Weather plays such an important part of traveling/vacationing, doesn’t it? Jessica and I discuss many times how much we’ve enjoyed a place if the weather is sunny, and how much worse it can be if its cold and rainy for an entire trip; I’m sure you’ll concur.
It was overcast and drizzling for most of our visit to Yangshou. That didn’t stop us from enjoying it, in fact, it made the views from the top of Ruyi Peak even better, as it added a layer of fog to the many, many karst mountains that surrounded the peak.
First, to reach Ruyi Peak Scenic Area, we had to take a cable car ride up to the entrance. It was a long, steep climb. We watched the town appear smaller and smaller as the cable car ascended. Once at the top there is a large suspension bridge, glass skywalk, and many, many stairs to climb.
We made it up, and took the circular walk to the peak viewing point. Off we went, up and down and up concrete steps along with our fellow tourists on the cloudy, hazy day.
We made it to the suspension bridge, which is crazy long, as you can see, but is very solid to walk across (though Jessica is not a fan of suspension bridges). Throwing up peace signs is something that the Chinese love to do in their pictures, and one becomes naturally inclined to do the longer one visits China, that’s a simple fact.
Note that the red streamers are all individual wishes, which one can buy and tie to the bridge rungs, there are so many here and on the top platform, as well. Once crossing the bridge, we walked on to the peak viewing area.
It is absolutely worth it to walk to the viewing area platform, as the landscape is full of these peaks in all directions. It felt a bit overwhelming almost and the overcast skies added to the mystique.
We descended back down from the viewing area after a while, making our way back to descend from the cable car. Jessica also is not a big fan of cable cars (it was not that scary).
Once we reached the bottom, a short car ride away, is the Grand Banyan Scenic Area, of which the star of the show, is the massive Banyan Tree. Legend has it that “walking around the tree once, one will live to over 99 years; turn around under the tree, one can earn tens of millions of dollars.” Of course, we did both.
Across the street, we stopped for a coffee, and noticed the Jianshan Temple listed on Amaps, and decided to check it out. We saw one man leaving the temple as we arrived; but he was the only person we saw inside. There was incense burning (we assumed from the man we saw leaving) in front of the main Buddha statue, and everything looked fairly normal from afar.
But there was overgrowth of nature all throughout the grounds, and the further we delved into the temple complex, the more it looked like it had been abandoned for a while, as there was dust over many of the statues inside the buildings gates were rusting, and stones were broken. It was quite bizarre, but also fun to explore.
See how many monk statues you can find in the picture below:
As we were leaving, we translated the blue sign on the wall from the first picture above; it read that Yangshou County had revoked the Temple’s ability to operate in 2018. Further internet investigation didn’t yield much except a few reviews from the early 2010s, about excessive entry fees and one visitor being asked to donate using their credit card. I remembered back to a college friend who had visited Thailand, and upon return, she said, “not all monks are good monks” as some had tried to scam her during her visit. We asked the hotel operators when we returned later, what had happened, and they confirmed; the monks running the temple weren’t “real” monks, rather scammers exploiting the tourist population for financial gain. What a trip.
Our last stop during the day was the center of town, of which nothing is too special, except a super-tall statue of, what looks like Chester Cheetah (of Cheetos fame) but pink, in a suit, and smoking a cigarette. So bizarre, but kind of fitting, to end the day. More to come!
Phil's WayPastCool 