On Tuesday, the day before I checked out at 九土, I went out again with Jessica, this time to a nice restaurant for lunch. After a huge meal Jessica asked me if I wanted to go up to the temple on top of the mountain. I hadn’t gone all the way up there on my temple hike last week.
Me: Sure, I love hiking!
Jessica: Hiking?? No, I don’t like hiking. I meant we should take the cable car.
Me: But exercise!
Jessica: Hahaha… no.
Oh well, up in the cable car we went. I found out soon enough that Jessica was afraid of heights. Oh well, I enjoyed the ride.
Great view from the cable car even before we got very high.
From the top: On such a clear day I could see the entire West Lake in the distance.
In the evening after we got back I started chatting with another guest. Her English name is Elain and she is from Singapore, though going to school in the U.S. Thus, completely fluent in both English and Mandarin. She was traveling with her roommate and we were in the process of talking about how our friends had wimped out on going hiking that day when we realized what needed to be done.
We met early the next morning (we were both checking out at noon) and headed for the mountain. It wasn’t as long of a hike as I had anticipated considering how high up it had felt and we were at the top in under an hour, so that gave us plenty of time at the top.
The monks were preparing for a special bird freeing ceremony that morning.
The temple gate.
Chanting monks. Notice all the birds in cages (rescued from the market, maybe?) on either side of the walkway.
The ceremony didn’t start until 9am. We wanted to see the birds released but after giving them 45 minutes to finish chanting the Sutra (and noticing that they were only half way through the booklet) we had to give up. We had to get back, showered, and packed.
It was great to go hiking, get back into the habit of waking up early, and have an English-speaking friend to explain the temple rituals and figures. A great way to end my Airbnb vacation before starting work.