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Once in Hangzhou, we realized we had not arrived at the bus station we had expected but instead were far to the east side of town. As we needed to be on the west die we had a long ride ahead of us to the hotel. Then we discovered that the night was mid-Autumn festival and that getting a ride was not going to be easy. After standing in line for a taxi for a while, we decided to try and catch a bus. One of the guys in line suggested we follow him as he was going that way too. We crossed the street hoping to have more luck on the other side but to no avail and there was no bus stop in sight either. Next thing we know, the guy from the taxi line tells us that a company car is coming to pick him up and that he will take us to our hotel. We said thank you and after another ten or fifteen minutes, sure enough the car showed up and we finally made it to the hotel.

They were expecting us and while checking in we learned to our pleasure that the hotel had an outdoor pool that would be open until 11 pm. That meant we had plenty of time to take a swim before going to bed, which is exactly what we did. When we checked in, we thought we would stay just one night, but try as we might we couldn’t get any information about the bus to Huangshan and so decided that the best bet was to go buy the tickets the next day and then travel the following day. That would give us a bit of time to relax and do some sightseeing in Hangzhou itself if we wanted.

The next day turned out to be rainy, but nonetheless we set out to walk to the West bus station to buy our tickets. We eventually got there via a University campus, a semi-industrial district, and an industrial highway. The news was good. We bought a ticket for 9:20 the next day and left by local bus headed for the Ling Yin temple. Having gotten off the bus and failed to find the transfer bus we took a taxi when Jan’s blisters started playing up. Gerry had long wanted to take Jan to see this temple, which he had visited without her on our first visit to Hangzhou last November/December.

The taxi dropped us a short block from the main gate where we paid our entrance fee for the park. The main attraction of the park is a sculpture garden that includes some small original Buddhist cave sculputures but the bigger part consists of reproductions of some of China’s most famous grotto and cave sculptures. Gerry quickly recognized carvings from Dazu which we had visited just a few weeks earlier.

On entering the park, however, we bypassed the sculptures in favor of the temple which was on the right a short walk up the main path. It was certainly well worth a detour. The entrance hall was an enormous open peaked roof building with a large and very decorative double-sided altar enclosure for the traditional laughing Buddha and Guanyin statues. The former faces out to the street the latter in towards the temple. It is hard to describe the atmosphere of cool, calm, and contemplation that enfolded you as soon as you entered the temple precincts.

It is very different from the temples we visited in Beijing, but very reminiscent of the Fa Yu temple on Putuoshan. The most distinguishing features of both temples are first that the temple halls rise higher the further back you go, because of the sloping site, and second that the courtyards are planted with a number of large old trees that soar above the temple rooves and provide a wonderful cool shady atmosphere. A truly lovely experience. We spent a very pleasant hour or more here absorbing the peace and quiet. Even the incense here smelled sweeter than elsewhere!

After leaving the temple we walked across the small stream that parallels the main path and walked up the small hill on the other side to see where it led. Unfortunatley it only led to the top, which had nothing to recommend it. So down we came and found our way into the sculpture garden. The large reproductions were pleasing but more interesting were the small caves with authentic old carvings even if the quality of the old carvings was lower.

One negative experience was finding beggars in the garden, one of whom was not only had malformed legs, but insisted on showing us a wound on the upper part of one leg that we could not help but think was self-inflicted for just that purpose. It could have quickly been healed with a small amount of medical attention. We are always at a loss when faced with such people. We feel mean because we don’t give anything to them, but our logic tells us that to give them money only encourages worse abuses whether of self or others.

Hangzhou to Huangshan  Thursday, September 14

The next day we got up early to have another breakfast buffet which we hoped would last us until we got to Huangshan. Actually, the quality of the Yellow Dragon buffet was so high we just couldn’t imagine passing it up. After eating more than our fill we left the hotel at around 8:15 and easily caught a taxi to the Western bus station in the light rain that was falling.

Once at the bus station, we found some seats near the departure gate and waited patiently for our bus to be called at 9:20. Jan noticed as soon as the information board above the gate showed our bus number, destination, and departure time, but before we could move our bags a man came over and asked to look at our tickets. Maybe we were the only passengers? The man led us out of the departure gate and across the yard to a bus parked 20 meters away. The bus was not the large modern comfortable bus we had expected from the advertisement (never believe what you read!), but rather a medium-sized cramped bus that was maybe half full when we boarded. As compensation, however, the man motioned that we could take the empty front seats rather than our assigned seats in the center of the bus. We were happy to do so.

The bus ride was mostly comfortable because although the seats were small, we managed each to get a double seat to ourselves giving us plenty of room for our large daypacks and computer case. The highway out of town meant we moved quite quickly, but to our consternation the bus had some problem with its suspension that meant that going around corners at any speed made the bus rock not only up and down but side to side too. At one point, we both thought the vehicle was going to overturn, so much did it sway. If the most extreme sway has been repeated Gerry would have jumped overboard.

The journey was much as we both remembered it, except that the early fall weather, which got brighter the further away from Hangzhou we got, made everything look more attractive. Last December the rice had been harvested and so most of the fields were bare or stubble. Now they were ripe for harvest and indeed we saw many fields being harvested and many threshing machines being transported back and forth from one field to another.

At around 3 pm we arrived at the Huangshan south gate and expected that we would be arriving within the hour. To our surprise though it took us more than two hours more. The route taken by the bus was along winding mountain roads and was through some of the most lovely mountain villages. It was well worth the extra hour to get the lovely views.