On Thursday, we had the chance to hike up to Haiyuan temple. Our small group of students and friends started the hike in typical fashion, walking down a busy street and past a massive construction project:
As we started up the mountain, we stopped to peek through a hole in the door of an old church. Notice the Chinese character painted to the left of the door: it means “destroy” and is written on many old buildings standing in the path of modernization (in this case, the third ring road around our city).
According to the caretaker (whom we met in a small house behind the church), about 100 people still gather here for Sunday services. As you can see through the door hole, it’s pretty basic and probably hasn’t changed much since it was built 20 years ago:
It has been good to have Timothy here getting acclimated to China. He has joined us for some student lunches, English corners, and outdoor adventures:
On the way up the mountain, one of our students introduced us to some wild berries that she claimed to be edible. They looked a great deal like the pyracantha berries on the side of our house in the USA (which we always heard were poisonous), so I wondered if it was just a set-up by other students to get rid of the teacher before final exam week. But she ate them by the handful, so we tried a few and have yet to suffer ill effects. A quick internet search shows that, contrary to popular belief, pyracantha berries are bitter but not toxic:
Upon arrival at the temple, we walked around and saw the various buildings and objects of worship, including this large Buddha statue:
Nearby was an old woman working her way through a string of prayer beads, prompting a discussion about why and what people worship. One of the members of our hiking group asked a good question: does it make more sense to worship a statue made with hands or the God who made our hands?
We enjoyed the lunch served by the temple cooks: our group of eight had “all-you-can-eat” rice and veggies for 40 Yuan (about $7). The green stuff in the leftmost bowl turned out to be a wild variety of spinach that they had collected on the mountain the day before, and was actually good enough for us to ask for two extra helpings. Timothy was the first to taste the preserved tofu (with red pepper garnish), promptly warning us to maintain a safe distance:
Many of the trees near the temple are “decorated” with bags of ashes left over from “tomb-sweeping day.” During the ceremonies of remembrance, people burn paper money at the graves of their deceased relatives, then package up the money remains and hang them from trees, allegedly for use by the dead:
As I said in previous post, this hike is conveniently close to our school and quickly gets you out of the city. Once you emerge from the valley and forest, the feeling of isolation quickly disappears:
I love reading about all your new adventures!