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Right now we are barelling down a brand new tollway trying to catch a train back in Hefei.  Zhihe is eating nescafe crystals directly from the packet, washing them down with strong tea, singing along with the radio and honking and swerving a ton.  “I don’t smoke but I have to keep you safe,” he explains while downing another tube of coffee crystals.

Last night we ate a magnificent dinner with some of Zhihe’s inlaws in a strangely suburban-looking town, Qin Yang.  Some extended relative runs a restaurant with private dining/mahjong rooms.  As with most meals we’ve been served here there were many vegetable and egg dishes, one fish dish, and no meat or fowl to speak of (apart from duck soup.)  Rice and chili radish appeared just at then end after everyone was stuffed already.

Spent the night in a new nearly empty resort in a room that backed on a frog pond.  Nice to fall asleep to frog song but not so nice when the frogs invade your dreams.  Note, below, the gardener watering with a firehose.

Today we toured Jiuhuashan, which is a temple complex dedicated to one of the major mahayana founders.  Most buildings were torn down during the cultural revolution and then reconstructed later with Jang Zemin’s blessing.  There were many great looking statues of various demons and fairies.

Zhihe hired a non-english-speaking guide.  Tong did his best to translate but there was a fair bit of confusion.  Here’s what I got: We viewed several gold-painted ‘corpses’ which we were not permitted to photograph.  The last photo, below, is of a sort of Death Tagine.  Certain illustrious monks eat preservative herbs for many days when their deaths are imminent, and then they climb into the tagine with their last gasp of life.  Years later the corpses are removed, declared to be miraculously preserved, painted gold, and placed on public display.  “Totally different from mummies, these still have their organs.”

We got up early this morning and stood in many queues. Two shuttle busses, one security line and one glorious cable car ride got us up the mountain.  Everything is well-developed, paved, and incredibly crowded.

Zhihe was in his standard frenetic state, tugging us from place to place and pointing out features faster than I could take them in.  The views were worth the exhausting trip, though.  Many more photos to follow in future posts.

Now I’m falling asleep in the comfortable hotel atop the mountain.  Knowing that in the morning the sheets will be hand-carried down the slope to be washed makes me extra tired.