Operation Golden Dragon, Pt. 3

The following account details experiences that, though due in no part at all to my own efforts, I believe to be possible only in the country I am currently in. Table of contents: (1) hike (2) temple (3) hike (4) temple.

(1) Fragrant Hills

Yes, the Fragrant Hills, a series of small mountains near Beijing that emit the pleasant aromas of bacon, Chanel No. 5, oranges, recent rain, Febreeze, vanilla, a bonfire, pine, an old book that hasn't been opened in a long time, sweet grass, baking bread, meat grilling, newly-cut grass, the ocean, burning leaves, and a new baseball glove. Great place.

Just kidding. The Fragrant Hills are these hills northwest of the city that lie in a park and are enjoyable to climb. Boom. According to Wikipedia, the name comes from the name of the highest hill in said park: Incense Burner Peak. According to Judy, with whom I went, there's not a great translation for the park's name into English, so don't worry about.

Saturday morning! October 29! We left Wangjing and took an unimaginably crowded bus to our destination. After an hour or so of riding, we arrived, purchased supplies for lunch, and perused around the lower-lying regions of the park before beginning the main climbing assault on the hills.




Then the ascent began. It was not overly difficult physically, but there were tons and tons of people everywhere, all going at a different pace, so we had to take care not to run anyone down or get run down by anyone. Worth noting (which is one letter away from saying "worth nothing"): there was a chairlift, like what you'd take at a ski resort, but we did not - I repeat - did not even talk about taking it up except to make fun of those who did.





The air was typically not clear, but it was a sunny day nonetheless, and it was cool to get out and hike the stairs. We did finally reach the top after an hour or two. The crest of the mountain was packed with folks like us (and folks far weaker than us who took the chair lift up); finding a spot to sit and munch lunch was difficult.




We ate and went around to the other strategic, scenic places on the tops of the hills. I brought my Iowa flag with me. I have often thought that it would have been cool (or something) to have hauled my state's colors around everywhere with me and take a picture at each location, whether it be in other states, where I could get beat up, or in South Korea or Japan, or Laos or the Philippines, or in Spain, or wherever else I end up going. But, alas, it is too late. Unless, perhaps, the Secretary of State in Iowa wants to fund some sort of awareness/promotion project? I remember having many a conversation with the Iowa SOS office staff in 2008 over a background check/Apostille stamp. Maybe they remember me. Anyway.



Then we decided to make a tree and leave, which proved way harder than one would think. It was a human traffic jam on the way down. There were long stretches of time during which nobody moved. Long! But eventually we reached sea level again and followed the scads of people out of the park, to the bus station, across the entire metropolitan area, and back to Wangjing, where all is safe and warm!





*Note: many of these pictures have been stolen. Stolen! Just so you know. I know that if a person were to rob a bank and then give a disclaimer every time he (women don't steal from banks) spent any of the money, he'd still get arrested. To which I reply: neener, neener, neener.



(2) Yonghegong Lama Temple

Is this the most famous temple in Beijing? Perhaps it is not as well-known as the Temple of Heaven, or the Temple of Hell. But it does have its own subway station on Line 2. You can be the judge. Whatever the verdict, Dawna and I went to this establishment, the name of which, Wikipedia tells us, means "Palace of Peace and Harmony" (I think) on the first Saturday in November of this fine year, 2011.


There is not a ton to tell about Yonghegong Lama Temple. This photo shoot began with a new camera that my mom had sent me a week earlier, so that is fun. The leaves on the trees were beautiful, so that is fun. The weather was gray and overcast, which is also fun. We were not allowed to take pictures in the buildings in the temple - not fun - but there was one statue in the final structure that was four floors high. Huge! And there were Chinese people everywhere putting the aroma of incense into the air, tourists everywhere taking pictures and trying to not to get in the way, and grim-looking stone images everywhere enjoying all the attention they were getting.








Yeah. Check it off the long list of places to go.

(3) Dragon Cloud Hike

Saturday, November 19. It was a cloudless, smogless day in the Beijing area. An obvious activity for the day would be a hike. Not being ones to miss the obvious, Dan and I joined an entourage of other hikers to scale Dragon Cloud Mountain with the Beijing Hikers Club.


Our bus left the Lidu Starbucks at 8:30 and sped two hours or so out into the wilderness, where we were deposited under the autumnal sun to climb. The hike through the hills - I hesitate to call anything that we went up a mountain - was not too hard. We had a group of twenty-five or so, and the hiking guides let us take our time as we came up, explored the "ghost house" that was situated on one of the cliffs, and took many a photo.







After a while the crew retraced its steps down and walked a trail that followed a cold, cold river for a while. The trail went through a fake cave that was filled with fake rocks. Also, apparently the hiking group sometimes wades through the river to the other side and cuts several seconds off the hike back, but! It was too cold when we went, so we walked back.





Regrets: that I didn't do this earlier when the fall colors would have been in full force. That I didn't do this over the National Holiday break, a spread of five days during which I didn't really do anything except read. That I didn't take down the contact info of some of the other hikers, some of whom had information on cheaper (this one cost 330 RMB), harder hiking, some of whom were fun to talk to and had interesting stories to tell, and some of whom were...what's the right word? Ah, yes: sexy.


But! I was with Dan, we went on a gorgeous day, and we had a good time. Count it.




(4) White Cloud Temple

On the second Saturday in November, Dawna convinced me to go to another temple because she hadn't gotten enough at Yonghegong. The temple 'o choice this time was White Cloud Temple, which was somewhere southwest of the city center. It took a little while to get out there, but when we finally did locate it, oh, the adventures that awaited us!

The temple was located in some quiet neighborhood where you would not suspect there to be much; it was across the street from some super ritzy art center. We weren't even sure we could go in, but the guard greeted us with a friendly "hello," so we forged onward.

There were two parts to the WCT, in my mind: "The Toss" and then everything else. The first thing visitors to the temple encounter upon entrance is this pit with a big over-sized bronze coin that has a bell embedded in the middle of it; I am sure this has some religious significance to the Taoists who built the ol' place, but it escapes me now. This is "The Toss." For 10 RMB you get fifty little bronze coins (which is far too many) to throw at the huge one that is in the pit. Thus, "The Toss." Hitting the small bell in the middle of the big bronze disc denotes good luck, so Dawna and I should be set for the next thirty months because we absolutely nailed that thing.

The bronze disc and the bell that we ravaged with our bronze coins:


Me ravaging the bronze disc and the bell with a bronze coin:


Me celebrating the ravage of the bronze disc and the bell via bronze coin:


Dawna ravaging the bronze disc and the bell with a bronze coin:


Some locals wishing it were as easy to ravage the bronze disc and the bell with bronze coins for them as it was for us:


Then there the second part, the other stuff, the activities that were not super engaging if you weren't there to burn incense and bow down. That stuff was okay, but let's be real: none of it was nearly as cool as "The Toss." There were some interesting architecture, some cool engravings, the expected graven images, the smell of incense, but no surprises as pleasant as the bronze bell toss.











So, after we got to the back, we turned around and left. Some dude read my palm outside and said it was hen hao, so I gave him 5 RMB. Then we left to enjoy our good luck.