Excursion of the week:
武当山
WUDANG MOUNTAIN
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Saturday
Woke up super early and set off once again in our 'magical school bus'.
Again, the journey takes 5+ hours!!!
But this time most of us are clever, we brought books along!
mine is...
Nice book with great drawings and interesting + imaginative storyline!
Yesterday, a small group of us went to 建设7路 shopping. Visited the bookstore there, quite big, and all of us bought at least a book. Of course, how can we leave out the PASAR MALAM?
Shop, Shop and more Shopping!
Managed to get the same cheap Addidas shirt with my beloved Vivien!
Back to today!
Lunch first before we proceed to the mountain and we saw an interesting sight!
A boy shitting along the road!
OMG.
Program for today is to visit the lower part of the mountain while tomorrow then climb to the 金顶 (top of the mountain)
History class again- 武当山历史！
Everyone must know Taijiquan, 太极拳, but does anyone know the origin?
According to legend, Zhang Sanfeng(张三丰), the originator of Wudangquan generally and 太极拳 specifically, was inspired by a fight he witnessed between a pied magpie (also said to be a white crane) and a cobra.
In 1417, Emperor Zhudi (朱棣) decreed Wudang to be the "Grand Mountain" and ordered the construction of the Hall of Yuzhen for Master Zhang Sanfeng.
Do you know?
On January 19, 2003, a fire broke out in the hall, covered 200 square metres. Lucky, a gold-plated statue of Zhang Sanfeng, which was usually housed in Yuzhengong, was moved to another building just before the fire.
The Wudang monasteries figure prominently in Chinese martial arts films, especially the genre known as 武侠(wuxia) film and popular literature. For example, an ending scene of the famous movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was set at the Wudang monastery, although not actually filmed there.
Photos time!
This is the bus we need to change to in order to get up the mountain.
Our 1st stop!
Misty! quite cold~ can you imagine how high up the mountain we are?
Fortune teller!Many ngee ann students stopped and 'give their hand'.
Long long way!
Ah-lap & his 'favourite'!
Not I want to nag again.
This little boy here is helping his parents sell 'wishes cloth'.
Singaporean kids, please cherish your blessed lives!
Most basic way to carry pails of water.
HAAA~!
Don't mess with us!
We are Wudang Disciples.
:)
Pray pray~
You can see this below:
fyi: Under the water, there is a dragon statue and if you managed to drop a coin into the dragon's mouth, you must be really lucky! Of course, all your wishes will come true!
Don't say its impossible, I really witness one ngee ann student do that super easily!!!
On the way up to another sight-seeing place.
RAH-STERS!
fyi: The photo below is the structure for all the buildings up on the mountain. 100% nail-less, all just made of strong wood interlocking each other.
WOW!
Can you believe that this interlocking managed to keep the buildlings intact for so many years?
Free tea, 桂花茶!
Tasty!
Our 师父, shifu!
Don't play play with Group B!
jkjk.
The man in white is really a top pugilist!
Camera somehow always detect us!!!
hehe.
fyi: Chinxiang said my photos forever so scary! haha! Don't you find the photo looks as if stupid vivien is peeping my 'body'? haha!
Ancient wordings!
Interesting discovery:
The photo above is what I spotted in the middle of the road in 武当山. You can see and feel Taiji almost everywhere!
Wonder what is this?
This is the place for burning offerings in the ancient days of China.
There used to have a big 'gong' for people to gong for blessings.
Do you know?
If you link the 3 photos above, there is actually a very interesting story. According to the tour guide, ancient people bring alot of offerings and burn it in the very big incense burner (1st photo). Then, they need to take only 3 big steps to the 3 words in the 2nd photo. They touched the 3 words and pray in their heart as they walked past them. At the end, they need to go up (place in 3rd photo) and hit the big 'gong' 3 times to complete the whole process.
They believed that only when they complete the whole process then the mighty gods above can hear their prayers better and blessed them.
CAUGHT IN ACTION!
This 2 fellows are always caught by my powerful camera in action. To think I caught them here at 武当山 praying for their future.
May you 2 be blessed with great happiness ahead and many adorable kids coming your way!
hahaha!
End of the day!
武当山Part 2 tomorrow.
Sunday
金顶金顶 HERE WE COME!
Rise and shine pretty early and set off after breakfast.
We need to make a very big decision today, whether to climb to the peak or take a cable car.
climb: 2-3hours
cable: 20mins + $95
Our decision is very obvious:
CABLE CAR
But unfortunately, those by foot one managed reach the peak first!!!
How can!?!!!
It is because we forget that there are MANY other people taking the cable car as well. There is this super long queue and we waited for around 1hr3omin for a cable car.
Wonder why so long?
Because each cable car is only for 2 persons plus...
THE CABLE CAR JOURNEY IS REALLY STEEP!
Totally different from the one in Singapore.
At this point of time, everyone is getting worried for 1 person.
CHINXIANG!
He is afraid of heights.
But no worries, everything turns out alright at the end.
fyi: If you don't know, in China, there is no 'queue' culture here. Everyone just cut and order. If you want to get your food faster, you need to scream louder than the rest. Take the queueing for cable cars for example, many people behind us just keep pushing and cut the queue as and when there is the chance. With this...
I still prefer my home country.
Photos again!
You can see many blessing trees here at 武当山!
People buy this 'blessed' cloth, tied a rock at the end, and threw it up the tree.
Bus stop!
Room 219 occupants!
CRIME OF THE DAY!
I'm molested!
Helphelphelppppp!
Long queue! Super long...
Andy, you are really always ready for camera. haha!
CABLE CARS!
Look how high up we are! Drop and we are dead!
You can see the numbers below? Now you know how high we are!!!!
Of course, you all might wonder who is my cable car partner.
Look below!
yesyes.
Its the molester!
haaah!
Me and the cars.
I took this photo inside the cable car. You can know how high up we really really are!
REACHED!
We are still not at the peak yet! We still need to climb up until the top red building in the photo below.
金殿！
This whole building is made of real gold!
fyi: The lock below costs $10rmb.
It was said that if you had the person's name engraved on it and locked the lock up here at Wudang mountain, your family will be blessed for life. Majority of us bought one and I had mine engraved 'Lew Family'.
Look at the many many locks already here!
The ones tied to an orange string is mine and vivien's!
Both of us are tied to together and same same...
both of us are LEW families!
But later on, Willis came and tied together with us.
3some!
This is where people worshipped emperor's parents.
A typical signboard you can see anywhere up the mountain.
There is korean translations on it!
Top view of Wudang mountain!
Whole day was spent on waiting for cable cars and exploring Wudang Mountain. Though fun, but some unhappy events do occur. Our coach driver was angry with us for being late. We were supposed to back in the coach by noon but in fact, we were backed at 1+/ 2pm. He was sarcastic but we can understand the feeling of being stood for hours. At the same time, we knew we had no wrong as hiccups occur along the way such as who would expect there is a long queue for cable cars etc.
Lunch after that and headed back to hostel. Reached at 9+pm
Last photo of the day
You are missed and remembered,
my friend.
BEST GROUP OF THE YEAR!
孩子的爹！
孩子的爹！
Dress code of the day for GROUP 7!
My toy!
My toy!
