Camo Monks and Sub-Tropical Snow

Boxing day we didn't do too much. We slept in walked around Chendu and Renmin Gongyuen Peoples Park. It was nice to relax a bit and have no plans for the day. The park was like a city gardens, with differnt gardens sections, a lake with boats, a childrens fair, a tea house and lots of people out with their families on a Sunday afternoon.

Today we got up early to get the tour bus to Qingchen Shan, Azure City mountain. It is a Taoist monastery built during the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). There was a 2 hour hike up the mountain through sub-tropical forest and various temples. There are still approximately 100 monks living there. Most have shaved heads wearing brown outfits (karate style top and pants) trimmed in the 'traditional' camo material. They offered everyone a lift up the mountain in a bamboo stretcher/chair. It was a beautiful place, very lush and green, and quiet except for the monks. For the first half of the hike the sounds of traditional music could be heard through the fake rock speakers that lined the path. The higher up we hiked the foliage began to be covered in snow. By the time we reached the top at 1600m everything was cvered in 2 inches of snow. It was strange seeing tropical type plants covered in snow but was very beautiful. Planted by one of the temples was a huge 1000+ year old Ginko tree. Before we started the climb we noticed locals loading bricks into their basket backpack things. Throughout the day we passed men and women carrying bricks to the top where they are renovating one of the buildings. Some of them looked so old that we thought they would collapse along the way. We will remember them next time we complain about our jobs.

After reacing the top and looking out across the half frozen mountains we stopped and bought some instant noodles from a skanky old man and sat and ate them to warm us up. We hiked back down a different way through some bamboo forest, over a lake, where the ferry stopped working for repairs the trip before ours. We were picked up by a guy in a suit captaining a small dinghy with an electric motor.

Back at Chengdu we set out to get some dinner, but lacking a clear translation of menus we ended up at Pizza Hut. We paid way too much but we knew what it was. We think. We did some shopping, went to Kodak to burn some CDs and had another $2.50AU massage before heading to bed.