High again

Good morning from the world's most-climbed mountain. That would be Tai Shan in Shandong province (northeast of Sha'anxi, where we've been until now). The mountain is sacred to Taoists and Buddhists and who knows who else? When we stopped at one of the innumerable temples on the way up so that I could light incense and pray, the attendants had cropped haircuts and different suits than the Taoists we'd encountered in other temples. Plus, there was recorded chanting of "Om mani payme hum", so I knew it was Buddhist. Also, a BIG drum, like a Taiko drum. However, originally, it was built in honor of Dumou, a female deity..a good one to pray to for straightforward childbirths and healthy babies (I added midwives, too) I liked being there..kinda felt it, ya know.

We continued on up: 6,660 granite steps, beautiful views, wild apple trees blooming, cypress trees lining the paths. I'm finally kinda getting this sense of the LAYERING of so many millenia of chinese cultural history. One spot may have had a use for so many different groups in so many different eras of history that it is bewildering: ?where am I? what went on here? and then the numbers of contemporary people heading for the same spot may all have their different purposes too. One may be lighting incense to commemorate their mother, another the fatherland, another the ancient gods of wealth or war, another the great mother. A shrine or temple may have been preserved, re-interpreted, destroyed, rebuilt over the centuries.

The land itself is the same way: layered. On the train trip to the base of this mountain from Xi'an, we saw small fields of millet (we think) with ancient tombs in the middle of the ripening grain, nuclear plants, industrial cities with blocks of apartments all the same, ancient adobe walls, tiny little garden plots on every scrap of land. People busy here for a long long time.

The train trip itself deserves at least a chapter; I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. 17 hours (overnight) in a "hard seat" carriage without the possibility of sleeping except for the neck-wrenching doze. Packed in. People very accomodating and helpful. But they do spit on the floor and smoke, and the babies pee on the floor and there are standing room only folks in the aisle if (god forbid) you must make you way to the ..er..bathroom (a squatter in a lurching train=challenging!) Pretty wild. Next train trip, we have reserved a "hard sleeper" for part of it. I'll let you know if this is an improvement.

This is being sent to you courtesy of the wireless connection we found in our comfy hotel here on top of the world..couldn't resist that one. Confucious came up and said "The world is small", Mao said "The east is red". I say Good morning!

Til the next sacred mountain, this is ChaCha & BoomBoom signing off.