The Sacred Buddhist Temples Of Anhui Jiu Hua Mountains 安徽九華山
Posted On Thursday, November 5, 2015 at at 10:30 PM by Alvin
Welcome to Jiu hua Mountains (九華山), one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains of China - a site which had been the practice and prayer grounds for the Buddhist disciple Dizang (地藏). Jiu Hua Mountains had been the destination for worshippers since the Tang Dynasty (circa 600 A.D.) and still today attracted dedicated followers in the thousands; while we were stationed here, we came across hordes of Buddhist practitioners donned in their grey gowns and practised chanting Buddhist mantra as others listened and debated Buddhist scriptures and learnings with the leading monks. One word of warning to any would-be visitors, you would be pleasantly stunned with the enormous size of the tens of temples here as well as the giant statues housed inside these shady dwellings; to name just a few of the famous ones, we visited 東崖禪寺、回香閣、地藏禪寺、肉身殿、天台寺、上禪堂、百歲宮、甘露寺、化城寺、祇園寺、旃檀林、慧居寺. One of the statues of Dizang stood at a whopping height of 99 metres, that's about the height of your average suburban high-rise buildings of 30 storeys ! All these temples were dotted all around the picturesque mountains and we walked amongst the red, golden and verdant Autumn leaves to visit these temples in turn, it was tiring but well-worth the effort as we were rewarded with the delightful vista of the design and construction of these gigantic temples. We attained a sense of peacefulness and felt energised and refreshed after visiting these holy mountains for the past four days.
Anhui Jiu Hua Mountains - Hiking In The Autumn Colors Of 安徽九華山
Posted On Sunday, November 1, 2015 at at 7:39 PM by Alvin
Jiang Xi Wu Yuan (江西 婺源) - Nostalgic Villages, Spectacular Waterfalls And Stunning Caves
Posted On Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at at 7:19 PM by Alvin
Wu Yuan (婺源) - nestled in the southern corner of Jiang Xi Province (江西) would be our playground for a few days as around a 20 KM radius of this understated yet beautiful county, we would visit the "most beautiful collection of villages in China", the Wolong National Park (臥龍谷) and the colorful limestone caves of 靈岩洞. But first thing first, we took the bullet train from Shenzhen (深圳) to Wu Yuan with an over night stop in Fuzhou (福州) and the average speed of the bullet train was running at around 300 KM per hour - fast, efficient and comfortable. Mind you, although the train was running at such high speed, we marveled the passing farmlands and cities without feeling any dizziness as apparently the windows were designed with special glasses to reduce travel sickness !
We spent four days cosy-ed up in this pleasant county and took our time in exploring the sleepy villages nearby of 思溪、延村、李坑、汪口、江灣、江嶺、曉起; each village had something different to offer - nostalgia, sheer beauty, aesthetic Hui-styled architecture (徽派建築) and endless Royal Chrysanthemum (皇菊) bright golden flower fields in full bloom. We took a bus to the nearby Wolong National Park and hiked up and down the valley along the river bed and encountered a series of spectacular waterfalls of all shapes and sizes - gushing, petite, roaring, trickling, deafening, moody, hanging and of course supreme pristine fresh air - full of charged ions ! On the next day, an hour's bus ride took us to the limestone caves of 靈岩洞 and we were not expecting much as we had been to a few of these caves before on various occasions, but we were happily surprised by the excellent boat ride at the end of our cave expedition (led by an informative lady guide) which sped us through colorfully lit, but still spooky underground waterways and we felt like James Bond being chased down by some villains - exhilarating and adrenaline-charged, we now felt ready to tackle our next part of this journey - the daunting and sacred Jiu Hua Shan Mountains (九華山).
Wonderful Journey On The Silk Road (絲綢之路) Along The Huang He Western Corridor (河西走廊)
Posted On Thursday, September 17, 2015 at at 2:18 AM by Alvin
It had been such a wonderful journey on this section of The Silk Road (絲綢之路) along the Huang He Western Corridor (河西走廊) these past weeks - we saw the mighty Huang He trundling across the provincial capital Lanzhou (蘭州); we also came across what might have been the fantasy land for a geologist, Zhang Ye (張掖) with its colorful sandstone erosion and mineral deposits; we marveled at the ancient strategic stronghold of Jia Yu Quan (嘉峪關) under the shadows of the Qilian Mountains (祁連山); we came face to face with art works dating from 1,500 years ago in Dunhuang (敦煌 莫高窟) as well as meeting Gordon the desert Gecko (also face to face ... see photo below) at the wonderful oasis spring of 鳴沙山月牙泉 and last but not least, the aerial views of the majestic Qilian (祁連山) Mountain ranges on a bright sunny morning. What a trip !
Dunhuang (敦煌) - The Most Wonderful Buddhist Grottoes (莫高窟) And Oasis Spring (鳴沙山 月牙泉)
Posted On Wednesday, September 16, 2015 at at 1:51 AM by Alvin
Well, some towns sure got lucky and Dunhuang (敦煌) had been blessed with such luck - agreeable dry and sunny climate, fertile soils, plenty of produce, oasis springs fed by the snow-capped mountains from afar and of course the site was picked by a Buddhist monk from around 200 A.D. as the destiny for the most famous, colorful, artistic, contents-rich Buddhist grotto site the world had ever known - Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). The site prospered across numerous dynasties over a thousand years and top-notched master craftsman were hard at work to create the 700 caves, 2,500 clay larger-than-life statues, 45,000 square meters of wall paintings and 50,000 rolls of Buddhist scriptures and other documentation - a matchless feat of mankind.
Dunhuang did have its sorry tales - the un-matched stylistic grottoes were looked after by an ignorant monk in around 1,900 A.D. and the grottoes were thus easily negotiated (i.e. raided) by the Indiana Jones of yester-years and loads of priceless artifacts were therefore scattered around the world's museums (namely - British, French, Russian, Japanese) as a result. Sad as the tale was, the Chinese Government now rectified this unfortunate mistake and had paid tremendous effort in the preservation in these grottoes. For starters, pre-booked daily entrance would be kept to a maximum of 6,000 visitors and only a few of the caves would be opened to public. We spent a whole day at the site - viewing 2 stunning movies at a 360 degrees theater, visiting the caves themselves, the museum and subsequently chilling out under the well-maintained tree canopy to soak up the unique atmosphere of this renowned site.
Next up was the wonderful moon-shaped oasis spring (月牙泉) of Mingsha Shan (鳴沙山) - the oasis spring sprouted up from the middle of the desert and had never been known to dry up. The setting of the moon-shaped oasis spring was spectacular as it was located in a trough surrounded by giant sand dunes and there were large patches of greenery all over Mingsha Shan as the underground spring water went to work to provide the much needed moisture in the desert. Dunhuang city was only 7KM away from the deserts (巴丹吉林沙漠 and 塔克拉瑪幹沙漠) and incidentally, the name Mingsha Shan came from the fact that when the wind picked up, the sand could be heard to swirl and collide and created the sound of thunder claps. We also spent an extra day in this lovely and clean oasis city by visiting the temple of 雷音寺 as well as taking relaxing strolls along the city river of 黨河, passing many of the famous statues of Flying Fairies (飛天 - 佛教中天帝司樂之神). Ah ... such bliss !
Jia Yu Quan (嘉峪關) - The Great Silk Road Fortress In The Shadows Of The Mighty Qilian (祁連山) Mountains
Posted On Friday, September 11, 2015 at at 2:29 AM by Alvin
A couple of thousand years ago, some clever Chinese Emperors came up with the bright idea (good job guys!) of holding The Huns (匈奴) outside the fertile lands and prosperous trade routes along the Silk Road, by building a majestic fortress that would eventually formed the western end of The Great Wall - Jia Yu Quan (嘉峪關). Jia Yu Quan stood imposingly between the Qilian Mountains (祁連山) on the south and The Black Mountains on the north, that would block, stop and defeat The Huns head-on and the incursions and interruptions by these nomadic tribes were kept down for many years, thus allowing The Silk Road to flourish. Yeh, it took a lot of clever strategy, manpower effort, cannons, bows and arrows to maintain The Silk Road and to make this trade route into a legend !
Fast forward to year 2015 and this mighty fort instead welcomed tourists by the bus loads and the history and dramatic location would re-awaken any jaded travellers. We also visited the pleasant new town and strolled along the city river of 討賴河 which was fed year-round by the snow-capped Qilian Mountains; as a result of the constant fresh spring water trundling down these mountain ranges, Jia Yu Quan had been a productive oasis town and the produce which we saw in town, were plentiful which included melons by the truck loads as well as grapes and vegetables of all variety. Such oasis townships would become a constant fixture along The Silk Road during our itinerary; and thus no wonder this stretch of land on the western part of Huang He (popularly known as The Yellow River Western Corridor - 河西走廊) held such importance to successive dynasties in the past. By the way, as we flew out later on during this journey from Dun Huang (敦煌), we witnessed from our comfy aeroplane window seats, almost the whole Qilian Mountain ranges on a bright sunny morning - it was just WOW ! A few photos below - enjoy !
