Hanging Monastery and Hengshan Mountain: (admission: arm, leg, and first born child)

A construction riddle.

The second day, Johanna and I headed out for the famous Hanging Monastery just outside of Datong. The transportation to the monastery gets a little sketchy as there is no direct bus and definitely no direct way of coming back to Datong. We embarked on a series of taxis, vans, and busses to get out to the monastery. Finding ourselves with the whole day to do what we wanted, we learned about Hengshan Mountain, just on the other side of the Hanging Monastery. We decided to add this to our itinerary and headed out to visit one of five Taoist sacred Chinese mountains.

Hengshan Mountain is traditionally called Beiyue or North Sacred Mountain and is home to 108 peaks averaging 2,017 meters above sea level. Wanting a bird's eye view of the beautiful gorge below (and being short on time), Johanna and I elected to ride the steep chairlift to the top of the mountain. The sounds of the chairlift were the only noise to be heard on the way to the top. The solemn mountain gave a calming feeling as we were left to be with nature. The only interrupting sounds were the familiar rumble over the lift supports; it reminded me of ski season and suddenly gave me the urge to go skiing. Hengshan Mountain is riddled with different temples and important landmarks for a plethora of religion. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism can all find places of worship here, but after the long hike, it is not hard to see why some may decide to stay on the mountain. The romantic view of the countryside paired with the temples on the mountain made Hengshan a great place to be.

Monistery Visitors.

Just when we found ourselves getting into the spirit of the place, visitors began a shouting contest that was beyond our understanding. Visitors from all corners of the mountain and in all ages began screaming to each other over the gorge. At first we thought this was some sort of traditional response to something, but later we learned that this was merely an inappropriate spectacle from young people. I am not sure if this goes on frequently at Hengshan Mountain, but it kind of ruined the mood for us. There was one silver lining to the mountain, Johanna and I followed a path without visitors to a cliff at the edge of the gorge. Not a visitor was in sight: solitude. The only person we saw at our time at the cliff was the lonely Taoist caretaker who said nothing but only popped his head up to see who was visiting. I wondered about this man's story. His silver hair was neatly pined in a bun atop his head, his eyes were piercing black. I wondered if he ever came off the mountain or if he ever truly spent time with people; maybe he didn't need to, maybe he was happy alone.

We journeyed off the mountain through the winding stone steps around the gorge. Finding our hired taxi for the day, we headed out to the Hanging Monastery as our next destination. The Monastery upon first glance seems just like a building cleverly positioned on a rock face. The second glance shows you that there is no rock face, how the hanging monastery is supported is still a mystery to me. The painted red beams that support the monastery are ever so especially pinned to the rock face, I felt a little nervous that I would be atop the rickety structure in a matter of minutes.

Beautiful even from up high.

The hike to the monastery is short enough; newly cut stone step guide your path upward before entering the wooden structure. As we climbed, I felt my newly found fear of heights take hold of me; my hands and feet began to sweat and I was fearful of looking over the edge. I was even afraid to take pictures because I thought I would drop my camera to the mountain below. The most nerve racking thing about the monastery is the amount of people filtering through it at any given time. I found a squeaky floorboard and thought that would be the end of us all; it was time to get off the structure.

Although I was scared, I took note of the beautiful details of the structure and the temple rooms to the different deities inside. I still cannot understand who would come up with such a crazy concept for a building and then who would actually be brave enough to construct it. The Hanging Monastery is quite an oddity.

Back in Datong:

Back in Datong, Johanna and I found ourselves pining for the comforts of Beijing. Beijing had become our home and we had found ourselves homesick in China. After a long journey of many pitfalls we encountered along the way, but survived none the less, we decided to go for the one thing that could make the world better: ice cream.

An Epic search ensued for a particular type of popsicle: The Strawberry Empress. This was the one redeeming quality of Datong and no one seemed to have any in their freezer. We searched high and low, going in each and every shop looking for the popsicles. We even befriended a shop keeper with a pet duck, nothing surprises us anymore though. After searching every last upright freezer in Datong, we finally found the last Strawberry Empress in existence. This was the perfect capstone to our final great adventure in China.

So although the time to leave is here, I know that I will return to China one day and once again explore all the rich things she has to offer. There are so many adventures to uncover, cultures to experience, and popsicles to hunt for that I know my absence will be minimal.

(China.org.cn August 19, 2009)