香山 Fragrant Hills (Xiang Shan) Feb 07

Xiang Shan



Went to Xiang Shan today. (Frgrant Hills) It is in the hills surruonding Beijing. (shee ung shan)

I thought it was just going to be a pretty park. Instead it is beautiful and old. Tiny little grey paved lane way snakes up to the entrance from the car park. Like old Beijing.

I saw beautiful arch ways - marble, stone, red. I saw gorgeous windows and carvings. I was surrounded by rolling hills of pine trees (cloud trees) and thick bamboo bush. It was beautiful - went over bridges, up stairs, round winding paths, through an octangonal doorway.

There were bells hanging of the corner of the roofs.

First temple I saw a big fat smiling black marble buddha. Chubby cheeks :) To either side were painted wood carved monks.

Then I came to a temple with a regal gold buddha, long face, elegant features, behind his head was a ?flame shaped? carving of intricate lotus flowers.

I went over a white sandstone bridge inside a courtyard. 100's of big orange fish swum around. There was the statue of an open dragon mouth touching the water.

Then I went up to the Arhat's hall (I think an Arhat is an enlightened person. There were 500 life-size seated gold statues of monks. Some smiling, some animated, some blissful -eyes closed --- some spooky. I would look at there faces and details. Then I would just look at the entire coridor of men seated either side in the lotus position. The lighting was dim. Just natural light coming through the windows onto gold and onto dust. Aparently this is a really important buddhist monument. Some old people come here everyday.

I continued on and right on the top of the hill was a pagoda (known as a stupa) it is made of marble. there are many buddhas carved in the side. my camera ran out of batteries but one day I will go and take a picture of the pagodas - buddha carved in stone - mountains layered in the background. really old and beautiful. i had to take a stone stairway up a tunnel to get to the top.

So today was full of surprises and ancient beauty,

At last I am starting to see more of the Old China

If you come to Beijing go to Xiang Shan. It is almost as good as Tai Shan. It was nice because I have never climbed a buddhist mountain before. (only Taoist mountain).