Temple Stay at Shebaoshan

Shebaoshan is a small Bai(ethnic Chinese minority) village situated on the side of a mountain. The air, I feel, is much heavier and we all get tired pretty easily if we physically exert ourselves for too long. Every day, the crepuscular clouds cover part of the mountains to form an Arcadian landscape unlike any I’ve yet to see. As the day goes on, the mountain comes alive with the incessant howling of the thief monkeys who stole our grapes. Their howls seem to attrite the clouds, driving them away gradually, and call forth the sun. The giant incense burners are lit to pay tribute to the Buddha ensconced at the side of the mountain and the temple doors open to welcome the devoted. 

In the coming days, a GeHui(music festival) will be held and travelers from around Yunnan will come to see the performances. When night falls, the temple fills with random people dancing and singing. On a couple of occasions, they even taught us their dances and we were able to join in. In one instance, we were even shooed downstairs by the temple owners who were afraid we would break the second floor with our dancing and our jumping. At Shebaoshan, barely anyone speaks Mandarin yet as evinced by our ability to partake in their fun, it really doesn’t matter.

A Fresh Start in Kunming

The first day in Kunming, we headed over to Cui Hu Gong Yuan(Green Lake Park) a few blocks away. We met Long Yun, another one of our Dragons instructors, who taught us some Taiji. As we were going through the motions, a crowd of people surrounded us and continued to stare at us throughout the entire session. I just laughed and lost my balance a couple of times because of it.

After Taiji, we headed to a noodle shop for breakfast, but before getting there we had to cross a couple of streets, which is actually a big deal for an inexperienced foreigner in China. I first look across the wide gap that stands between me and the next place where I’ll feel safe. The entire group tries to steadily walk across, but a herd of Lamborghinis and Mercedes impede our path. We dart pass them and simultaneously swerve through the wild motorcycles. First street, done. Even now that I’m back in Kunming, I still ask myself where the traffic lights are?

That same day, we visited a temple in the middle of the city and it was incredible to see the ancient nestled in the midst of so much modern. There was a large door through which was found an even larger gate designed in a style appropriate with its age. Here, we were given some time to reflect and meditate on our new environment as well as a chance to become Ninja(a fast-paced, hand-slapping game) champions.

At night, we went to see a show hosted by Miao people that Jesse invited us to. The Miao were converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century and religion plays a major part in their culture, so many of the songs were actually hymns.

The very next day, we prepared to leave Kunming for Shebaoshan(Stone Treasure Mountain) a few hours away by sleeper bus and mianbaoche(literally “bread vehicle”).  

Goodbye, U.S.A. and Ni Hao, China

We left the US on August 28^th and we arrived in Beijing on August 30^th. What? Yes, we lost an entire day upon crossing the International Date Line.

While in Beijing, the novelty had already begun. As we walked across the long halls of the Beijing Airport, we received a little more than a couple of stares (or a lot of stares). Jessie, our Dragons instructor, reassured us and said that in China, it wasn’t considered rude to stare, and that frankly, we were a strange sight for them. While there, we all played a card game called Tarot, a game which we would play very often as a group in the weeks to come. While we were playing, a couple with a child was staring at us blatantly. The man came up to us and asked if he could take a picture of all of us with his little girl. We all felt a mix of awkwardness, but acquiesced nonetheless. When the little girl came towards us,however she started crying and the picture was never realized.

After waiting for a couple of hours in Beijing, the plane headed to Kunming finally arrived. It would take another four hours to get to Kunming and upon hearing that, I felt uneasy. I had never before experienced any sensation like claustrophobia, but I would imagine it feels somewhat like what I felt during that fourteen-hour ride: a forlorn sense of desperation as your mind cries out for rescue from the unbearable tedium(yes, it was very dramatic). I was mentally preparing myself before takeoff and attempting to call forth sleep, so that the tedium would be bearable when the man next to me introduces himself. I also introduce myself with the little bit of Chinese I know and he asks me to sit next to him. The gesture makes me feel welcomed (and slightly uneasy just because that doesn’t happen very often in the US) and though we both have elementary knowledge of each other’s language, we were still able to talk for almost the entire four hours. He told me a little bit about himself. He is from Sichuan, but works in Beijing and was heading to Kunming to visit a friend and his sister. He also had a meeting the next day, so after a while I tried assuring him it wouldn’t be rude of him to go to sleep. He eventually did, but not before he taught me a couple of phrases in the Sichuanese dialect and some animal names from a kids’ show that was playing. Upon arrival to Kunming, we headed to the Lost Garden Guest House, and without any resistance, collapsed under sleep’s unrelenting hold.  

Back to Kunming...with some good and bad news

Our group arrived in Kunming on October 4th, but since then I've been unable to access blogger from my own laptop. Unfortunately, blogger is banned in China and my VPN refuses to work, however I will be continuing to blog by writing the posts on my own laptop and borrowing a friend's to post them up every so often. This coming week, I hope to put up one or two posts about the last seven or so weeks that I've been in China as well as upload some pictures, so continue checking up on the blog! I apologize for the wait and hope you can bear with me for these coming weeks!