June 30 2015
Yunus Kemp and Wang Lanxin, Saturday Star
Beijing - Close
your eyes and imagine Cape Town without Table Mountain.
Unfathomable. The same can be said about the majestic Tai’shan
Mountain in Tai’an in China’s Shandong province, halfway between
Beijing and Shanghai.
It
also happens to be a sister province of the Western
Cape.
Tai’shan is one
of five “holy” mountains in China and regarded as the most
worshipped – for more than 3 000 years it was used by Chinese
emperors across dynasties to pay homage to the heavens.
Ascending the
nearly 7 000 steps to summit can be a religious experience. For
comfort and expediency, there’s a cableway, which reduces the climb
to only several hundred steps. The ride in the cable car provides
spectacular viewing of some of the 989 species of different trees
and plants. The mountain is also home to more than 200 animal
species and 122 bird species, though we didn’t encounter
any.
There are 11
gates, 14 archways, 14 kiosks and four pavilions, scattered along
the route between the base and the summit.
En
route to the cable car station, along the winding road, the town’s
men and women carry buckets to collect fresh mountain water – it is
a local belief that drinking the fresh water daily guarantees
longevity.
If
the water doesn’t do the trick, the trek up and down the mountain
will go a long way in accomplishing that. A Unesco World Natural
Heritage and World Cultural Heritage site, the mountain, at its
peak, sits about 1 500m above sea level.
Unesco describes
the mountain’s importance thus: “Mount Tai’shan is directly and
tangibly associated with events whose importance in universal
history cannot be minimised. These include the emergence of
Confucianism, the unification of China, and the appearance of
writing and literature in China.”
As
it is a major local tourist destination, all manner of food (great
savoury breakfast pancakes) and drink stalls await the weary
climber. We visited on a Monday morning, so there were not many
tourists about.
There are also a
few hotels atop the mountain, which are usually booked by people
wanting to see the sunrise from the Sun Viewing Peak, although our
tour guide cautioned that the accommodation is of a very poor
standard and the amenities rather spartan.
He
suggested it would be a better bet to stay in a hotel in Tai’an and
start climbing at least three to four hours ahead of
daybreak.
Aside from the
breathtaking wraparound views, the mountain is also home to the
Palace of Heavenly Blessings that is inside the Temple to the God
of Tai’shan.
Other impressive
structures include the Azure Cloud Temple, with its courtyards and
buildings, the Divine Rock Temple with its Thousand Buddhas hall
and an inscription (Most Revered of the Five Sacred Mountains) on
one of the many (rock) tablets which features on the reverse side
of the five-Yuan bill.
At
the temples, locals light incense sticks and offer a
prayer.
Some
tie money to good luck charms and couples write their names on
locks and attach this to an installation in the courtyard of the
Goddess Bixia, symbolising their union and for continued happiness
– the locks from one of the many vendors will set you back about
R200, so pack your own if you must.
Though the cable
car saved us time and energy, if we had climbed up, the journey
would arguably have been more impressive.
Every famous
mountain in China has cultural relics, which some locals firmly
believe can be better comprehended by experiencing it by climbing
to the top.
So
why are Taoism and Buddhism elements easily found in Chinese
mountains?
For
the Chinese, climbing mountains is more than just
sightseeing.
It
is a process of clearing your thoughts and a journey of mental
purification.
As
one local put it: “As counting the steps with my feet, it gives me
a clear impression of how majestic nature is and how tiny humans
are. The Buddhist or Taoist temples on top take my breath away. It
is the strong power of will that leads me to this
height.
“I
believe that is why the emperors came this far to worship the gods
by showing their sincerity. Scholars left their masterpieces of
inscriptions with the inspiration of the beauty of
nature.”
“That is why I
recommend you climb up the mountain without the help of modern
facilities. After spending three or four hours walking, feeling and
experiencing on the way up, the money you tie and the lock you
attach means much more than just a souvenir.”