Speedwave II in China, by Toni Pons
Traveling helps you to open your mind
Text and photos by Toni Pons
It is difficult to summarize a two-week experience in China in two lines.
After touring a part of the Great Wall for several days and being able to appreciate this great human work of more than 9,000 km. and be amazed by where it goes up and down mountains, ridges, valleys and precipices.
He who has not climbed the great wall is because he is not brave, says a famous adage. “The Dragon of a Thousand Lilies” is certainly a must-see for anyone who sets foot in China. With its excessive architecture and astonishing beauty, the wall has become the quintessential symbol of Chinese civilization. It meanders out of sight for more than 9,000 km. with an average height of 8 meters and a width of 6 meters, from the arid confines of the Gobi Desert to the Shanhaiguan Pass, where it plunges headlong into the Bohai Gulf.
A work built with the blood and sweat of 300,000 soldiers and 500,000 prisoners, of whom it is said that they were buried in the foundations as they fainted at work. It is estimated that there were 200,000 victims.
Something that I think we would not be able to do today, I have to take my hat off to a work of this magnitude.
After visiting the Butaychan National Park or the Valley of the Five Terraces, or rather five great Buddhist monasteries, seeing the greatness and wealth that exists in them, the result of financial donations, food and drinks for the gods of which the monks take advantage and eat. See how the pilgrims crawl on the ground for kilometers, days and months, see how they pray, kneel, burn incense, give money and worship gods.
Our great unexpected surprise when visiting a monastery of Buddhist nuns was to coincide with the visit of a Supreme Great Lama, coming from Nepal, who blessed us and invited us to sit at his table and have dinner with his entire entourage that accompanied him, giving us . religious details, prayer handkerchiefs, we said goodbye and were invited to return to consider ourselves part of his family.
We change valleys to visit the Xuankong Hanging Monastery, southeast of Datong. It is a syncretic monastery where Taoist, Buddhist and Confusionist representations are mixed. This monastery is an authentic work of monastic engineering, it seems to be attached to a large wall of a large mountain and is characterized by the fact that no iron nail was used in its construction, “a visit not suitable for those who suffer from acute vertigo.”
Then we moved to the Yungang Grottoes. They are large cavities excavated by hand in the rock and within them large Buddhas and gods, all of them sculpted in a large piece, some of them 20 meters high. It is impressive to see them so huge and majestic, sitting like Buddhas.
Not to mention its gastronomic variety in fruits, vegetables, meat skewers, rice, noodles and its salads always boiled, its seasoning and its way of serving it.
Curiosities
In the rural world, the dead are buried directly on their land, property of the family.
Private property does not exist, the state has been the landlord for 50 years.
China is by definition communist, controlled by a party.
In Beijing millions of bicycles, mopeds, wagons, buses, taxis, subways and cars circulate in a self-regulating chaos.
Say that the police presence is omnipresent everywhere so security is guaranteed.
On the other hand, large cities have very large, clean parks where people give free rein to leisure in the form of dancing, music, jogging and artistic expressions.
Generally highlight the visit to the Temple of the Sun, the Hall of Prayer of Good Harvests, the Imperial Celestial Vault, Xianrong, Tayuan Si, Dailuoding Si and Shuxiang Si, as well as many places that are difficult to remember but not your majesty’s.
I hope I have roughly captured a great trip and said that China is an endless country to return to.
Toni Pons