Off The Beaten Path

Sunrise And Sunset. HuangShan

I woke up at 4:30 am, in order to get to the best possible place to watch the sun come up in the morning. I was drooling at the thought of getting to the best points early, so as to get to the best point to take shots of the sunrise.

Too late.

By the time I got up to the point, I found that there was half of China's population already thronging the various vantage points along the way. Cursing below my breath, I finally came to a high point, where I found a bunch of fellows parked perilously at the edge, with tripods.

This was the point. I have a kind soul, else I would have wished them a speedy trip down the steep falls to the bottom.

It was April, and I was warmly clad in a borrowed jacket. The chilly breeze necessitated this. The mountain peaks in HuangShan go as high as almost 2,000 metres above sea level, and when you are up there, there is not much between you and the wind.

The mountains had been raised from the earth about 100 million years ago, and the entire area is a universe of fantastic rock formations, hot springs and waterfalls. It is a truly beautiful area. If, like me, you like mountains, then this is love at first sight.

In this collection, I have not put up photographs of the pines, but HuangShan is dotted with them. They cling to the rock face, and many of them have truly interesting shapes. In the Chinese tradition, many of the points of interest have extremely flowery names, when translated into English. The names are much better in the original Chinese.

"Greeting Guest Pine", "Lying Dragon Pine", "Exploring Sea Pine", "Lotus Flower Peak", "Dreamy Heavenly Capital Peak" are names that sound quite ridiculous in English, but sound rather good, rather poetic in Chinese!

The names, funny or not, cannot distract the beauty from some of the most fantastic mountain formations you will ever see.

 

The previous evening, after a glorious afternoon, when the sun was out in all its majesty, the sun set. I scrambled up to take some pictures, but got there a bit late. However, the sun, in it's death throes lit up the sky in shades of red before retiring for the night.

I was a bit disappointed with my photography, because I was a bit late and, because I chose the wrong point. 

However, my disappointment is just that - my personal disappointment.

In it's beauty, Nature rules.

 

The Steep Climb At HuangShan

We woke up in the morning of the second day, to do our long walk back. I had woken up at 4 am, to catch the sunrise, and was pretty sleepy. I am not going to put up any of the sunrise pictures on this blog site. Or, maybe I will. I will figure out. I will be leaving for Singapore three hours from now, and I shall decide on what I want to do when I get back.

One part of our group went down to see an ancient township, and to do some shopping. The rest of us, intrepid adventurers that we were, decided to walk, climb, and to explore the area.

I was the only one who was carrying anything more significant than a pair of sunglasses. The walk was long, and this was fine. There were sections where the steps that were cut into the wall were steep. They seemed to be almost cut vertically into the wall, and I was determined that I was not going to look back, and down.

Vertigo, I told myself, at times; the weight of the camera bag would pull me into the void, is what I told myself at other times. However, at no time did I consciously tell myself that there were many times when my heart was in my stomach. 

However, I was brave enough to take photographs whenever the opportunity presented itself. 

When I took the pictures, like the one above, I was struck by how puny we looked against the mountainside. I was struck, like many times, by the magnificence of nature. 

However, like many times, I was struck by how human nature can rise, and fall. 

I am sure that many people who climbed up the steps were crapping little bricks, but they went up anyway, conquering their fear. And, there were others who had themselves carried up and down in a litter. 

But, what of the people who actually cut the steps into the mountain side? This indeed was a superb act of achievement. 

When we reached one of the high points, we were presented with a magnificent scene. Even though there was considerable haze in the sky, the mountain scenery was breathtaking. 

I have always loved the mountains. I grew up in the mountains, and it is in the mountains where my soul lives. 

Looking out over the mountain scenery that afternoon in April, I could have lived there forever. 

 

At HuangShan. The village town in the evening

Yes, I have borrowed the map, to indicate where in China, you can find HuangShan. It is in the southern corner of Anhui province, which is a little south west of Shanghai.

There are some amazing tourist spots in Anhui. The most notable of these is HuangShan, however, in this entry you don't get to see some of the scenery. That is for a later post.

We ended up in the town at the end of the visit, and walked around the market place.

We went into the market area, and walked around looking at the shops selling touristy stuff. It was quite late at night. Possibly, it was 9 pm or so, or it was between 8 pm and 9 pm. I remember, we had a very late night flight back to Shanghai, and we had an hour after dinner, before leaving for the airport.

I was, as usual, walking around with my camera. I did not use my tripod, which is why many of the pictures that I took were not sharp. However, I was in more of a mood to catch the mood, than to take razor sharp pictures.

While the shots look bright, I think that they capture the rather gloomy aura in the shops. Empty shops, idle tourists,  a lot of money stuck in merchandise that will probably never been sold, shopkeepers waiting in desparate hope that one, just one tourist, will buy something. However, as the world poulation grows, our homes will become smaller, and there will be less and less space to keep stuff. So, what do you buy, and how much?

Yet, the shopkeepers wait for people like us, to buy their wares. Till then, they while away the time in idle gossip.

 

Elsewhere, the lady sits on the stool with her child, possibly waiting for him to grow up, possibly waiting for her husband to return home. It was a warm day, so she was possibly just sitting there to get away from the oppressive heat in her small home.

Bombay has a lot of life on the streets, and this is supposed to represent an explosion of energy. I just think that it is better for the people to be on the streets than at home.

The lady sat and waited while I clicked my camera button. I don't think that she really gave a damn for me.

Clearly, the economic miracle of China seems to have passed Anhui by, despite the steady influx of tourists.

 

Tian Tan - The Temple Of Heaven

I went to The Temple of Heaven in the winter of 2005/2006. I think that this was in January 2006. I had just moved to Beijing, leaving my family behind in Shanghai. They were to, as per the original plan, move to Beijing in the summer of 2006. We moved to Singapore instead. 

I remember that I responded to an Ad in the "That's Beijing" magazine, out of sheer idleness. This young Chinese-American fellow who was making a film, was looking for people to accompany him to various places in Beijing. We met, for the first time, at the Temple of Heaven, and slowly, the group of people who used to explore Beijing, cameras in hand, expanded. We're all linked on Facebook, but.....

The Tian Tan was built during the years 1405-1420, by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This is the same gentleman who built the Forbidden City. If you consider what he has built, all that I can say is that, he had considerable foresight in building these places. They have been used considerably by the Ming and Qing Emperors, and are some of the most magnificent places that you can see. 

The Tian Tan was a complex of Taoist buildings, which was later expanded in the 16th century by the JiaJing Emperor. In 1918, it was opened to the public. 

That day in January 2006 was a bitterly cold day, and while I have always prided myself on my ability to resist cold, I have to say, that a temperature of -9 degrees centigrade coupled with strong winds was quite something, and after a while I had to wear a cap and gloves. The complex is pretty open, and when the cold wind comes howling down from the mountains, then yes, you know that the wind is blowing! I remember seeing these young girls - tour guides - standing on one of the pathways in their thick jackets, literally hopping and jumping in one place to try and keep warm.

During my many visits to the Hutongs, I was always struck by the old people enjoying the music and dancing in the evening. 

As we entered the Tian Tan, and walked down the passageways to the main temple complex, we noticed lots of local people, like the ones you see above, singing, playing their instruments and really enjoying the day out. 

There is no pressure, no rush. While so called high powered executives like me can sneer and talk about the productive use that we often make with our time, we don't give ourselves the time to pause and savour the moments of life that pass us by. In the end, we all end up as ashes or dust. While we will be remembered for what we did, it is often the positive impact that we create that benefits other people. 

Taking the time to enjoy the music of nature simply allows us to receive positive vibrations, and to pass them on. 

Mama Kuko would be proud of the people in the picture above.