Mountains and Lakes and Temples, oh my!

There are many places that I visited on this trip to China that deserve a mention but not an entire post. Cue a montage-a-palooza of random things cunningly disguised as a legitimate blog entry!

Huangshan

First up - Huangshan, or Yellow Mountain, in Anhui province. I went here as part of an organized tour so I didn't really get to explore as much as I would've liked, but even just spending a couple of hours up there was magical. Jagged granite peaks, tenacious pine trees and breathtaking views abound.

Pine trees clinging to Huangshan

For most of the year, the mountain range is shrouded in mist or covered in rain so I was very fortunate to visit on a crisp and clear mid-November day. And even more fortunate that it was off-season, so the much-vaunted crowds were almost non-existent.

Cable Car at Huanghan

Moving from mountains, to lakes. As one of the favorite places for recreation in Chinese cities, lakes are second only to parks as prime people-watching venues in my opinion. Unfortunately, when I snuck off to see the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, just a 45-minute high-speed train ride from Shanghai, it rained the whole time.

West Lake, Hangzhou

I had better luck at the Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing, in neighboring Jiangsu province. This tranquil pond is bordered on two sides by the remnants of Nanjing's Ming dynasty city walls and it provides a lovely respite from the city itself.

Xuanwu lake, Nanjing

I was really looking forward to spending a couple of days traipsing around Yunnan province in the south-western tip of China, but was sadly laid out by food poisoning. That meant staying put in the lovely spring-like city of Kunming, where I recovered enough to wander down to the Green Lake Park to enjoy the annual sight of locals feeding huge flocks of red-beaked seagulls.

Green Lake Park, Kunming

Finally, temples. They were almost everywhere I went in China, and some of them got pretty specific in focus. In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the largest Buddhist temple in town is the Wenshu Temple. It is dedicated to the Bodhisattva of Wisdom and, like so many religious complexes in China, was a lovely dot of tranquility in a hectic city.

Wenshu Temple, Chengdu

In Fengdu, the Ghost City on the Yangtze river, most of the old town is now underwater thanks to the Three Gorges Dam. But the temple complex on Ming Mountain is intact. There, you can pass over the Nothing-to-be-done bridge with three arches that grant you wealth or health, and test your worthiness for the afterlife. Or you can enjoy visions of hell at the Tianzi Palace, or the temple dedicated to the god of the underworld. All grisly good fun, and made even more enjoyable if, like me, you've read World War Z.

Nothin-to-be-done bridge in Fengdu, the City of Fhosts

And finally in Wuhan, it wasn't a temple per se, but the only place I got to visit as part of a guided tour was the Lute Platform. A series of buildings commemorating the friendship of a local lute player and a hermit who met 2,000 years ago, the platform now serves as a gathering place for local opera singers. Though sadly no-one was singing when I briefly visited in mid-November.

Lute Platform, Wuhan