Wutai Shan

So here we are in Wutai Shan!  This is going to be a quick post because my lap top is dying and I forgot to bring a converter with me to plug in my laptop. Anyways, Watai Shan is a GORGEOUS beautiful just absolutely breath taking town situated in the mountains.  It is a town full of temples where monks actually live and practice as well as villagers who have set up shops and restaurants.  The ride to get to here took a good 7-8 hours.  We took a 2 hour bus ride from Pingyao to a city called Taiyuan; the  bus had no a/c and was horribly hot.  We then had to get a taxi from the bus station... and I am almost positive our driver was tipsy... the taxi reeked of alcohol after we got into it and he also over charged us but we didn't feel like haggling to lower the price.  After we got to another bus station we took a 5 hour bus ride to the hills of Wutai Shan!

We saw 4 temples today and each one is very different and very beautiful with figures of Bodhisattva's and Buddhist beings.  I wish we had a guide or some way to translate the writings at the temples so we could better understand what it is that we were seeing and the history behind it.

The trek to see these temple is INSANE.  There are stony paths and crazy steep stairs to get up into the mountains and the temples. The view is breath taking- once you're up there all the problems of the world simply melt away and you are surrounded by the unprecedented beauty surrounding you- just in a state of bliss :)

*decided to not take the stairs down and instead take the path that the horses take!

On the second day at Wutai Shan we decided to go hiking.  Wutai Shan is a pilgrimage town with five terraces.  Each of these are about 25 km away in each direction (north, east, south, west) from the main village.  We were unable to see the five terraces with temples because they were so far away and we were only there for a short amount of time. However, the hiking was awesome!

 On the mountain we ran into a sheep herder with his flock of sheep and talked for a bit (it's really helpful that Keith knows enough Chinese to get around quite well). Because the hills were so steep, we couldn't see the top... and once we reached the top we literally ran into a herd of cows.  It was so scary because we were about 5 yards away from a cow and her three calves.  We slowly backed away trying not to disturb their peace and thankfully we got away A okay but we were definitely not expecting to run into cows at the top! 

And of course the street food was amazing.  We had tons of barbequed lamb, pork, veggies, and tofu.  It was definitely spicy and I'm surprised I could handle it! I guess I'm really starting to get used to spicy foods now.  Keith and I also decided to drink a beer with every meal because we feel like the little alcohol content in it has kept us from getting any food poisoning or any kind of sickness from the food that we eat. 

We left Wutai Shan for Beijing and plan to spend the rest of the trip in Beijing seeing the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and all the other must see's Beijing has to offer.