We're in the Seattle airport waiting for our connecting flight to Denver!
We left Shanghai at 12:20 pm on Saturday, May 10th and arrived in Seattle at 8:00 am on Saturday, May 10th. Got to the U.S. before we left!
A night without a day!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Today (Tuesday, May 6th), we finished our To Do list with a successful summit of Tianzhu Peak (also known as the Golden Summit)! While the crowds were thinned out from last weekend's May 1st holiday crowds, there were still too many people to get suitable photographs for publishing. So again, the photos taken of the Golden Summit on the 2002 trip will have to do. Tourism has flourished to the point that we can't repeat the photos with no people in them, anymore. The hike up from the cable car is about an hour up and another hour down (1,000 or so steps both ways).
The sights from the mountain, however, still remain breathtaking with rugged mountain peaks in every direction as far as the eye can see! Also mind boggling is the architecture from the Ming Dynasty! Still remaining is the triple compound curve in the Ming Dynasty era wall that surrounds the peak on all sides. The stone blocks are so finely fit that you can't fit the edge of a dime between them!
This trek took more than a half day, including the bus ride over to the cable car and back to the hotel. Riding up the cable car, hermit caves can be seen in the cliffs far off to the right! After returning to the base of the cable car, we also discovered a little known temple complex called Middle Temple at the base of the cable car that is mostly renovated and quite expansive!
Tonight we ate our last meal on Wudangshan at Mrs. Yang's restaurant and said goodbye to her and her husband. We are packing up now, as tomorrow we head back down to the base of the mountain to spend one night in town. Then early Thursday morning we catch a train out of Shiyan City to head toward Shanghai, which will be an all day trip. So, you may not hear from us until we reach Shanghai!
Mission has been deemed accomplished by all three of the musketeers!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Amazing! Just amazing! We could not have possibly planned today, even if we'd tried! On our first trip to China in 1996, our first sacred mountain visit and cross cultural performance was at the Purple Cloud Temple on Wudangshan. We were to perform the Tai Chi Iron Fan form which had been lost in China for about 400 years. Very anxious and simultaneously honored!
Over the years of China adventures, we've returned to visit Purple Cloud. In 2002 with our expedition members, we got to interview the head abbot, Abbot Li Guangfu. At that time, the head monk, Master Shi was present and assisted with the interview as did the head nun, Master Zheng.
In 2003 we returned to this mountain to make another attempt to understand the 5,000 years of history at the mountain and again got to meet with Abbot Li, Master Shi and Master Zheng. During this time, the president of the Chinese Taoist Association gave us permission to tell the story of the Wudang Magic Sword, heretofore untold. There is a replica of the sacred bronze sword, which weighs well over 100 pounds, which was housed in a museum on the temple premises, but was too heavy to bring down to show us. Months later, Master Shi mailed us photos of the replica.
In 2012 we again returned to Wudangshan accompanied by Master Karl, who was one of the 2002 Expedition members. While Master Shi had left the Wudang area to become an abbot at another location, he travelled to Wudang to meet with us again. Upon inquiring about the old museum and sword, all remnants of those memories had disappeared. No sword and no museum with old artifacts!
This morning we returned to Purple Cloud with Victor to ask about the sword and museum, as well as to take more photographs of the temple complex. This was one location where we wanted to do a photo shoot of the four of us for the Wudang history book. So we rode the bus five minutes down the hill with Victor and started taking pictures as we moved into the complex.
Victor had been in touch with one of the nuns who seemed quite uncertain as to why we would want to see the sword replica, so we went on our way to look in the doorway where the museum had been in 2003 and discovered that some items had been brought back! After wandering around, Dennis spotted the end of the magic sword replica, hiding behind a curtain! The same nun allowed us to move it to the floor (it took the three men, with all their strength to move it!) and lay it on material to photograph it, then carefully put it back. Wow, just WOW! Like an Indiana Jones archeology discovery. We finally found the sword 11 years after being told the story in the courtyard of Purple Cloud Temple by the head abbot of China Taoism. (Kind of like the Pope).
After our great discovery, we were offered lunch at the Purple Cloud monastery. So we scooped up our bowls of rice and dishes of stir-fried tofu and vegetables. Then washed our own dishes as that is the custom of the temple lunch. Our heads were all still spinning with the blessing of the sword sighting!
After lunch we spent several hours photographing Purple Cloud -- again. As we were seated in the shade on wooden benches, talking about our great blessings, Victor suddenly gets a surprised look on his face, points and says 'Here comes Abbot Shi!'.
Abbot Shi was unexpectedly in the area and remembered us from previous visits. The five of us gathered for a commemorative photo. So, we are ending Monday, May 5th here in China with a sense of accomplishment that surpassed our greatest expectations!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Saturday, May 3rd started out with a pleasant surprise! Victor came back up the mountain the night before and invited us to join him and his students in an early session of Tai Chi Chuan this morning! So we left the hotel around 6:30 am, walked up the street, through a man-made cave that takes you through the mountain to a patio overlooking the lush terrain and overcast, hazy sky.
Upon arriving we were introduced to Victor's students (about 5 people) and an old master and long time friend of Victor's who led us through some Brocade forms (very similar to what is taught in our Kung Fu school). So the nine of us followed the old Master in stretches and forms. Then Victor worked with his students on the first few moves of one of his Wudang Tai Chi forms. By then, we'd gathered a crowd with many of them joining in the class! One set of grandparents who joined in had two grandkids with them, the youngest of which had shoes that made a loud squeak with each step! Helps you keep track of where your young one is, but was so funny to watch and see that concentrating on Tai Chi stepping was a challenge!
Around 8 am Victor and his students headed to their breakfast and the old master asked us to stay and perform some of our Kung Fu for him! So we had a cultural exchange with tourist onlookers, sharing two forms from our Shaolin Kung Fu art and two forms from the old Masters knowledge! How fun! He even gave us a thumbs up, which felt very humbling, as we are not even close to his aptitude!
It started raining in the afternoon which made a meeting with Victor timely. We had an awesome lunch made by his son, Adam, who also works with Victor's travel agency. And then talked a while about the book project and how technology works here. What do attachments look like, what works and what doesn't? Are there communication capabilities like Skype (yes!)? Turned out to be a very productive meeting!
Before we came up the mountain from Shiyan City at the base, we had the opportunity to visit the original gateway to Wudangshan which is called Xuanyue Gate (玄岳门). This gateway was built in the Jiajing Period of the Ming Dynasty (1522-1566). The road from this ancient gate to the Golden Peak (Summit) is called the 'Wudang Divine Road'. Here's a picture of the Three Musketeers beneath the ancient gate!
Later today we have a planned adventure with Victor over to Soaring Cliff (also known as Flying Cliff). More about this later!
Good news! We got our train tickets to Shanghai for May 8th, which will give us two nights in Shanghai for shopping before the long flights home! Less than one week left of this adventure - time has really flown by!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
A belated happy May 1st from China! We are late-afternoon on Friday here and this area has experienced a huge influx of Chinese tourists due to the May 1st, Labor Day three-day national holiday.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists are now wandering the byways of Wudang Mountain! We made a valiant effort yesterday to reach the Golden Summit, catching a ride at 7 am with a truck and driver down the mountain and then up another road to the cable car that brings you closer to the base of the Jin Ding Temple area, which is the Golden Summit.
Once we got off the cable car, we blended in with hundreds of tourists and quickly realized that even if we hiked up to the summit (about an hour's hike up the mountain from the end of the cable car), we would not be able to get usable photographs because of all of the people. So once again, we realize that with the changes in China over the last decade, we will never again be able to get the kind of photographs that we took on our 2002 Sacred Mountain Expedition!
So we abandoned our plan to visit the Golden Summit and climbed another peak instead! Here are some details about Jin Ding:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/home/2011-07/11/content_12878171.htm
After photographing the surrounding peaks and valleys, we walked back down the mountain to our hotel. We say walked, but let us clarify! From the top of the mountain at Tianzhu Peak (also the Golden Summit), it was about four hours of stairs, both up and down. This included 1,500 feet in elevation change! The sign said 4.5 km, but it felt a lot farther! Anita is once again famous in China and had to pose with numerous people along the way! Once as we headed down a long stairway, Anita saw a small boy, maybe 5 years old, trooping and stomping his way up the stairs. About 20 feet away from us, he looked up, saw Anita, his eyes opened wide in surprise and he fell backwards into his mother who was behind him! What a story he'll have to tell to his friends!
We've been trying to wear clothes more than one day in a row to save on the amount of laundry, but today's clean clothes were, well, sopping wet. We turned in two small bags of laundry to Mrs. Yang, the owner of our hotel and favorite restaurant, who charges 5 yuan for each shirt or pants. There are no washing machines up here - all laundry is done by hand and then hung out to dry. Then we washed out socks etc. and hung them in our room on parachute cord that we strung from the window curtain rod to the clothes cabinet door on the other side of the room.
Today, May 2nd, it was supposed to rain, but is just overcast so far. The air is quite hazy so isn't a good day for much photography. There are still thousands of tourists around here for the holiday. We're trying to let our legs catch up from the workout yesterday, so are hanging around the parking lot area and hotel. Did some shopping, though each shop along the way pretty much carries the same items.
Today is the day to buy our train tickets back to Shanghai, as you can't buy them until 7 days before your intended travel. Victor is in town at the base of the mountain and arranging for that train trip, heading us toward home. We're also doing an accounting of expenses and funds to be sure that we'll have enough Chinese currency to make it out of the country.
Took an outdoor break and walked about five minutes down the mountain road to get some photos over looking the Purple Cloud Temple. Gorgeous!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
What a busy two days we've had! Yesterday (Tuesday, April 29th) was an adventure up Carefree Valley (also known as Monkey Valley). To get there was a five minute walk and a ten minute bus ride down the mountain. Hopping off at the parking lot by the entrance to the valley, we wandered around the garden areas on both sides of the river and lake. Got some good photos of white and black swans! Breathtaking!
Then we headed up the valley for a scenic hike to try and find a location we'd visited in 2003 - Zhang Senfeng's (also spelled Chang San Feng's) meditation cliff. The valley has undergone a lot of construction with concrete pathways and stairs, so we missed the correct turnoff point and ended up walking an extra mile or two. Heading back downstream, we found the location and were disappointed to find that no reconstruction of the meditation cliff has happened and the entire cliff area we'd seen in 2003 was behind locked doors.
There are many legends written about Zhang Sanfeng, with some contradictions about his birth dates, accomplishments and life.
In general, though, it is accepted that he is the founder of the Tai Chi Chuan martial art and spent some time at Wudangshan. Check out more details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Sanfeng
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T'ai_chi_ch'uan
One of the fun aspects of Monkey Valley is, well, the monkeys! We saw only three (though we heard many more chattering from hidden positions in the cliffs and trees) including a mother and her baby!
This morning (Wednesday, April 30th), we had a great blessing of interviewing a well-known Traditional Chinese Medical doctor who is well-versed in herbalogy (with specific knowledge of Wudangshan plants and medicines)! Out of around 700 known medical plants, over 400 of them can be found growing naturally on the Wudang mountains!
In the afternoon, we did a self-guided tour down the mountain to visit and photograph the Needle Grinding Well and Guan Di Temple ruins! More about those locations in future emails!
We're getting ready to go to bed for some sleep before more adventures tomorrow at the Golden Summit!
The most difficult part of putting together this email was picking out which pictures to send! We've had awesomely wonderful weather and the sights are magnificent!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Well, just when we think we've had and seen the best of the trip, it gets even better! We are writing this on Monday afternoon, April 28th China time, so it is about 2:30 am Monday morning for those in the U.S!
We are recuperating today from an adventure yesterday that will be hard to describe in either words or pictures! Off the beaten path and down the mountain from where we're staying is the oldest remaining temple in Wudangshan which was built early in the Tang Dynasty. It's called The Five Dragon Palace or Temple. We might add that it is a LONG way down the mountain as it ended up being a 7 hour hike, instead of the advertised 4 hours there and 4 hours back! The trek coursed along a breathtaking river and ending with an hour's climb up stairways zigzagging up to the top of another mountain! And that was for our fastest climber, Master Karl! Good thing we'd packed our own water (two 1.5 liter bottles each) and snacks from granola to dried local fruit!
Here are historical details of these ruins:
http://www.china-tourism.net/natural-landscape/mountain--mtwudangshan-25.html
The Five Dragon Palace was first built in Zhengguan reign of the Tang Dynasty (627-649 AD) at the foot of Lingying Mountain Peak. In 1412 the complex was extended and many constructions were added, such as the Imperial Hall, the Gate of the Palace, the Veranda Wings, the Jade Statue Hall, The Parents Hall, the hall of Revelation of holy Spirit, the Hall of the Founder of Taoism and Sacristy. Until the reign of Jiajing In Ming Dynasty, there were 850 bays of construction. In 1930 the palace was destroyed in a fire, however, many remains and relics can be seen there.
Our story continues from here! Because it had taken us so long to get to the Five Dragon Palace (there was lots of photography to do along the river hike), it was after 5 pm by the time we finished photographing the Five Dragon complex. While we had flashlights with us, another 7 hour hike down the mountain up the stream and then up another mountain to our hotel, seemed daunting. Not to say anything of knees that were sore and hurting. About that time (we'd already been invited by monks living at this site to spend the night), a small tour group showed up. Dennis got out his handy translator and found out that the tour bus was too full to drive us to Shiyan City at the base of the mountain. Instead the bus driver called a private car for us which arrived some 30 minutes later! The road up to this complex is nice, but not yet open to the public. There is a heavy metal gate at the base that is only opened for select purposes. Someone had some pull to get a car up the mountain for us! We're sure we looked like a rag-tag bunch!
After a 45 minute drive down a different mountain, we arrived in Shiyan City to find out that buses on the tourist route on Wudang only run until 6 pm! So we were stuck in town! Found lodging at the Holiday Inn of Wudang (VERY nice accommodations with soap, shampoo, towels, a European toilet and nice big beds). So we crashed there for the night, letting Victor know where we were (the hotel was only set up to take Chinese credit cards so we had to pay in Chinese cash. Victor stopped by later, as he was also in town, to check on us and all ended well. Albeit very tired!
In the morning after a Chinese breakfast of corn porridge, Victor helped us re-enter the Wudang area for a reduced fee. Dennis and Anita had their Wudang tickets with them but Master Karl had left his up the mountain in his room, so we had to show the attendant a picture of the three of us to prove that we were traveling together. Fortunately we'd asked someone to take a picture of the three of us at the Hanging Cliff Palace with its three meter long Dragon-Head Incense Burner.
Got through the ticket office and on the bus up the mountain, to be delivered a short ways down the hill from our hotel. So, yes, even though the weather is perfect for photography, we are recuperating today! Handling some needed research and communications with friends back home, as well as downloading some photos!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
Five Dragon Temple - the main building at the end of the courtyard.
First view of the temple complex after climbing the mountain for almost an hour.
Exotic flora.
Master Karl and Dennis at work in the ravine that leads to the Five Dragon Palace.
Fellow Virtual Travelers,
Wow! Just wow! Words can't describe what we're feeling right now! Yesterday the weather was rainy and overcast which gave the perfect opportunity to review our data, compile additional questions and prepare camera gear for our upcoming hikes. The weather is supposed to clear in a couple of days which could be just enough time to get ready.
After texting Victor that we'd like to see him a couple of times, he stopped by to invite us to breakfast in a nearby hotel. We had a good chat about the book idea and upcoming days, then returned to our hotel to do our 'homework' to get a handle on where we are and where we need to be for this project.
At that point, we got a text from Victor, 'Come to my office right away.' Upon arriving we discovered that he had distinguished guests. A fellow martial artist master (Master Wu) from Chengdu China, some of his students and a tea baron. We were served by the tea baron, one of the more expensive teas that China has to offer. We were next invited upstairs to watch Victor and Master Wu perform a Tai Chi Chuan form and were allowed to video and photograph them. Then they asked us to join them in a shortened Tai Chi form! To follow along!
Next we were invited to join them for lunch in a nearby restaurant, enjoying local cuisine as well as dishes from Sichuan province (very spicy). We discovered a special pepper that provides a delicious flavor but that if you eat it, will make your mouth numb!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper
We can't describe how honored it feels to be taken into a circle of people who don't even know us or speak our language!
We also haven't had so much tea to drink in the last year, as we've had in the last few days! But that is how business is done in China.
As with everything, there is a yin and yang aspect and after such a beautiful day, we listened to construction on the other side of our hotel wall until 10:30 pm! Not very conducive to sleep, so Dennis went next door and was able to convey the message that people in the next hotel were trying to sleep! The construction noises subsided and we slept until it was light outside, for the first time since arriving in China!
We had a nice breakfast of noodles with vegetables and rice porridge. The sun is out today, so we decided to make this a photo day, rather than staying inside to do research. Walked about 5 miles (Saturday), visiting places like the Hanging Cliff (also known as South Craig Temple or Nanyan Gong) and got to look out over the Purple Cloud Pavilion, where we first performed the Tai Chi Iron Fan form on our Kung Fu School trip in 1996!
We've attached a map of Wudangshan so you can get a grasp of the enormity of this location, as well as another picture taken just this morning!
Blessings,
Dennis&Anita
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