26 March 2007-3-27
Qingyin Monastery – Wannian Monestery (1020m)
The students weren’t particularly happy about the
hotel yesterday evening. Perhaps it was the generally
run down air of the place of the spiders in Casey’s
room. I suppose they were rather large. Or it could
have been the rudimentary plumbing – the pipes that
stuck out of the wall and the ancient, rusted switch
boxes that had once controlled the hot water boilers.
Mind you, such plumbing was reserved for the better
rooms. Some had no toilet at all. The worst room was
the one with the Western style toilet. It hadn’t been
plumbed in, but it had been used. Not much chance of
putting a bucket of water down it either – there
wasn’t one. Still, the beds and sheets were spotlessly
clean and it was a good place to sleep. Sometimes you
have to rough it a bit.
Before breakfast I decided to take a walk down to the
monastery. A pipe had been dripping all night and I
thought that the path might be slippy, so I took
special care. Thirty seconds later and I was flying
down the stairs, camera held high in the air to save
it from damage.
If you were to ask the students about today’s walk
they would, I am sure, shout “Steps, thousands of
steps.” We followed a route through the forest past
small tea houses and mountain monasteries, each linked
by beautifully crafted granite steps. Thousands of
them. This area is very popular with Chinese tourist
groups and as each one passed we were regaled with
dozens of “Nee How” greetings.
Well dressed in cheap suits and following yellow flag
bearing guides, they were a cheerful lot. They
weren’t carrying packs. They weren’t swearing and they
were going down hill. Nevertheless, they were kind
enough to keep on telling us that we were strong.
As yesterday, the group spread out quite a bit, but
nobody was particularly slow. We reached Wannian
Monastery in good time, dumped the packs and had an
early lunch.
Rested and refreshed we set off to walk to the next
monastery up the mountain, but this time without
packs. There were no complaints until the top of the
first major flight of steps. Then, or so I heard
later, the complaining began. The steps were steep and
seemingly never ending. No sooner had we reached the
top of a flight of 300 or so than we would round the
corner and see another impossibly long flight soaring
skywards. Quite intimidating. Some of the girls who
hadn’t made much attempt to get fit before the trip
were suffering a little, but their difficulty was, I
felt, more lack of determination than lack of ability.
This was confirmed when they reached the monastery
only 2 or 3 minutes after everybody else, and with
huge grins on their faces.
At the monastery, we split into two groups, the slower
students and the ones who didn’t feel like tackling
any more steps went back down. The stronger walkers
continued upwards, covering about the same distance
again, to the next monastery.
The steps are, in places, still being built. They are
quite an achievement, as each stone and bag of sand
and cement has to be carried up on the backs of men
and ponies. Hard work, especially as the labourers are
paid by the kilo transported.
Returning to the Wannian Monastery, where we were to
spend the night was no easy feat. We had to return the
way we had come. Going down is often harder than going
up, and there were quite a few wobbly and stiff legs
by the time we got to the bottom.
The Wannian Monastery is a glorious place, so peaceful
despite the bustle of tourists, monks and monastery
staff.
Having spent sometime stretching in an effort to avoid
stiffness after the climb, I walked around the
monastery grounds taking photographs.
We ate wonderful vegetarian food in the monastery
dining room – once more tofu and soya produces
prepared to seem like meat.
IN the evening we had the students go off and find a
quiet place to sit and write and think for half an
hour. They seemed to enjoy this and so we let them
take longer. After that we all gathered in an open
pavilion and asked the Chinese guide questions about
Buddhism, Chinese culture and politics.
We finished the evening by learning to count in
Chinese – this time to 41.
The monastery accommodation is clean and basic -
dormitories in a beautiful old wooden building. The
walls don’t go to the ceiling however and I could hear
every thing that was being said in the building …
