templicity
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Google Maps. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
This post is about a 24km walk from Zhengding to Shijiazhuang. I visit a few temples and help out a Buddhist monk.
For those of you who might have been wondering what my room (my cold room) looked like last night:
The glowing disc is the electrical heater I paid 8 yuan for yesterday. It will burn you if you touch it, but it doesn’t heat the room.
Anyway, When I peeked out from my sleeping bag this morning I discovered that the owner had turned off the electricity at some point in the morning hours. You know what that means: No power, no glowing disc.
What the hell, I thought, and decided to make a quick move to find some cultural relics that would cheer me up.
And find them I did:
This one is Kaiyuan Temple ๅผๅ ๅฏบ. It’s from the Tang Dynasty (ๅ 618-907), and it has a big turtle made of stone and a bell tower as friends.
Then I ran into a hobby falconer who was training with his bird:
He told me this was a ้ผ (it took me a while to find this character – it reads sun and means “falcon”). You could get one for about 1.000 rmb.
I wondered If I could get a falcon to sit on my shoulder while I was walking. I could ask them to mess with other people’s hair whenever we felt like it…
-hold that thought-
Next temple:
Linji Temple ไธดๆตๅฏบ. After having seen so many different temples in this place, I was descending into a “seen-one-seen-em-all” kind of mood. It was all beginning to bore me a little. But then I noticed this monk sitting there on the left side of the gate.
Damn, that guy is so tuned into his meditation thing, I thought, he’s like totally zen and stuff, doesn’t even notice me, how cool is that?
Then I got the tele out:
The master of zen turning out to be just a dude on his phone?
I went over to inquire: “Hello, master, what are you doing?”
The dude got very happy when he saw me. I was a foreigner, so maybe I could help him fix his problem? He had somehow switched his mobile phone language to English and was desperately trying to change it back.
Last temple:
Guanghui Temple ๅนฟๆ ๅฏบ. I know this has been a lot of temples for you to look at, but Zhengding has so many of them and you gotta appreciate them as they come.
I climbed up and checked out the road to walk from Zhengding to Shijiazhuang:
Dusty.
Then I went back down and got on that dusty road, facing south, toward the old town gate.
Three hours later I was in the capital of Hebei Province – Shijiazhuang:
It seemed to be a typical Chinese city – lots of people in tall buildings:
These are corn crackers sold on the street.
There was construction going on everywhere, which reminded me of Beijing:
And it all felt very different from the countryside I’d been walking through for the last few weeks:
It’s kind of weird being in a place like this now. One thing I’ve noticed is that there are good-looking women everywhere! I don’t know if it’s really because there are so many of them here, or if it’s rather because I’ve been spending so much time in the countryside.
Anyway I’m staying in a nice hotel which costs me about 150 rmb for the night. The heating works like a charm, and I’m getting my clothes washed, too.
Maybe I’ll stick around tomorrow, or maybe I’ll leave.
Good night.
Jean-Luc
…endlich mal gute Musik
Ghostie
Good night! Get some good rest; it's good you're getting warmed up!
Christoph
Jean-Luc: Immer nur das Beste!!
Ghostie: This has been the bestest night in a long time, didn't even use my sleeping-bag for once!
Lilu
Hehe, Chrischie zurück in der Zivilisation…
Christoph
Habe mich im nächsten Eintrag dieses Ausdrucks bemächtigt, hoffe, du hast nix dagegen!
Lilu
Nicht doch, nicht doch! So leiste auch ich meinen kleinen Beitrag…;-)
Christoph
Lilu immer bescheiden
Musiker Pirmasens
Hello just thought i would tell you something.. This is twice now i've landed on your blog in the last 3 weeks searching for totally unrelated things. Spooky or what?
Christoph
What were you looking for? ๐