Of Hell and Monkeys

Saturday morning we were scheduled to go to visit a local scenic place. The places are called, in China, beauty spots.

We had actually been scheduled to go the previous weekend. However, staff of the International Exchange division had been planning to host us on this trip and they were called out of town for business related reasons. In some ways, last weekend would have been a better time for such an expedition. This weekend, even though the weather report predicted otherwise, there was a constant drizzle and often, actual rain.

We started out rather early and met in front of the main gate at eight thirty in the morning. At that point we were somewhat surprised to find that Mrs. Zhang had brought, for each of us, umbrellas, water, and fruit. We almost immediately popped our new umbrellas up in order to protect ourselves from the rain. Zeneta refused to open her umbrella until later in the day, when it began to rain quite hard and I insisted that she use it.

We had intended to hire cabs for the day. However, with the number of us, and the bus going within a kilometer of where we needed to go, we chose to, instead, ride the bus. There were quite a few of us: there was Zeneta and myself, Colin and Bronee, Michelle, Ken, and Dez and Lynn, making up the English teachers. There was also Mr. Zhang, his wife, and Mr. Fan. Mr. Fan brought both his wife and daughter. We also had Mr. Lu with us and one other woman who I did not know.

The first place that we went, from the bus stop where we got off, was a temple. In front of the temple were several wishing wells. The large barrel shaped buckets were filled with water and had a small bowl in the bottom. The object was to throw the coin, from a set distance, in to the appropriate bowl. The different buckets indicated different wishes.

The temple itself had a tall doorsill. This is common of all of the temples that we have visited. We were informed that it is very important to not step on the doorsill. Instead, we were to step over it.

In, and outside of, the temple were a large number of statues. There was also a kneeling pad and a door leading out of the back of the temple. It was in this temple that I noticed the amount of religious reverence paid by many of our Chinese hosts for this place. Both on our entrance and our exit they spent time in their prayers.

We exited out the back door of the temple into a large courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard was the entrance to a tunnel. The tunnel extended about a hundred meters or more into the side of the hill and contained many side tunnels. In these side tunnels were static displays that were intended to contain instructions and warnings for the unrighteous.

One of the displays was the judge of the dead. This was positioned before the entrance to Hell. I found it interesting that the staircase to paradise was positioned after one had entered into hell.

The entrance to hell and the stairway to paradise

Before the judge of hell is the Dragon King. He is seen holding his head because, after swearing to protect him and the dragons, the emperor had him beheaded. After the death of the emperor, the Dragon King is presenting his case against the emperor to the judge of the dead.

The jugde of the dead and the Dragon King

It is important to remember that these places are not just tourist attractions; they are temples and are to be treated with respect when visiting. We noticed Mr. Fan taking the time to discuss the meanings of these displays with his daughter. They are clearly intended to be used in that manner and many of the displays had signs (in Chinese) making clear what the display was depicting.

Many of these people are being punished for specific sins; such as the woman that is being disembowled, she was mean to her husbands parents.

Mr. Fan and his wife explaining the meaning of the display to their daughter.

I do not think that they came out in the pictures; however, there were bats in these tunnels. Many of the tunnels were very low. I believe that was intentional, to cause the visitors to feel slightly uncomfortable. I also noticed the simple knob and wire electrical wiring. We were very careful to not bump our heads.

As we left we returned through the temple, where more prayers were said, and continued walking along several paths and streets to the lake. The tunnel was a dead end and to return we walked through it again; only this time we did not enter all of the side tunnels.

At the lake we walked several Kilometers to the boat launch. There we hired a boat to take us to the first of the islands. The lake was larger than I expected, covering only 75Km; however, it had several inlets. I noticed that these inlets were netted off for the purpose of growing fish and we traveled in the main channels.

Walking to the lake

Underway and one of the many small islands on the lake

The first Island we went to was called, suitably, the island of the birds. The island had several species of birds and a large aviary that was used to contain several of the species. In the aviary there was a bird show. One trick that was particularly enjoyed by Mr. Zhang was where the bird would fly to a person holding two different denominations and would take the larger of the two and fly back to the handler. The bird would then return to the person and take the other note, unless it was one RMB or less. In that case the bird would take the note and throw it on the ground. After the bird show we returned to the dock and got back on the boat where Zeneta and I, again, sat outside and used our umbrellas to keep the spray off of us.

At the island of the birds

Getting on and off the boat was a bit interesting. Instead of making multiple piers, one boat would tie off at the pier and the other boats would tie to the next boat in the line. So, to get on or off the boat it is necessary to walk onto and across several boats.

We went from the birds to the Monkey Island. The Island was aptly named. On this island the monkeys are permitted to roam free. There were some basic instructions given to us before we left the boat on this island: do not tease the monkeys, do not remove any food from our packs to eat for ourselves, and do not stare directly into their eyes. Monkeys can be very strong so it is best to not provoke a fight with one of them.

Welcome to monkey island.

Mrs. Zhang got us some cookies and peanuts to feed to the monkeys and I took quite a few of them to play with the monkeys with. Zeneta did not intentionally give anything to the monkeys. I say intentionally because when she was not paying attention a monkey grabbed her water bottle out of her pocket and then bit through it. I thoroughly enjoyed handing nuts and crackers to the monkeys and took several pictures of them.

This was the last Zeneta saw of her water bottle.

Feeding the monkeys

On our way back (really, these boats are going in the opposite dirrection; it is a good thing we left as early as we did)

After about ten minutes, possibly a bit more, no matter what it was it seemed short, with the monkeys we returned to the boat for a ride back to the main dock. From here we took a shuttle to a restaurant that was near the main gate to the lake area. We had a very good lunch that was arranged by our Chinese hosts and then we took a bus back to the campus.