Hengshan Mountian

This morning Shannon (the roommate of the wife of the man who works at the front desk in my hotel) called me to let me know she will pick me up at the hotel at 9 o'clock.
She helped me with a few things at the hotel and then we were off to the busstation where she found us a cheap way to get to the Hanging Monastery, our destination for today. The drive there would take 2 hours. For Chinese measurements this is very nearby. For me, you can cross half of the Netherlands in that time. We were almost there when we got stuck in traffic. So we decided to walk the last bit. Two other Chinese guys did the same thing and together we found our way to the beautiful Hanging Monastery. It was amazing. The sight was wonderful and to walk on it as well. Although it is quite high up and it doesn't always feel really save. When I lifted my heels and put them down again, you could feel the wood of the floor moving. And you stand on a construction that is hanging on the cliff of a mountain, with very thin pools to keep it in place. As I said: amazing.

After seeing all of this and making lots of pictures we went to climb one of the five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. The least religiously important one, because of its location. Nonetheless very beautiful and a big climb up. I remember: lots of stairs. On the top of the mountain were these beautiful buildings and temples. Again more stairs, but a beautiful view. I loved to see some of the nature in China, because in Beijing there is not a lot of that. In the picture I am putting some money on a statue at the top of the mountain for good luck. There we also took a picture with a man who works/lives at the top. I think he was some kind of a monk. We had a talk with him about where I was from and what I thought of this place etc. Shannon was starting to notice half way through the day that a lot of people are staring at me as I walk by. So I told her about the pictures they often try to make, hoping I do not notice. She made fun of this and told me when I should look away if anyone tried to make a picture. She also came up with a plan later that day to ask money for people to see me. Lucky for me, she didn't put that plan into practice, because it involves me wearing something over my head and people paying before they can see me?

On our way back to Datong we were in another bus. We felt lucky we were on that bus, because Shannon was afraid maybe we were too late to get back to Datong. As we were considering our luck, the bus got a flat tire.. I was glad we didn't had to wait long for another bus to take us to Datong.
We had dinner with the two guys, who paid for the meal as well. It was lovely and I showed them that my chopstick-skills are better than my Chinese language skills. We talked about some cultural differences and I enjoyed a nice meal with dumplings and meat and soup and tea I actually liked.
We went back to the hotel by cab, were we found out that there was no power. They were burning candles at the front desk and all had flash lights. I was glad I brought my own flashlight. I went back to my room, wrote a little bit and went to bed.

(I know it should say: 'Mountain', but all my tickets from today say Mountian.. Funny Chinese)