Sunrise on Wawu Mountain and LiuJiang Ancient City (May 3)

I, like one of the "older" FBI agents in the movie The Rock, have to get up two or three times at night. The place I must move to rapidly was many meters away. Fortunately, growing up as a country boy in Oklahoma, I discovered at an early age the concept of a tree. A tree was not far from the door of our accomodations. Quick trip out, quick trip in. Was it cold!

Sunee and I both did not sleep well because when we moved a little, the cold outside came under the warm blankets. We were on top of a very high mountain and this is what we called an "adventure!"

At around 0530, one of our fellow sojourners along the next wall came by and woke us up. Well, he tried first to wake Dave and Ivan but with no luck so he woke me up. Time to get ready and see the sunrise! It was cold but it was also the reason we had put up with this pain so we got up. In so doing, I began the slow anguished and unappreciated attempt to awaken our Gap Guys.


Ivan got up with little coaxing. Dave was emphatic on his lack of love for cold and total love for sleep. A kick here and a bang there and I was able to coax him into a semi-awakened state. Here you see the results of my considerable talent at getting the Gap Guys sort of up and about.

Our two female companions also had difficulty with the concept of cold and early. Mia was able to become unattached to her blankets a lot quicker than Zoe. Both, however, took some serious coaxing to get up.

The Marvels of the WaWu Sunrise

Beautiful sunrise. It lasted for about half an hour and we all took many photos in hopes of capturing the truth of what we were watching. The above are but a few of the more interesting shots I took of the sunrise over Wawu Mountain. Ok, ok, I did sandwich a couple of shots together using Photoshop. There is no lie in any of the pictures, maybe just a bit of fudging.

Sunee, tired and hungry, still enjoyed the sunrise.

Here is an interesting picture of four of the sunrise watchers posing for a sunrise picture. Notice how Ms. Mia's eyes are closed. I showed her the picture and accused her of always having her eyes closed. Was this ethnic or what?

This is the next photo I took in which she proves the other picture had nothing to do with her ethnic background. All in good fun. All in good fun.

In between taking pictures of the sunrise, I spent some digital space taking pictures of our group with the sunrise in the background.

Do these guys look tired to you? Looks are not deceiving.

Finally, I got Sunee to take a picture so that I could prove that I, too, had enjoyed the Wawu Sunrise Party.

Group shot (taken by Sunee) just as the Wawu Sunrise Party was finishing up. Even us older guys can still have fun.

It felt pretty good to have made it up to the top of this mountain, weathered the cold, got up early and enjoyed the sunrise. Here I show my satisfaction in my genuine PLA overcoat.

This shot was taken to the right of the actual sun with some very unique mountains way off in the distance. Very beautiful as the sun disappears behind the clouds above.

Hunger makes people try to eat just about anything.

The sunrise had been great but it was still chilly so we gathered around the fire that was till going from the previous night and visited with a few of the people who had watched the sunrise with us. This little girl got very shy as I tried to take her picture. She was fine until the camera came out then she tried to run away.

One final pose and the Wawu Sunrise Adventure ends. It is time we thought about getting back down the mountain.

I had to return my PLA overcoat and then we headed back down the mountain. The Gap Guys, Sunee and I were cold and did not feel like looking at anything else. Mia and Zoe decided to walk over to see the waterfall and the Taoist temple. Mia especially wanted to see the waterfall so we separated, we went back to the lift and they went on their jaunt to see beauty. We decided to meet in the ancient town of Liujiang about three hours away. Here Sunee starts her trek back down to the lift.

It is around 8 a.m. and the lift is up and running (or rather down and running). We make it to the bottom in fine shape and immediately get a car to take us back to the entrance. I took some more pictures of the trip, but they were the same as the ones I took coming up. Imagine that!

At the entrance, Sunee met this older lady selling some steamed bamboo shoots. As is Sunee's policy, she stops to buy some to help the lady out. Happens everyday in China.

This is the ugliest guard dog I have ever seen so I took a picture of it. Ugly for real.

Wawu town is small with not much to see except the landscape. Across from the bus station were these buildings. There might have been more but I could not see anything other than these two. I also had not forgot about the tea we had seen earlier.

Additionally, we bought a nice box of tea and a bag. This tea was called Wawu Mountain Sprout Tea. I will have a tea tasting of this within the next two weeks.

We had a light breakfast as we waited for the bus. We were told the bus would come soon. Then we were told it would be more than two hours. Seems one of the locals wanted to charge us some big bucks to take us back down to Liujiang in his tiny little car. We then found another person waiting for the bus to Hongya (passing through Liujiang). We decided to wait. As we waited, Dave sat quietly and filled out his journal. As he wrote, I took this picture of a curious onlooker at the events Dave was transcribing in his journal.

Again, great views on the way down the mountain to Liujiang. Lots of water and lots of green.

More great mountain, sky and water scenes taken from the bus back down the mountain.

We stopped in front of this beautiful building to let off one of the passengers. I took this very quickly.

This was our first view of the old section of Liujiang after we got off the bus and followed the directions. Pretty impressive introduction to Liujiang.

As we walked across the bridge to the old town, another bridge up river caught my eye. That was the bridge the bus had originally crossed on the way up to Wawu Mountain.

We were stopped by a car as we walked across the old bridge. Out jumped these two and we immediately recognized them as some of our sunrise party friends from the night before. The guy is a student at Sichuan University and his English was excellent. He had as much fun as our Gap Guys during the whole adventure atop Wawu Mountain. It was good to see him again and he enthusiastically greeted us. They wanted us to join them for lunch but we were unsure of our schedule. We had been told that the last bus to Emei from Hongya left at around 4 PM. Calculating the time, we figured we had about two hours here in Liujiang and even then we did not know the bus schedule from Liujiang to Hongya. The worst that could happen would be that we would catch a bus to Leshan and then to Emei. Hongya and Leshan are two district administrative units so buses were more frequent between them than to smaller towns like Emei. We were, once again, playing everything as we went.

The old bridge in the ancient town. Very impressive structure.

Details of the bridge's construction.

I was so impressed with the massive bridge that I took a couple of more shots of it as we passed under it and walked down the pathway leading to the ancient town.



This tea house originally belonged to one of the several rich families (Zeng) that thrived here before 1949 or the liberation as the Chinese refer to it. The building was really impressive with large courtyards and interior doorways and passageways throughout. The location was also well chosen as it overlooked the river and the other streets.

Entrance into the first courtyard of the Zeng Family Mansion. The dark woods contrasted with the lighter wood inside made for a startling contrast. The Chinese on top states clearly: Zeng Home Courtyard or Garden.

Beautifully maintained windows and panelling could be seen throughout the structure.

The first courtyard was massive with a theater on one end and the three adjoining buildings were now used for tea rooms. The combination of stone and wood was perfection.

Here is an example of one of the many stone doors that led off from the main courtyard into other smaller areas of pleasantry.

Inside one of the tea rooms, we found beautiful but simply placed furniture. Nothing seemed to be overdone - simple but inspiringly beautiful.

Another stone door after a long corridor down the side of one of the many buildings joined to the main courtyard area.

Chinese-style magnificence. Actually, Sunee's family has some of this style of furniture in Thailand. It is very uncomfortable so it will not be in our future when we move back and build our own Chinese compound in Hua Hin.

Sunee admires the structure of the building as well as the simplicity of its interior rooms.

Teas setting. I will look for a table like this one.

Elongated oval door leading to another simple room off to the right of the courtyard.

Another lovely Chinese table set up for tea. This I liked and will probably have one made in Thailand.

There were three or four bridges across the river. This was my favorite.

Dave and Ivan head down through one of the many hallways under the upper floors of the teahouse. This one led us back to the entrance. Everything was maintained in really top knotch condition. The whole place was simply wonderful.

Art Photo - Walking

After taking the "walking" photo above, I turned back one last time to the tea house and got this picture. With a little work in Photoshop to equalize the exposure of the inner courtyard and make the lady stand out more, I think this could be one of the best photos I took in Liujiang. We shall see. We shall see.

This is the view looking across the river from just a few hundred meters down from the tea house. Both sides of the river made up the ancient town of Liujiang.

This lady approached us and welcomed us to Liujiang. She was the head teacher at a primary school in Hongya and worked as a photographer and reporter for a local newspaper. She kindly took us around Liujiang and visited with us about the history of the area and places to see. Of course, we had only a few hours and it was obvious that we must come back and spend at least one night to see everything she had mentioned.

Attempted Art Photo - Throw Aways

Red couplets on an old door. Typical scene from the ancient towns we had visited before.

One of the many streets in Luijiang. It was obvious that this place deserved another visit. Should be a good place to take Sunee's family when they come in September.

Anyone for some ducks. They certainly looked good.

This platform was built out over the river and gives one a great view of the town, river and surrounding mountains.

The third bridge within the area called ancient town. This one also served as a small reservoir to form a swimming area. Very nice and clean.

Art Photo - Red Scrolls

This was an old house that was remodeled and made into a cute little restaurant.

Ms. He, our guide, took us to this temple when we asked if there were any temples in the area. The place was old, very old!

Upon entering, we found this guy directly in front of us. Great piece of work and just added to the exoticness.

Our guide had to eventually yell into this guys ears for him to hear her. She was telling him that she had brought a bunch of "foreign friends" to visit him. When he finally understood, he became outwardly excited and welcomed us all to the temple. He looked to be well into his eighties.

Beautifully painted Buddhas could be seen everywhere. This was obviously a real, working temple. Ms. He said that people usually met twice a month here to share a meal.

Sunee does her thing in the prayer hall.

An old Buddha head sitting by itself along the path to the upper parts of the temple.

Here Ms. He explains what she knows about the temple. She also exchanges addresses with us and I tell her about this blog. Her and her friend made great guides. They were both friendly and proud to be able to show us around.

View of the prayer hall.

Head of the sleeping Buddha. This is the first sleeper I had seen in Sichuan Province.

Another painted Buddha image. For some reason, I wanted to think that this temple was from the Song Dynasty. More research is needed.

The sleeping Buddha from the level below. He was not huge but he was certainly painted beautifully.

The Sleeping Buddha in a niche in the mountain side.

Interesting painted Buddha images off to the left of the main prayer hall.

Greetings from a painted Buddha image.

A view of the top of the prayer hall. The buildings were ancient.

We met these cute little vivacious students who were visiting from Meishan just up the road a ways. They were shy but did practice a little of their English.

After the temple, we took a walk back toward the other end (bus stop) of one of the streets. We found some baodz for Dave to try. He assured us they were good so we all got some.

Tea! (see Chinateatravels.blogspot.com)

Chinateatravels.blogspot.com

An old rock entrance into a courtyard. These were quite common and it was too bad we really had no time to explore.

A entry "blocker" in one of the many courtyards we saw. These usually were set up to keep the evil spirits from entering. Seems they cannot make sharp turns when entering a residence.

This teahouse or restaurant was undergoing remodeling. Believe it to be another old residence of a wealthy landowner prior to the liberation. It faced directly across from the first tea house we visited.

A view of Liujiang from the tea house above.

More tea. Yeh I bought some. (for further info see chinateatravels.blogspot.com)

It smells good and fresh.

He promises his tea is really good and came from the local mountain.

See this is really local tea.

Sort of looked a lot like Emei Zhu Ye Qing. We shall see. (for results go to Chinateatravels.blogspot. com.

With the purchase of another bag of tea, we crossed back over to the other side to find a bus to Hongya. As we crossed over, we met Zoe and Mia who had arrived in the town about an hour after we had arrived. Zoe, in particular, was sad that we could not spend the night and another day in the ancient town.

Zoe also had figured on getting back to Hongya and then gettng on a Leshan bus. We arrived in Hongya and as she was checking buses, we found one headed to Emei. It was supposed to leave at around 5 PM so that gave us 15 minutes. As it turned out, we did not leave until nearly 6 pm due to the bus not yet arriving from Jiajiang.

Another weekend, another China adventure. Sunrise, mountains, rivers, terraces, tea, ancient towns and good company. What more can one ask for!