the large holders in front of the temple.

When we went inside the temple, we saw possibly one of the most amazing statues ever. It was probably two or three stories high, and made entirely from wood. It had "a thousand" (closer to forty-five) arms, which with an eye in the center of the palm, and about half of which were holding different objects.

The Buddha had two disciples, who were a bit shorter and made of stone. But still pretty cool.

The temple was full of images of the Buddha, including smaller statues, and even the walls were covered in small figurines.

But in the end we did keep going, and when we reached the next level up, there was an amazing view in reward.

There were also swags of chain covered in locks hanging between poles. They had peoples' names on them, and the date when they were hung. They were supposed to "lock in" your love, or luck, or wealth--or whatever else you payed for.

From there we could also see in the back of the temple with the big Buddha.

After taking a peek, we followed the locks even further up the hill, to the top of the temple complex.

And another view! (bet you're getting sick of those)

One our way back down--because going up means coming down at some point--we stopped in a courtyard to rest,

and noticed a woman getting into a traditional Chinese costume.

So we decided to dress up as well. Since there were four girls who wanted to dress up, and only one guy on the trip, he got to be the emperor.

We took a picture outside as well...

which meant that other people could see us, which meant that lots of random people took pictures of us, and some people even took pictures with us.

Going to Chengde

This past weekend I and six others traveled the four or so hours by train to the neighboring city of Chengde to hang out, get away from the program for a couple of days, and generally just see see the sites. We took a train there, which wasn't so bad. It wasn't like the trains in America, with their general cleanliness, legroom, and seat backs that are not completely vertical, but it wasn't too bad.

It seems that on trains in China, the conductors--besides doing normal conductor-ey things like checking your ticket every few minutes--also sell random products and lead train games. On the ride to Chengde, one of the conductors taught the car how to do multiplication between long numbers super fast. Then she tried to sell us a practice book. On the way back it was mostly 3D pictures of animals and Chinese landmarks, like the Great Wall, eyeglass repair kits, and some other book. I wasn't really paying attention at that point, but you'll find out why later. Anyway, this was train game number one:

After four and a half hours on that train, arriving in Chengde was particularly satisfying.

As we exited the train station, we were immediately bombarded with loud voices and signs attempting to entice us into following a guide to a hotel or hostel. Since we had not actually made reservations anywhere, we decided to take one hostel man up on his offer, which turned out to be a pretty good deal. As there were seven of us, we got our own eight-person room, with lockers for our bags during the day, and our own air conditioning unit.

The bathrooms had nice enough showers, and there was a courtyard with clothes lines on which we could hand wet clothes or towels.

The front room with the desk and all that was rather nice as well. It had a little side room to hang out it, a dining room sized table, and a selection of board games and English books to choose from, if you were looking to just hang out and relax for a bit.

It was also home to a small poodle named Fei Fei who was simply overjoyed about, well, everything. The dog was something like a little bundle of nerves on legs that insisted on sniffing anything that didn't notice it, and running away from some things that did. I am fairly sure that it's decisions on who to run away from were completely arbitrary, however, and may have depended on the color of their shoes.

After settling our stuff into the hostel, we headed out to our first site-seeing location. On the way, I discovered that Chengde is actually settled in a valley between a cliff and some mountains. The city was small enough that you could see the cliff between the buildings as you walked.

As we arrived at our first location, we had the unfortunate opportunity to meet a person dressed up as a character who I can only assume was meant to be Minnie Mouse.

The place was called "The Mountain Resort Scenic Area". It had apparently been one of the emperor's summer getaways, and if it had been sentient, it would have been vain as a peacock. It had wide open lawns, a river running through the middle, and pagodas sprinkled through the whole place.

We saw some random bird cages hanging from the trees, which I later discovered is, in some places in China, a popular old man's hobby. They bring their pet birds out with them, and set up the cages so the birds can socialize while they do the same.

We took some photos, which are pretty boring, except for the fact that no one seems to know what we're doing...

and we played Frisbee for a while, but lost it in some long grass, which one of us then had to go after.

We saw some more pretty views, which at this point I was getting kind of tired of,

and then we decided to climb up a mountain (hill) to see the pagoda and view at the top. Since this is China, there were stairs up the mountain.

There were views of the whole park, which was cool.

We spent a while at the top hanging out, swing dancing, singing songs, and generally being crazy American tourists (though three of us technically weren't American). We did the jumping photos, and the kung-foo style photos, and and one really cool picture that turned out amazing, if I do say so myself.

Then we hiked down, across the park, and back out the front gate.

The walk back to the hostel--since all buses stop running at 7:30--was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that everything except karaoke bars and beer gardens were closed, so we had dinner in a courtyard full of drunk people. Then we went to bed. Which was, after that long day, exciting in and of itself.

Hot Pot Living

Yes, this is another food post. There will be more of them. Because Beijing has wonderful food. And because my goal in life is to make you jealous. I figure it's the least I can get for spending my summer in a classroom for six hours every day. If I can make you jealous of that, I will have done my job well.

So. This is the really awkward picture of myself and my friend at the hotpot restaurant we went to, taken through the steam of the hot pots. It's kind of like fondue, only cheaper, and better. I don't think you can get it in chocolate, though. Just dinner flavors. (Though I really don't see why chocolate can't be a dinner flavor.)

Hula Hoop

We have a hula hoop. End of Story.

Mountain Climbing

Saturday we climbed a mountain! This one!

Like every mountain in China, it had stairs. Possibly built by drunkards, but still stairs. While we were walking up,

We saw another one of those lovely signs...

Because people everywhere are idiots.

We took it slow,

and took in the views

and the scenery

while the handy-dandy trail markers helped keep us on the only trail on the mountain.

There was a nice (and I use this term loosely) little village, which turned out to be for campers.

We found some nice rocks,

a bunch of them, actually,

and cooled off by some water

before making our way back to the bottom to relax

and watch our friends zip-line their way down.

All in all, a pretty nice day.