Datong & Wutaishan

As some of you may know if you’ve been following me on Google+ (which means none of you know) I’m here in China for nine months studying at Renmin University through UChicago. I’ve been in Beijing since early April and right now I’m on break for five weeks, so I decided to travel around the country. I also figured this is the perfect time to resurrect this blog and write about my travels. I started the trip with a few days in Datong, followed by six in Wutaishan where I met up with a friend and then headed to Pingyao for a coupe days. The first thing I was struck by when I went to the train station was how many people were traveling at night on a Sunday. The station was super busy. 

The hustle and bustle outside the Beijing West train station.

Once I managed to get on the train I found my seat and got ready for the six hour ride to Datong. This was my first mistake, deciding to get a seat ticket because there were no hard sleepers for the night I wanted. I should have held out; for anyone considering taking a night train definitely don’t get a seat, it’s worth it to be able to get a good night’s rest unless you intend on passing out all day when you arrive at your destination. When I got to Datong I got off the train and realized I had no idea where the hostel was. Luckily I spotted two 老外 (i.e. white people) ahead of me heading toward the exit and figured “what are the chances they’re not going to the youth hostel?” So I caught up with them and sure enough, we were all going the same place. After catching the bus a kind Chinese man pointed us to, asking half a dozen Chinese people where the street was and being led through construction by a random Chinese guy we arrived at the hostel. 

I see what the hostel was going for, but their efforts fell a bit short...

Almost immediately after arriving at the hostel I made plans with the French couple, a Chinese tourist, and a Portuguese artist to visit the Buddhist grottoes. Maybe not the best idea, given how much I’d slept (I didn’t) ok the train, but it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. How often do you have a group form up, ready to go, immediately after arriving in a hostel? So after a quick breakfast of street food (which is good everywhere) we got on a bus. 

Iconic large Buddha statue at Yungang Grottoes, featured in many Chinese art history textbooks.

Despite my exhaustion, I trekked through the entire complex and it was fascinating; you could really see the transition in style between different areas. At one point the statues all seemed much more Chinese. I’d taken an art history class where this was brought up and it was nice to see it myself. They’re also all just beautiful. We were all pretty beat so just took it easy that afternoon/evening. We decided the following day to check out the Hanging Temple (悬空寺) and Hengshan (恒山). To do so we had to book a private car, for which it turned out we had just enough people. 

The above photo is of the hanging temple. Pretty neat and nice to see, but honestly it’s just ok. Not the best temple I’ve seen. I was slightly underwhelmed. 

This statue (and chill bro) were at the bottom of the mountain. It just started raining lightly when we arrived, so we bargained hard for some shitty ponchos and began the climb up. There were a tonne of awesome Daoist temples on the mountain, pretty much all staffed by Daoist monks (some with pretty awesome hair). 

The above was at the top of the ridiculously steep steps up to one of the main temples. As I turned to appreciate the view I saw a bunch of kids eagerly scrambling up the stairs. I’m still amazed by how almost anything is exciting to children. The views on top of the mountain are spectacular and I imagine with better weather they’d be even more so; definitely deserving of being one of the five sacred mountains in China. The following day I went to the area around the local temple where some sort of cultural event was being held, most of what I saw was just a bunch of kids performing dances and martial arts. It was interesting and it looked like the kids were having fun, though I have no idea what an Indian dance has to do with Chinese culture. 

That evening I was walking around with a couple Chinese guys and the Portuguese artist. We just walked through some construction and wandered around trying to find food. After dinner, on our way back to the hostel, we saw a bunch of people burning money on the streets. I tried to take a picture but one Chinese guy, my soon-to-be travel buddy, swatted my hand away and in a thick accent said “no” and proceeded to explain how it was rude and bad luck to take pictures. Turns out we’d decided to go on our evening stroll on Ghost Day, when Chinese people burn fake money as an offering to the ghosts of the recently deceased. It was pretty emotional; I saw a couple people crying and wailing on the sidewalk. My sense of shame and desire to take a picture were battling intensely. I eventually gave in and was rewarded with a blurry photo. 

The next day I left for Wutaishan with one of the Chinese guys. He’s treated me to lunch the other day and I think partly out of concern for me he decided to accompany me to Wutaishan (he was going there anyway but I don’t think originally was staying in the same hostel). 

Side note: for whatever reason a lot of Chinese people are into western astrology. I thought it might have been the people I hang out with in Beijing, but this guy and a couple others also asked me randomly what my star sign is. I think it’s a bit strange; if anyone can explain I’d be grateful. The bus to Wutaishan was amazing. The views were gorgeous and while I normally dislike photos taken through windows, it really was a spectacular view I have to share. 

We got into the hostel mid-afternoon and went out to see a few temples. All the temples are fantastic. I could feel the charge when we drove in and I could still feel it, despite the shops hawking incense and beads and snacks. We first went to the main area and just saw a few temples there. Saw the iconic white stupa and its Tibetan-flavored temple, a temple near there and another one around the back. There aren’t really words to describe the impact I felt and how amazing it felt to be there. There were a TONNE of monks. I sent a WeChat message to a friend; it read “MONKS. MONKS EVERYWHERE!!” Since childhood I’ve loved monks and the idea of monasticism for some reason (I was an odd kid), so this was super exciting for me. 

The following day we went to a couple other temples in the morning and then in the afternoon we caught a private car up to the northern “terrace” (北台). It was gorgeous and super foggy; if you wanted you could get lost in that fog. There was a main temple under repair and a small second temple with a stupa off to the side. 

Mantra graffiti carved into the stupa (pictured above).

My buddy (who I could not communicate with because his accent made him unintelligible to me) left the following morning and so I spent the day wandering around the main area some more. That evening I had a few beers with some Chinese guys at the hostel; chatted about why we were there, what America is like, love, sang a Chinese song, and they taught me several ways to say “jack off” in Chinese. My favorite so far is 打玉米, which translates as “hit the corn cob”. 

Apparently Chinese guys like this game where when a friend passes out from drinking you slap him repeatedly and laugh. I thought it was funny at the time but had also had several beers. The next day I took it easy and just read most of the day. I’d like to say it was BA research but it was just the last book in the Wheel of Time series. That afternoon I went with the guys to get ingredients for dinner. The English translations for the shops were hilarious. 

After waking up early the next morning I went to explore a few more temples I hadn’t seen in the center. I wandered up a hill and into this exquisite temple that had a small hall dedicated to Tsongkhapa. The statues were beautiful. Unfortunately you’re not supposed to take pictures in these places and the attendant was watching like a hawk so I don’t have any photos. At the end of the the temple was a main hall, to the side of which was a small room with a near looking altar. I walked into the room and started to back out, since there seemed to be some meeting going on, but some Chinese guy came up and told me to sit and brought me some tea. After a few minutes the other people left and I say down with the guy and a couple other people hanging around while the monk chatted with us. After a while we went to get food with the rest of the monks and a few other lay people. After lunch the monk gave me a few books and proceeded to give a teaching for half an hour from one of the books. Sadly I did not understand most of it. 

But he was super nice and told me I should keep studying Buddhism and Chinese. Was encouraged to come again and come often. After that I strolled into my favorite monastery, a super nice Tibetan style one with an amazing side hall dedicated to Yamantaka and protectors. The room was gorgeous; wood interior, exquisite statues, many offerings and it was clean (which if you’ve been in the average dusty Chinese temple is a big deal). Again, wasn’t allowed to take any photos. While I was wandering I met a really nice girl from Inner Mongolia who was traveling a bit before starting college in Chengdu. We wandered around a bit and had quite the hike up to one of the highest monasteries in the central area, up on top of a nearby mountain. The view was gorgeous but, to be honest, the temple was a bit anticlimactic after the hike. 

The locks are left by visitors hoping for security. It’s a super interesting example of very direct symbolism. Also oddly pretty. From there we went to another temple, 南山寺. On the way we met these two Tibetan monks from Sichuan who were super friendly and chatted with us about why they were there and talked with the girl about her trip to Chengdu. At the temple, she was blessed (which involved a surprising amount of slapping on the back and arms) by a monk who then asked for a “donation”. Being a poor student she offered a couple yuan; the monk rudely waved her away. I’m sorta wondering if he was actually legit or just a local dressed up looking for easy money from tourists. From there we parted ways and I went back to the hostel. Or that was the original plan. I met a family on the bus back who were going to this spring and associated temple on the way, so undecided to go with them. After wandering with them and getting my photo taken, I gave them my WeChat info (which is a program everyone reading this should download and use) and then left. I have since been messaged daily by the middle-aged guy in the group, asking where I am and what I’m doing and when I’ll be visiting their home (at this point never); it honestly got sort of weird. 

The next day I went to 白云寺, “White Cloud Temple”, and hiked a good hour up a mountain to see a very famous cave at the top. I stood in the ridiculously long line for a good forty minutes before deciding I’d rather not wait what I was jovially told would be another two and a half hours. The line was ridiculous; the picture below is after waiting for thirty minutes. 

Besides the fantastic views on the hike up, one benefit was meeting my Tibetan monk friend again, who just has one of the kindest old man faces I’ve ever seen. 

Old Tibetan monk I kept running into (and later met again at Lama Temple in Beijing).

I stopped by another temple on my way back to the hostel, Tibetan styled with some fantastic statues and a huge number of red ribbons in one section, which travelers write wishes on for wealth, love, children, etc. 

At the hostel I was semi-surprised to see +Aliza Warwick, whome I planned to meet in Xi’an (and whose blog, battered suitcase, is definitely worth a read; quite the travel writer and photographer). She managed to leave Beijing a few days early and caught up with me in Wutaishan. After a relaxed evening we decided to hike up the southern “terrace” (I’m really not sure what a better translation is, but there definitely is one). It was an amazing hike with fantastic views that took us the entire day. The temple at the top, once again, was gorgeous, fascinating, etc. 

The next day we went to another temple more centrally located, whose name escapes me, and found a wonderful little shrine to Mao in the back, complete with offering bowls of cigarettes. Apparently he had stopped in the temple on the way through Wutaishan and it’s become somewhat of a pilgrimage spot itself. 

We left the next day for Pingyao, which will be covered in the next post. Spoiler: Pingyao was not nearly as interesting. While you’re waiting for the next post, if you enjoyed this blog make sure to check me out on Twitter (@justinhudgins) where I retweet funny and interesting things and Google+ where I post quick thoughts on my travel, Buddhism and tech, and photos from my travels in China.