Huli Mountian

Monday was "Chinese Memorial Day", so Chris and I decided we would take a walk up to a Temple we discovered while hiking aimlessly around Huli Mountain a few weeks back. This post doesn't need a whole lot of explanation, it is mostly for the pictures/video of what we saw there.

Huli Mountain is the only place in Xiamen, so far, that I have been able to breath in via my nose, and not only not evoke the gag reflex, but thoroughly enjoy the smell of good old fashioned nature. (More to come on the smells of China once we have them all properly categorized and labeled.)

All around the mountain there are lush forests, cobble stone paths, and some fancy places to stop and rest, like this one.

All the trails are marked by these peculiar signs. What makes them peculiar, you might ask? The fact that to the average non-woodsy American passer-byer, one would assume they are made of wood. But, anyone who has spent more than a week in China (since nothing but tea tables are made of wood here. Not even witches.) or grew up learning about trail markers on the other hand, would know they are not They are in fact solid concrete.

Then out of no where, in stark contrast to the dense dark green sub tropical forest, these building come sharply into view.

We walked a bit further and found the entrance and began to poke around. Here is what we found.

One of the largest and most elaborate Tea tables I have seen so far. (totally bringing one of these home!)

One thing about China is that anywhere there is anything (which is everywhere) there is something under construction. This was no different. This should give you a pretty good idea of the atmosphere.

Bamboo used for scaffolding.

I did not get any clear pictures of the inside of the main building. Ritualistic people en-mass make both Chris and I nervous so we steered clear. Suffice to say there was a big golden Buddha, a bunch of incense, and some candles. (Like most Buddhist shrines.)

There was certainly plenty of cool architecture and art to go around. Here are some examples.

Off to the sides of the main building were a couple small shrines connected with elaborately decorated halls.

At the end of the hallsare separate smaller shrines dedicated to ancient Chinese war lords and the like.

By this time we thought that we had seen all there was to see of the shrine, so we took a minute to appreciate the view of the city.

And spied on some people in a cool hiding place for lunch.

Though I am not sure, something about this smacked of Cultural Revolution a little too much to not take a photo.

I have now used "Spied" and "Cultural Revolution" on the same blog post... If for some reason the blog becomes inactive in the next few weeks... you know why.

Then I saw the weirdest goose I have ever seen. (And some people don't think bird's evolved from Dinosaurs!!)

But, as we were about to leave, we noticed there was a bit more. The bit more had a TON of people walking towards it and was actually a lot more, so we figured we'd check it out.

Along with men selling turtles on a leash,

this where I saw the T-Rex man. I couldn't bring my self to take a picture, but think full grown man with fully functional infant arm. Thank you USA for having an EPA.

It turned out that this was where most people we going to celebrate Chinese Memorial Day. This is a big chimney.

I don't know the ins and outs of it, but from what we were told and what we saw, people burn paper, which they get from here.

Then they go here here to make a wish and burn some incense. (The wish may or may not come up on the ticker screen.)

LOTS of incense.

Lots of really big incense.

Then, if your a foreigner you wander around and get stared at while you take lots of photos of the cool stuff. However, I didn't take to many more photos. (Once again due to "the horde of people bowing, talking to them selves, and burning stuff factor" but here are a few.)

Then I got Chris to smile in front of the whole thing. (This is a challenge in it self after being stared at, shouted at, pushed around, and charged too much for stuff for about 3 hours)

All in all, a very cool place. We might just have to go back when it is a little less crowded.

More later.

南普陀寺 (Nanputuo Temple)

To continue in the trend of doing turisty things on Saturdays, Shita, her Sister, Jolin, Jolins boyfriend, and I went to Xiamen University and Nanputuo Temple for a nice hike.

After being introduced to the new people I was asked to give them American names, which has become a standard procedure when meeting new people. I however am not a fan of it yet, since usually it is done before I know the person well. This is a silly reason not to like it, but I for some reason feel like it would be better if I could do it at the end of the day rather than at the begging. I'd hate to give out a name I like to some one I don't particularly want to see again and vise versa. The names given this time where Sarah and Steve, mostly because the "S" sound was preferred by Steve.

I took the bus for the first time, which is an adventure in it self. The limit to how many people may ride the bus is only regulated the size of the people on it. Half of the ride was spent getting friendly with a mildly smelly painter, but eventually the people thinned out and I got a little room to breath and a seat.

The final destination was a beach located near Xiamen University. We went for a little walk along the beach and ate little candied apple like things. This can be seen here.


After that we went for a walk around Xiamen University which is widely know to be the most beautiful University in China. It was quite nice, with a lake in the middle and plenty of beautiful architecture and art work surrounding.


We stopped for a coffee (which was a first) and I botched my order. I was trying to order a iced latte, instead I got iced coffee with green tea. (which is actually a thing on the menu so its not like I butchered it THAT bad, just one wrong word) It was still tasty.

Next we walked over to the Temple which is built inside the university at the base of a mountain. The story is that a single Monk made his home in a cave there. Apparently many of the locals got sick and the monk cured them, so they begged him to stay. It is now home to some of the oldest Buddhist writings in China.

Out side the entrance there was a pond with an unimaginable amount of cat fish in it. Many children where feeding them.



Here is the entrance.


Something I have noticed about many temples and tourist attractions that is different than from attraction in the US is that they are not at all set apart from the daily hustle and bustle. Many times a famous Church or land mark will sort of be out of the way of all the markets and shops. In China it is usually just a door that leads you behind all the shops, then you find what you are looking for.

It is worth showing a few close ups of some of the art work on the roof




Truly beautiful, I am a big fan of the lanterns.


One of the many gods people where praying too.


While it is all quite comical to me, I kept it inside as not to offend anyone. (Which, as I am sure plenty of you know, is a big step for me :D)

We then started to hike the mountain. There where steps all the way up! All along the way there where buildings and statues that looked like this


Many of the rocks had carvings like this


Each of the carvings where about 10 feet up. At each one you could find 5 or 6 people throwing coins up and trying to get them stuck on in the lettering. Apparently this brings good luck. This picture shows it a bit better.



Along the way many cracks and caves where filled with these little guys.






No one could really explain to me what they where. The best description I can give is that apparently you need them when you are dead. Sort of like the Egyptians, I guess.

Everything in China appears to be made to climb. Unfortunately, Chinese people don't seem to want to take advantage of this because every time I decided to climb things I attract a crowd of 10 - 20 people and get told "Its dangerous". When asked "why?" there seems to be no response. Maybe its because they have farther to fall. Questioning is not the forte of many Chinese.




The view from my rock.


The Island you can just barely make out in the back ground is actually Taiwan.

Unlike Hong Kong most of the stuff in the air is actually clouds not pollution.

Towards the top the statues and things thinned out but the people did not. Oddly the top was not filled with families and places to see the view, but had a food vendor, a construction project, and people playing cards everywhere. All very strange. We had to walk another good half mile to get away from it all and rest. Litter is also something that is a big problem here, there was a fair amount of garbage which was really to bad because everything else was so beautiful. Here is another rock I climbed/picture I thought demonstrated how beautiful it was.



We did eventually find a nice look out place.


Pollution and gamblers aside it was all still very beautiful and a good hike. If I had to guess I would say it was probably only 1.5 miles but pure elevation climbing.

Afterward I took the bus home and took a quick nap. I was then invited over to Shita's house for dinner with everyone form the office plus Steve and Sarah. Shita and Sarah's cooking was fantastic! Some of the best food I have eaten here so far. I have asked her to teach me to prepare a few things including a tofu dish and a Cucumber dish I thought Dan would particularly enjoy.

We ended the night by me teaching every one 2 drinking games we played in College much to everyone delight. (Kings and Up The River for those of you who played along with me in past years) It was very entertaining. Highlights would probably be "9: Bust a Rhyme" "Categories" for obvious reasons.

All in all a very nice day. I am fortunate to have such nice coworkers that are willing to entertain me all the time! Maybe some time soon I'll do some home work and show them some times I have discovered.

Until next time.

Xiamen Horticulture Expo Garden

Well I officially regret not buying 2 camera batteries. Gonna have to track another down here.

Yesterday was another fun adventure. We went to the Xiamen Horticulture Expo Garden. This massive (6 mile by 5 mile) garden was built 2 years ago to celebrate the different architectures and cultures all over the country.

The garden is built over 3 different Islands with bridges connecting them. Here's the entrance.


I would guess that each province or cultural section got about half a square mile each in which they have built scaled down buildings and classic land marks. They all had a pretty basic format.

The first part was an entrance arch designed in that cultures traditional architecture like so...


At a glance many have similar over all structure, but the difference are in the colors, woods, paintings, and carvings. Here are two others for comparison.




After that there is a traditional garden with plants and statues from that province like these









And then there is usually their most famous building.





There was also usually a building dedicated too showing some kind of culture

Some had dancers


Some had cool Buddha statues


Others had amazing lanterns


Beautiful painting


And traditional writings



There where pretty Chinese lanterns pretty much everywhere.



And of course the obligatory group shot.

There are actually three other people with us "Jen", Lily (company accountant), and "Peter" (who is probably the most similar person to me I have met so far, also speaks decent English) all of whom are taking pictures. From left too right: Asila (company secretary) Me (like its hard to pick me out) "Jen's" younger brother and Lily's friend who's name I can't remember and didn't say a word the whole time.

Blah, and unfortunately this is again where my stupid camera battery goes dead. We are really only half way threw and I didn't even get to take a good picture of the Emperors palace or the rising moon! Might just google it and add them later!

The second half of the day and 3rd Island was dedicated to the different Universities in each province. The major part was on ancient Chinese learning and then a 1 mile by one mile section was carved up with different arches from about 30 different Universities represented from all over China.

I'm annoyed because I took some pictures on my cell phone but can't see to figure out how to get them on my computer. Anyway, I did snap a picture of one of the school arches because it translated to "Northeastern University", so Dan, I have a picture of it for you when I figure it out. haha

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Until next time.