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6 August: Jizu Shan

We were woken up by the bus driver just after 06h00, shouting as he went through the bus. Between when we fell asleep 24h00/01h00 and when we awoke at 06h00, I don't think I had more than 4 hours sleep, Leanne was much the same, but she may have had 5. We jumped up and followed all the other passengers out while getting our bags outside - no cut marks no break-ins! Once again the Italian girl assisted us, she was able to talk to a taxi driver explaining exactly where we wanted to go. Another lady was also headed to the same place and joined us in the taxi. At the bus station she was able to assist, while Leanne confirmed the destination with the woman at the counter. I tried to get some cash out of my bag, but in my haste to give the money to Leanne who had to pay, I tore one of the 100 Yuan bills in half!

We boarded the small bus, just after a beautiful pink sunrise and started through the city on our way to Binchuan. The journey was an eye opener, the landscapes looked somewhat like Robertson district, lush valleys and fields. The farms were huge, filled efficiently with plantations of corn, grapes, beans and all types of other vegetables, they literally ran for kilometers on end, up and over mountains. We arrived at Binchuan, the lady took us to a mini van (really mini, only 6 people could sit in the back in two rows) and we confirmed they would take us to Jizu Shan, famous for the 3 250m mountain to which 150 000 Buddhist pilgrims a year go to view the rising sun, from across China and Tibet.

There wasn't enough space for our bags inside so they were tied on quickly on the roof, hence I spent a large portion of our travels hoping and praying our bags wouldn't get catapulted off on one of the 180 degree turns. Leanne was asked to sit in the front while I sat in the back row between a shoulin monk and another passenger. The drive to Jizu Shan, was another scenic drive, up and down mountains through valleys with small villages along the way. We came to the foot of the mountain where the administration office was and everyone was required to purchase entrance tickets. We got out, while Leanne made sure we were at the right place and what the costs were for the tickets, I retrieved some additional funds from our bags stacked on the roof.

We were dropped off about halfway up the mountain and walked to tourist information to try and find lodging. It was already 10h30 and we wanted to get something to eat, our last meal had been the previous evening 20h00. The lady at tourist information took us to a restaurant which had rooms on the upper level, we were shown a few and decided on one with 3 beds, it just had a little more space than the ones with two beds and wasn't that much more expensive. We settled in before heading downstairs to find out where we could eat. The lady from the restaurant was more than happy to let us eat there and the woman from tourist information assisted us. We used our book to show we wanted two dishes, one with rice the other with noodles, both with vegetables. It was difficult to say which vegetables, so we took a bowl and filled it with aubergine, beans, tomato, mushrooms and cabbage. We went to sit, wondering how our concoction would come out, we were soon brought some tea to enjoy while we waited for the food. The tea was a type of green tea, with the leaves settling down in the bottom of the cup and you needed to wait awhile for them to settle down.

The food came and it was great! She had improvised to an extent and added a few spices and herbs. We finished brunch and dressed in our trekking clothes. We headed for the map in the square first stopping to buy water, (the use before date had expired 3 months earlier, but we only found out about this after our 2nd kilometer. )

We worked out a route we wanted to take and headed in that direction. The mountain was littered with monasteries, nunneries, palaces and temples, so we headed for the nearest one. Our route was earmarked to walk up to Nodding Peak, a lookout point some way up the mountain. We came first to Wuhua Nunnery, with a little river and beautiful white marble/rock bridge crossing it. It may sound strange, but all of them mostly look the same. The main attraction for me and Leanne is the architecture of the buildings, which is magnificent and the idea that they were built as long ago as the 15th century. Other than that they all have a Buddha inside and some form of kings or celestial beings at the entrance (almost as though they were Hindu). Some have ponds with small fish, one even had a water turtle sunbathing as we went by. At some temples there are bells hung at the corner of the temple roofs, which chime when the wind blows, creating a very surreal feeling as though you were stuck in an age long ago.

Unfortunately we could not find the turn off to that road and before we knew it we were walking up to the main temple at the top of the mountain, Jinging Temple. The road leading up the mountain is a cement road with steps and humps to help you not slip and also to assist the horses walking down. Let me say again the road to temple comprises solely of steps, no part is it level and these steps are STEEP! The forests with their green moss close in all along the road and at most places block out the sun, giving it an earie feeling (I wouldn't want to walk through them when a thick mist cloud covers the mountain). It was an amazing walk, completely alone and isolated all the way (because the chinese tourists don't walk up, they use horses and then a cable car!). Water streams crossing the roads with small bridges built over them and trees along the way filled with multi-coloured incense burners. The walkways are well maintained, we even found a man in a blue suit (business suit) sweeping horse dung from the pathway, there are also many signs warning tourists of slippery pathways.

The Chicken foot mountain, so named because it has 3 mountain ridges on one side and another at the back where all of them connect, creating a type of chicken foot. Its history dates back 2 000 years, in the Qing Dynasty, where it was revered as a sacred Buddhist sanctuary. It had over 100 temples, monasteries and nunneries housing more than 5 000 monks in that time. It is 3 250m above sea level and although we started our trek near the middle, it was definitely the steepest climb we had encountered anywhere in Asia. The steps were sometimes so steep that you could only walk up a few, before having to stop and rest, before continuing.

We had started our trek at 11h30 and only reached the top at 16h30. We encountered no other trekkers along the way walking up, although a few did walk down. Every traveler we had encountered had traveled halfway up the mountain on horse back to where the cable car was located and taken it up to the top from there, then walked halfway down or rather just taken the cable car to their horse.

At last we reached the top of the mountain, the air had grown thin and it was cold. There were quite a few tourists on the summit, all Chinese, however not as many as we had expected. We first entered the temple complex through a smaller temple around which a sunrise platform had been built. Inside the complex was a small golden coloured temple standing in front of the main temple, Jingding Temple. Jingding Temple, built on the highest mountain, is a 13 tier temple. We climbed up to the first tier, having uncompromised panoramic views all round of mountains, valleys and villages below.

At the back of the temple is yet another temple where pilgrims come to worship and bring offerings. We watched them as they lifted their 1.5 meter long incense burners up and down as they prayed. We are often asked whether we would like to participate or buy incense burners, but we decline every time. After the cold started to get to us we started on the way back down. It had taken 5 hours to walk up to the temple and we hoped to be back down in less than half of that.

We walked down to Huashou Gate, another small temple complex and walked through looking for the circle road leading down, that way we would be able to walk down and see another part of the mountain. We met up with a Chinese family along the way and showed him a map, he indicated yes we were in the right direction, but both of us knew he didn't really understand. We continued down with the road or rather the steep steps until we came to a dead end where a well was. A small road continued onwards, but unsure and not wanting to compromise our time we turned back to the main road. Down we went with the steps where the cable car passes overhead, Leanne was already feeling pain from her knees walking down all the steps, so we went down very slowly. One more stop along the way that we had sidestepped going up and decided to leave for our return, Tongfo Palace, I wouldn't go as far as a presidential palace, but whoever owned it was well off.

We came again to the steps which continued up a steep section of the mountain with no stops along the way, there were literally hundreds of them. After passing these we arrived at the halfway point where horses waited and passengers disembarked from the cable cars. We tried to arrange horses for the two of us down (just to experience something different), but had only 12 Yuan, we knew we wouldn't get far. They wanted 30 for the both of us so we continued onwards, after a few minutes a lady caught up with us and tried to get us to take her one horse down. In the end she was willing to allow both of us to ride the horse down for 12, but there just wasn't enough space, so we left it. It turned out there was still a significant section of the road left before we reached our destination. Many passengers passed us on horse back going down, but almost every horse would regularly slip with one leg, before regaining its composure. In the end we were glad we had rather walked down than taken the horses.

We reached the bottom and headed for the restaurant, both of us were dying of hunger, we had only eaten brunch. It was now 18h30, we had walked for 7 hours up and down, stopping nowhere for more than a few minutes. We ordered two of the large 8 Yuan plates of noodles and vegetables and were thoroughly satisfied with our choice. We enjoyed a cup or two of their green tea, before heading up to our room.

We showered and finished up with the idea of catching up on lost sleep, alas it was not to be. The rooms across from us were being occupied and inquisitive or rather just nosy people were continually trying to push our door open and look inside. Just after 20h00, some of the locals gathered outside our room (there were a small common area with a table) and started playing a type of Chinese rummy cup, with plastic squares with words on, they would place them in a container and shake them thoroughly before throwing them on the table, with the occasional yelp of delight coming from one of the players. This lasted until 24h30, at which time I fell asleep, Leanne had been more lucky and had fallen asleep a little earlier.