Archive for October, 2008
Yellow Mountain Update
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Our trip to the Yellow Mountains which we just completed covered several days and thousands of feet of climbing. Well, not technical climbing anyway but walking up and down stone steps, quite steep at times, for a real workout. Like in many mountains, the mornings were clearer than the late mornings to afternoons when the cloud cover came in pretty thick. The best pictures with the clearest sky’s were in the early mornings. The second morning there we got up at 05:20 to hurry to see the sun rise over the Yellow Mountain peaks. By 9:30 the clouds had rolled in and the views of the valley below were all but obliterated.
Over the three days that we were in the Yellow Mountain district a total of 550 pictures were taken, a few of them really nice. All of them can be viewed at flickr but sift through quickly to find the good ones.
After all of the climbing my calves were feeling it while others in our party were really laid up lame for days afterward. Our little “Goat” was the realy climber of the group scampering up the climbs waiting for us at the top.
You can follow several pictures below Read More→
The Collector
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The Collector is the title of today’s post. I have a penchant for collecting and never really advanced past Erik H. Erikson’s “Age of Collection” which for the child development specialist among you is about age 10 to 12 hmmm maybe younger like age 6 to 8! Remember the younger days when Marbles and balls of string held such fascination. I had a huge collection of baseball cards that filled two shoe boxes that today would be drooled over by the avid “Collector” of such things.
Today, the Collecting urge still raises its head and my shelves are filled with old telegraph keys, books and tea wear, notably Yixing clay pots. If you have followed along with me there have been previous posts on these little wonders of the craftsman that hold wonderful utility in the making of tea. Recently I have expanded my collecting of tea things to include Gaiwan’s which are porcelain cups designed perfectly for the brewing of tea.
My passion for collecting the little Yixing clay pots is driving the rest of the family a little nuts. You can always tell when collecting goes far when the family comments on it with statements like, “Oh no not another one of those things. Don’t you have enough of them already?” This is the delema of a “collector”. When is too much enough? In my mind there is always another rarer more collectable out there and the search is on!
But today’s post is not about me. I met today one of the most remarkable men in Shanghai. Luo Ming is a business man and manufacturer of fine Red Wood furniture with a factory in the Fujian Provence. Mr. Luo is not just a collector but an avid collector of all things Chinese Art. His interests include the Yixing Clay and Giawans from the Ming and Song dynaties including all kinds of carved wood and sculpted works and pottery. His home in one of the most presigious areas of Shanghai was literally filled with antiques from the Ming and Song Dynasties. His home was simply amazing! I have included a few of the pictures of the wonderful home which was more like a fabulous museum for me. Mr. Luo was a childhood friend of my wife’s “Baba” and served us wonderful Fujian oolong tea from one of his Yixing pots. I was staggered by his collection which he began when he was a small school boy.
Visiting Mr. Luo’s home and meeting his lovely wife and family, looking over his artwork briefly, is one of the highlights of my visit to China this year.
You can see pictures of the artwork that I was privaledged to view at flickr. This is only a very small sample of the collection.
Yellow Mountain Trek
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Today starts a journey. This is not an ordinary trip or one taken lightly. The trek to the Yellow Mountains (Huang Shan) has been reported to be both a spiritual and heroic climb of epic proportions. Fortunately the trip has been made easier in modern times with the addition of three gondolas that will take us up more than half way and eliminate much of the long climb to the base of the steepest climbs to the peaks. (Picture is from China Odyssey Tours with link)
The Yellow Mountain district was made famous during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by a poet-traveler, Xu Xiake who once commented on Yellow Mountain in one of his poems:
“You will find viewing another mountain no longer worthy after you visit the Five Sacred Mountains. Nor will you find viewing the Five Sacred Mountains worthy after you visit Yellow Mountain.”
The Five Sacred Mountains include the Taishan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in Henan Province, Huashan Mountain, Hengshan Mountain in Shanxi and Songshan Mountain. Non of these compare, according to the poem, with the Yellow Mountain. This mountain district of legend is located in the south of Anhui Province, covering an area of roughly 250 square kilometers. These mountains are a geological wonder of the earths crust movement thrusting upwards some 100 million years ago. The mountains are primarily granite which has gone through glacier erosion creating steep peaks and deep gorges of fantastical proportions. Much of the 72 or so peaks are reported to be above 1,800 meters or about something over 6,000 feet – not a terribly high elevation but the climb is very steep and from see level a bit strenuous. The highest peaks are above the cloud cover creating the Cloud of Seas.
The Yellow Mountain was first known as the Yi Shan Mountain in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and changed to its current name in the Tang Dynasty (608-917 AD). Ancient Chinese legend has said that the mythical Yellow Emperor who is regarded in legend as the foremost ancestor of the Chinese people, was a seeker of herbs on the Yi Shan Mountain and sought to make an immortality potion. The origin of the Mountain’s name comes from this illustrious mythical ancestor who succeeded in finding the immortality he was seeking and became a god ascending into heaven. Our trip has no such aspirations.
Searching through the web another report is given as to the origin of the name for the Yellow Mountains. According to the ChinaVista report the poet Li Bai (701-762), the great Tang poet, wrote these lines naming the district:
Thousands of feet high towers the Yellow Mountains
With its thirty-two magnificent peaks,
Blooming like golden lotus flowers,
Amidst red crags and rock columns.
For pictures and more information about the Yellow Mountain you can check ChinaVist.com and do a search for Yellow Mountain in Google. Its an interesting voyage. Be sure to check out the images of the Yellow Mountain district. Mine will be coming soon.
Patric O'Brian
Radical Brewing
