Went up the bus and started my 5 hour long journey. I slept throughout the whole journey and was only awaken for lunch. We had lunch at a restaurant / hotel that is near to the bus station of the Wu Dang mountain tourist site. It was a simple lunch with fish, potatoes, soup, vegetables, noodles and; oh ya donkey meat. Yup, donkey meat! My poor poor eeyore =(
After lunch, we headed back to the bus for a short drive to the Wu Dang Mountain tourist bus interchange to begin our expedition! The local tour guide told us that there will be 3 main attractions that we will be visiting.
The first attraction that we went to is called "Tai Zi Po", also known as "Crown Price Slope". There are many halls in the compound, and we were not allowed to take photos in some of the structures. The first building that we went into was the, Hall of the God of Wealth. The inside of the building was rather dimly lighted and much colder then outside of the hall. There was a stairway leading to another level in the building, but we were not allowed up. After visiting the Hall of the God of Wealth, we continued walking to another architecture known as "CangJing Tower". The second floor of the tower is used to store the Daoist Inscriptions, two side rooms on the first floor were storekeeper's rooms and a lounge were built to entertain honored guests. After leaving the tower, to move on to our next building, we saw a tree that had many red banners tied around it. We were very curious about what we saw, so we went to ask the tour guide what the significance behind it was about. The tour guide said that the tourist are trying to ask for good wishes for them or their family, and by tying it on the tree that is in the temple, the wishes will be fulfilled. Next, we visited the "Five clouds building". Over here, they served us tea and taught us about the proper way to fully enjoy Chinese tea. But we were looking around to buy gifts for our family, so we didn't manage to drink the tea. =(
After visiting the "Crown prince slope", we boarded the bus and went off to out next destination, Zi Xiao Gong, also known as "Purple cloud temple". The "Purple cloud temple" was built around the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368AD). The "Purple cloud temple" consist of several halls, Dragon and Tiger Hall, the Purple Sky Hall, the East Hall, the West Hall, the Parent Hall and the Prince Cliff. The Purple Sky Hall is enshrined with statues of Zhen Wu at different stages of his life. Statues of Zhen Wu's parents rest in the Parent Hall. On the left side is the Buddhist deity Guan Yin, and on the right is the Shouzi Mother to whom couples traditionally pray for sons. The hall also houses cultural relics, including the Green Dragon Crescent Blade of Guan Yu some of which date back as far as the 7th century.
After exploring the temple, we headed off to our final destination, the hotel!!! It was a long bus ride, and when we reached the final bus stop, it was already 5pm. We took all of our bags and walked down the slope to our hotel. The hotel was huge!! It was divided into 3 blocks, and we stayed in block B. The room was alot better then our dorm, it had a TV and two huge single beds!! But we decided to bunk in with Eline and Meow Lin (they had a bathtub in their toilet!!) =) After setting our bags down, we went off to explore the nearby mountains with the tour guide. She told us that is was our free time, and we are only expected to meet at the restaurant at 6 30pm for dinner. So, we went to explore the mountain!!! We bought ice cream, saugage and corn as the before dinner snack!! ^^ For dinner, we were ushered into the VIP room (because we ate with the malay guys, and they can't eat some of the food. =p) The food was awesome!!! ^^
See ya tommorrow, because we are climbing the mountain!!!!
Reflection
China is rich in both culture and the amount of land that they have. Unlike Singapore, where their lake is the size of our sea, they have so much more scenery then Singapore. Wu Dang mountain has spawned so much myths and legends that have attracted tourist from all over the world, it is now a protected area. It is really a wonder to be able to vist this well - known area.
Loves, Charmaine
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