The Great Wall at Mutianyu

Mark and Jamie Schengelburger were in Shanghai with Mark's work and they popped up to Beijing for a visit. The first thing on their list of things to see was the Great Wall. We went to Mutianyu. It was an unseasonably warm, glorious blue-sky day. The best part of this section of the wall is that you can ride a cable-car up to the wall, walk on the wall as long as you want and then ride an Alpine slide back down the mountain.

Mark was busy taking pictures and missed getting on before the door shut, consequently he rode up in a separate car.

We never tire of seeing the wall snake along the mountain.
We are grateful that China opened her boarders so that we can join with tourist from around the world in appreciation of thie great monument.

Meet Paper Xander. Mark and Jamie's son wanted a picture of himself on the Great Wall of China so they brought Paper Xander to the wall.

Easy up and easy down. Mutianyu makes mountain climbing way easy.

YSA Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is a time for family feasting. When we couldn't be with our children and grand children for this favorite holiday we invited the Young Single Adults (YSA's) from church to have turkey and all of the trimmings. The YSA's were from various parts of the World, China, Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Hong Kong and the USA.

Isaac brought Cold Stone ice cream cake for our dessert. Yummy, cold and delicious.

The group minus Isaac who is taking the picture. After dinner we went Caroling to the Hoskin family who live across the way. Fun. Then we got stuck in the elevator. Even more fun.

YSA Great Wall Hike

George has wanted to hike in the mountains surrounding Beijing for a year. When the YSA's planed a hike along the great wall we signed up to go.

This sign warned us that this section of the wall had not been restored. I found it interesting that the sign says "....not open to the public". But the sign was right in front of the toll gate where you bought tickets to enter the area! We decided the sign was there to limit their liability. If we were to fall it would be our very own fault!

The climb up to the wall was difficult for Ruth, for everyone else it was a piece of cake. Good.

Once we reached the wall the climb began to be more interesting. The stairs were irregular in height and depth. In several places the stair had crumbled away leaving us to scramble up rubble.

Sometimes the depth of the stair was so narrow that you needed to hold on with your hands to prevent yourself from tumbling backwards.

Ruth rested as much as she wanted. It was a beautiful day and the scenery inspired contemplation.

Watch out for falling rocks.

A man walking with a load of wood upon his back.

Datong, Shanxi Province, China

We were invited to join with Tiemei's team for a weekend trip to Datong in Shanxi Province. This area is home to several UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites. Ruth was invited to join in the fun so that George could have a 'bus buddy'. As you can see Tiemei's team is mostly young women. They are all young (ave age is 26), and full of life. It made the trip more enjoyable watching them have such a great time together. Traffic was dismal! The supposed 5 hour trip took closer to 8 hours to complete.

A Most beloved elephant--just because.

Our first stop was at Yungang Grottoes. There are over 1,100 caves with some 50,000 sculptures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. These statutes have been around for 1,500 years, and many of them show their age, but all of them are beautiful. The grottoes were Ruth's weekend favorite. She feels that these monuments to Buddha are comparable with the cathedrals of Europe in showing man's devotion to and yearning for something greater than self.

Our next stop was a group of Buddhist temples known as Xuankong or the Hanging Monastery. The 'hanging' temple was George's weekend favorite. He admires the engineering creativity and dogged perseverance it must have taken to build this monastery. The story goes that this canyon area was a vital line of communication and the temple here was very convenient for passing pilgrims. But the Hunhe River would flood whenever there was a storm. The people wanted the temple to be safe from flooding so they built it half way up the mountain on the sheer face of the cliff.

It appears that several wooden pillars are holding up the 40 rooms of this monastery, but we were assured that the pillars are just there for effect and that the removal of a pillar or two would not lessen the structural integrity of the monastery. The two main structures are resting on rock. It seems that first a number of caves had been dug out of the cliff wall and that the major portion of the rooms were built inside these caves with a smaller portion hanging over the edge of the mountain.

Still, it was unsettling to see some of the wooden pillars being kept level by additional wooden strips. But, nevertheless we climbed up the many stairs and journeyed through the bell and drum towers, looked in on the various temple shrines, and climbed up to the upper temples as well. Looking down was troubling and somewhat dizzying but interesting and fun.

We both enjoy the little detailed embellishments of Chinese architecture. What could be more fun than a dragon bell holder?

Or a dragon rainspout with a bell around his neck?

Or a Chinese Cheshire Cat?

It seemed like a contradiction to us, but apparently Chinese Opera can be preformed at the same time people are lighting incense and prayer candles and praying.

The Great White Dagoba

The many forms of prayer offerings.

This is a marvelous tree!

It's branches are growing straight up towards God. It is what a Bodhi tree should look like. If not a Bodhi tree then it should at least be a prayer-tree symbolizing how our prayers travel upwards towards heaven. Actually, our thoughts and actions should also reflect that upwards motion.

Chinese temples are built on a hill or a mountain. There will be many small temples leading ever upwards towards the main temple which is on the highest spot.

Ruth is reading an article on Temple Motifs in Jewish Mysticism where the author (William Hamblin) was saying that "the heavens were conceived of as a vast palatial temple-complex, composed of a series of concentric courts, halls, chambers, and shrines. The heavens are enclosed by a wall which was built of white marble (or crystal)" This seemed like a perfect description of a Chinese Buddhist temple.

The Wutai Mountain is one of the four major Buddhist Mountains in China.

We have seen one, we have three more to see.

The trip to Datong took eight hours the trip home took 12. Nightmare! There were hundreds of huge trucks (maybe coal trucks) traveling on a tiny two lane country mountain road. Our driver was inventive if not down right dangerous in his driving. Notice that he is making a third lane right in the middle of a long line of trucks going both directions. Scary! We tried not to think about it and just be grateful for the forward movement bringing us closer to home.