We are in Wutai Shan!

We have not had a chance to get online these past few days - the place in Hunyaun was only open until 8pm and we never got out of dinner on time and we didn't see any internet in Yingxian at all. But now we are back :)

It has been a bit of hard riding these past few days. We left Datong and headed for Hunyuan and Heng Shan. We got a bit lost trying to get on the right road to Heng Shan - it was signposted right outside the hotel but there weren't any more signs to direct us until much later. We, of course, got out the handy dandy Mandarin dictionary and the map and asked directions and were on our way soon enough :). It was a decently flat ride and we were happy to be doing our first real day of cycle touring. We passed one group of riders (obviously recreational riders and not a group of commuters) and said our Nia Haos and a few kilometers later we came upon another group of recreational riders. These guys were on some serious kit! There were 2 mountain bikes and a road bike and both mountain bikes were top spec off road machines (a Specialized S-Works and a Giant XTC) and the road bike was not a brand we recognized but it wasn't a cheap bike. They were even using clipless pedals! Their English was about as good as our Chinese but we had some good (if limited conversation :) and we all took some photos and went our separate ways.

We successfully rode our first climb with loaded panniers (woohoo!!!!) and bombed down the other side to find the hotel we had booked. It wasn't a simple affair but again, we asked and we found it. A 74 kilometer ride and we were feeling good, but tired and hungry. We were pleasantly surprised to find that 1) it was not a "mouldy double" as described in the Rough Guide and 2) it was actually quite nice - a business hotel, for sure. We unloaded, locked the bikes and got changed for dinner. We were directed into a private dining room (the main one was full) and we had a very nice waitress offer us her assistance in some very rudimentary English. She tried very hard, and we give her a lot of credit, but it probably would have been easier if she used Chinese and let us work it out - some of her English pronunciation had us so far off track it was laughable! For example, she came in to tell us the bill was 19 yuan (cheap at the price! :) but she said, with no preamble, what we heard as "one night". Hmmm...one night. What did she mean? So we replied..."no, we are staying for two nights" :) She was so very confused. We figured it out in the end.

Anyway, they didn't give us a menu they just asked us what we wanted, so we started with "we don't eat meat" because telling the waitress that we are vegetarians does not always yield food without meat for some reason. And then we said we don't want any MSG. That done, we just asked for what we felt like eating - vegetable soup, some steamed dumplings and some white rice. The dumplings were the most amazing that either of us had eaten - egg and spinach. Everything else was really good, too and not just because we were starving :) The lovely waitress tried to get us to eat more - did we want potatoes? and a few other things, but we got it across that we didn't want anything more - where would we have put it? The bowl of soup was enormous and there were at least 20 dumplings! We finished and went upstairs to collapse into our beds :)

The next day we were up and ready to ride to the Hanging Temple and Heng Shan. The book said it was just a few kms up the road....and it was, but it was all up hill :) We arrived at the Hanging Temple at about 11....just in time for all the tour buses to have moved on - we had the place to ourselves! They have put a dam in the valley so the river that used to regularly flood and wipe out the temple (which was rebuilt higher each time) was now just a small pond of water and a trickling stream. We paid our entry fee (60 yuan - 4GBPs or $6) and went across the bridge and climbed up to the temple. Wow. It was very very cool. And we were very very glad there were not huge crowds to share the place with - the walkways are wide enough for one and there is only one route through the place. Narrow staircases up and down have you feeling like you are crawling around the place. They have crammed in loads of tiny temples into even the barest open space. It was really amazing.

We hopped on the bikes and rode up the very steep hill back to the road and then it was up up up a couple of more kms to Heng Shan...but first we rode through the tunnel! It was quite dark (no lights), but the cars and trucks could see us (me with my very reflective cycling top on riding at the back :) and that was pretty cool. So we climbed the next 5 kms and reached Heng Shan...or the gate to Heng Shan where they make you pay to enter the mountain area (20 yuan and 2 yuan for insurance). Then it was more up up up!!!! Another 5 kms to the actual Heng Shan (they didn't tell us this in the guidebook). And the road wasn't the nice easy truck usable gradient, this was steeper with hairpins - excellent fun! We didn't have the panniers on so we were having a great time :) We had climbed about 400 meters from the hotel (my Nike altimeter watch isn't all that accurate, even just doing changes, but it's good enough :) and then we asked our legs to climb up the stairs to the temples on the mountain (yes, they complained, but we are only here once :) - when we got to the top we were 800 meters higher than the hotel and the views were spectacular! We were having a fabulous day! We wanted to get to the very top of the mountain but the legs were saying "you have got to be kidding" :) and we were running out of time, so we headed down....and then hopped on the bikes and rode down down down! Through the tunnel where some cars were passing the trucks!!! (they are almost as bad as the drivers in India! :) but I pulled in front and my super reflective jacket was seen by the drivers and they pulled back in :) Soon we were back in the hotel, locking the bikes and heading to dinner where it was a similar affair, except the place was empty and we ate in the main dining room. It was again an early night and we woke to head off on our next day's riding.