Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Wutai Shan temple hike

This morning we left early for the temple town of Wutai Shan. Due to the busy festival today it was a good idea to get out of town before eight so we left the hotel at 7:45 and were on the road on time.

We are used to doing long drives on highways but today we tried something new in China – a long traffic jam. It took us about an hour to go a short distance. Due to some road works all traffic had to merge into one lane – not easy in a country like China where most drivers are really unskilled in driving. We just had to wait it out, make a u-turn on an off ramp and after about an hour or so we were moving at normal speed again.

The country side changed into green hills and gradually became more and more beautiful so we enjoyed the views.

About 30 kilometres before the town we had to pass the usual Chinese visitors centre since the town and surrounding areas are a big tourist attraction. Off the truck, through metal detectors, tickets, back on truck and then a bit further – one more ticket check. Two or three ticket checks are the usual here at museums and other sights. We don't know if it's because the places don't trust their employees, if they just want to employ a lot of people or if they're afraid people will jump a fence so they don't have to pay. But many ticket checks that's for sure.

We arrived a bit late in the afternoon, hungry, had a rather bad lunch and then we decided to go for the temple hike to the top of one of the mountains. The one where we could take a rather old ski lift to the top. The hike up to the temple wasn't long but it seemed fun to take the chair lift to the top of the hill. On the way up we said “Nihao, Hello and Goodbye” to half the guys going down with the lift. Rather funny.

There was a big temple at the top and this one was full of Chinese visitors and monks. A bit different from many of the other sides we have been visiting because so many of the Chinese visitors also prayed and did their religious rituals. There were also a lot of monk students = ordinary Chinese people who come to join the prayers with the monks and dress the way the monks do to show they believe in Buddhism.

We walked down one of the paths of the mountain passing a construction site where they were building some big new temples.

Finally back at the town we decided to go back to the hotel and we booked tickets for the train from Beijing to Mongolia, fingers crossed the company needs to reply and confirm the purchase. We're going to take the train with Kate a British girl who's on the trip as well. Some of the trips include the train ride to Mongolia, depending on which trips they need the trucks for, but ours' doesn't so we decided to book the tickets ourselves. Just because it could be a fun experience and then we get an extra day in Beijing and Ulaanbaatar. The others will have three long driving days and wild camping. The train ride is 27 hours.

Then we went for expensive but boring dinner in town. Seems that everything here is three or four times the prices we have experienced elsewhere in China. Apparently being holy also means expensive.