Monday, April 22, 2013

Mount Jiuhua (Jiuhuashan - China) Part 1


Mount Jiuhua is located in Qingyang County in Anhui Province and is famous for its rich landscape and ancient temples.
We took a 4 hour bus ride from Nanking to reach the small hamlet of Jiuhuashan. The road leading to bumpy uphills passed many miles of vegetable and flower farms with tiny remote towns along the way. It was both interesting & shocking sometimes but that's life for me to learn. Most passengers in the whole bus spoke Mandarin with heavy Anhui slang that it was impossible for other Chinese city folks to understand.

We stayed 2 nights at a very spacious 5-Star Hotel Ocean Line which was built by Hong Kong businessmen. It was off peak seasons and I got it cheaply for less than RM200 a night. Next morning, we took another bus that brought us up along the very sharp winding roads to Mount Jiuhua. 

My wife wrote in her BLOG to guide anyone who is interested to know the details to reach this mountain.





This small village has got many small hotels & shops to cater for the many tourists & worshipers. Look at their lovely lake with mirror reflections that looked like a pretty painting and it had thousands of gold fishes swimming happily inside!





There are 99 peaks on this mountain with 90 temples scattered around the whole mountain range. Many of the mountain's shrines and temples are dedicated to Ksitigarbha (known in Chinese as Dìzàng Wang), who is a Bodhisattva and protector of beings in hell realms according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition.


It was a long steep walk up the slopes with additional hundreds of steps to catch their cable car. I was strong all the way and sat down just to pose. Earlier, I had 2 months' gym preparations to strengthen my legs as I knew it was not an easy climb from sunrise to sunset.





We selfishly got a cable car all for ourselves and held hands to view the panoramic scenery & breathed the coolest mountain air.



The cable car passed through so many rocky mountains and you could see that Anhui has lots of mountains including the famous Huangshan nearby too.



This particular rock stood out prominently and very erotically in most postcards. Errrr.... Does it look like Darth Vader gazing below or something else pointing up?




This Mount Jiuhua is also famous for its many old Pine Trees that perch majestically amongst the greens, unlike Mount Huashan in Xian which is all sharp & steep rocky boulders and ranked Top 5 most dangerous mountains in China.




We trekked along the winding paths slowly and I was gasping for breaths on a cold Spring day. I saw the first temple from faraway.




Every temple seemed to be built beside some interesting rocks.





  So many people were there before me.






 I spent some time admiring at all their joss stick urns that withstood many decades of harsh weathers!



 Almost all the temples I entered had the statues of Dizang Wang or Amitabha Buddhas.




Some people were too tired to climb down so they could hire the Sedan Chairs that were being carried by 2 strong muscular men.

(To be continued)




67 comments:

  1. My first impression of the rock is that it looks like Bodhidharma

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    1. I googled the Bodhidharma and could not see any resemblance! What's wrong with my dirty eyes!!!??

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  2. is the cable car experience scary? i once tried the cable car at langkawi and it was a little scary

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    1. The cable car was safe and smooth. I think the longest cable car ride I ever took was the one in Lantau Island - Hong Kong. The most scary one is in Genting Highlands, so old and shaky with missing cubicles! Who said they all dropped down????

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  3. You know what? You look exactly like the Rocket Man standing in my constituency!

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    1. Heee heee heeee!!! When I wear my Red & White office uniform everyday, I get stares from the public! Someone also told me that I really looked like a Rocket man! I am curious who is that man you said???

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    2. Name is Oscar Ling - handsome guy, nice smile, very kind face... Looks like a good choice. Hey!!! Come to think of it, not exactly like you lah! Muahahahahaha!!!!

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  4. ok, the rock looks like something pointing up hahaha!

    omg, i bet this place is interesting to explore! u made me wanna go there la...haish!

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    1. I have been seeing too many mountains and rocky boulders in China recently. Time to see the West!

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  5. the first postcard-like photo is just awesome!! very nice scenery, the reflecting surface of the lake looks like a piece of nice painting.. i also love the colors of the trees.. now, did you send me a postcard with this scene?? haha~~

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    1. I also love this photo you mentioned. It was the first time in my life I took a photo of still water lake. Dei, I sent out postcards of Shanghai scenes. Now it has been 18 days and I am still praying for its arrival. Sobs! Sobs!

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  6. fuyoh eksyen lah this Anay.. all the way up the hill and stopped to pose for photos!! hahaha, two months of gym training is really that effective?? i thought Anay is used to climbing the Batu Caves to worship his gods..

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    1. Yalah,
      Already trained go up Batu Caves so many times what! LOL

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    2. Muahahahaha.... Honestly I have not been inside our Batu Caves too! Shame on Anay & Thambee!! Phiak our heads!!!! Wakakakakakaka

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  7. are you sure you and Letchumi were able to take up the whole cable car for yourself and nobody else?? hahaha, this is so rare in China huh?? i thought when one came, everyone will rush in and then you would see nothing but heads filled up the whole car~~ :D

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    1. Yes we did it!!! We got scolded as well, not surprisingly. We had to share with a bunch of Sei Pat Phor who lined ahead of us. When the cable car swung to us, Letchumi backed out and walked away to hide - I merely followed. The staff had no choice but to let us hop into the next ones when we saw no one was behind us yet. This is cleber Letchumi lah, counting physics theory on "Speed"... Kakakakakaka

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  8. nice view from the cable car, and i love the shots from Anay.. what camera did you use to snap all these sharp photos, looks so professional lah.. i thought the photos must be very blur because Anay was shaking and peeing in his pants because of the height~~ :D

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    1. You all knew that I just carried my mobile phone to snap all photos. Go buy one Samsung S3!!

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  9. very interesting stones, and i guess if i have the chance and have the time, i would just sit somewhere and scrutinize the stones by the hills, they can always look like something you can imagine them to be..

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    1. I agree! I wished i had whole day to laze under the trees and read books. The cool wind and smell of pine trees are heavenly! Here in KL, I smell soot under the heat instead....

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  10. wow, the Sedan Chairs are only for downhills and not uphills?? i wonder, the fare must be double uphills and maybe RMB50 more for the fat thambee!! muahahaha.. did Anay see any fat people being carried uphill or downhill?? i imagine how the men may swear carrying a fat lady~~ :D

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    1. Who on earth wanna ride sedan chairs uphill??? So long way up lah!!! The men would die and toss the customers down hill.

      Hey you are right, I just realised they only carried fat men and ladies! They should not have gone up in the first place!

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  11. Anay,
    The second photo with the three leng chais... did Lethumi took those photos? ;p

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    1. All the photos were taken with my mobile by its owner. Why?? You like the Leng Chais?? Got millions of them in China, all skinny men in black for you to ngap!

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    2. Ah Na has sharp eyes like Ah Hua. The three musketeers look well built and macho~

      They are skinny, meh? Still better than huge and big, right?

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    3. The three leng chais tall and handsome le! Like Korean boys la!

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    4. Many guys are skinny there. Life is so hard and they hardly have meat in their dishes.

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  12. Very strange am listening to the DiZangWang Pusa's chant over UTube while hopping here..:),

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    1. This must be telepathy for you to visit my blogs! You will be surprised to hear that Di Zang Wang's body is being preserved in the main temple up there in Jiuhuashan!!! I will post the photo of that temple later.

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    2. Oh really Great! Namo DiZangWang Pusa.

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  13. Love those joss stick urns with the bells..

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    1. I also love them. It was something I don't get to see them in our country or Japan.

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  14. Those Sedan Chairs muscular men should also learn the art of foot reflexology sure good biz while waiting doing nothing haha.

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    1. They should also be chanting away instead of smoking and sleeping always.

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  15. Wow! Such a nice place! I would love to visit here!

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    1. Go Panda Go! Your sanctuary in Chengdu is not very faraway from Anhui.

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  16. Was the bus ride up the Mount Jiuhua scary since the road is so winding?

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    1. Yes the bus was scary and fast. I thought it would fly off track into the ditch!

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  17. Love that crystal clear lake! SO beautiful!

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    1. The lake was nice. I bet you could snap even nicer shots!

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  18. Wah! So many steps to climb? You were sitting on the steps because you were tired or you were really posing? : D

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    1. Hey! Wanna feel my leg and tummy muscles??





      Of course I was resting and posing lah!

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  19. I love all those rock formations! Beautiful!

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    1. Anyone would love them as they are only found in China!!!

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  20. magnificent views..love all of them..
    and it must be really tiring to climb up that flight of stairs.

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    1. Our legs swelled painfully like hell. I soaked them in hot tub at night to cure my limbs!

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  21. Are those all the standing-up rocks annay snapped? I believe annay took more. Come, come, please show Ah Hua and enlighten her more :D

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    1. What did annay pray and wish for during prayer? To be strong and stand strong like the rock? wink, wink!

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    2. I pray to UBAH our govt after elections!!!!!!

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  22. Yannie is a lazy bum to climb hill, I don't mind if leng chais carry me on the sedan chair. Yannie is very heavy too, tall people always weigh more, so must find two hunks to carry me.

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    1. Wah! I cannot believe that this gym freak lady is lazy to climb. That means you have only been exercising your eye balls in the gym. LOL

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  23. Magnificent! I always love mountainous places!

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    1. Lovely views up there but we need to hike up first!

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  24. Wow, those views are so amazing just like postcard lol!!! =]

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    1. Do you think I should print them all into postcards and sell???

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  25. i love all the sceneries here... I havent tried cable cars yet but I don't think I can hahaha I'm afraid of height.. what a shame

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    1. Goodness!! A man fears no ghosts or height!! Muahahaha Milton.

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  26. i love the Mount Jiuhua shot the most... very stunning

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    1. Tell me, does your country have big lovely mountains like this??? I wanna go!

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  27. The cable car journey quite scary hor...... =.="

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  28. Ksitigarbha = Jizō in Japan?

    Wow, awesome views, gorgeous temples, a sexy guy sitting on the stairs and a Darth Vader stone that made me grin. :D I like this post.

    PS: How did the monks get up there before cable cars, and how did they build those temples? Climbed all the way with the construction material? (@_@)

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  29. Anhui is most famous for Huang Shan. I didn't know Jiuhua Shan is also there...

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  30. wow wow wow, my kind of getaway. the place is truly breathtaking.

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  31. the reflections are perfectly still and i particularly love the shot of the cable car passing thru the rocky mountains.

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