Hin's 3rd C.O.U.N.T 1,000,000 steps (Sep 19TH – Oct 12th 2011)

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6: Neo-Gothic Church in Communist China?

Thean Hin Ooi <ooithin@gmail.com>  Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 11:11 PM

Hi, hi, hi,

This may be the last mail from Datong, as tomorrow, I shall be heading up the mountain trails again.

Datong - Great Unification/Harmony, what a contradiction. This place has changed hands of sovereignty by so many dynasties. It was the capital of the Bei Wei dynasty - invaders from Turks (stan). There are evidence of so many Great Walls (at least 4 - Bei Wei, Sui, Qin, Ming).

All the invading dynasties - Tang (mixed Turks?), Yuen (Mongol), Qing (Manchu) almost always, immediately adopted the culture and customs of the Chinese. And the first thing they did was to build a Great Wall to deter their kind from invading them.

Datong was/is a rich vast flat fertile ground and like the rest of the Shanxi province was a great trading place. This was the attraction for the invading forces - so tell me, with so many battles fought over it, how can it be Great Harmony? Maybe Great unification would be more appropriate as indeed they had to unite the different people settled here over the millennium.

Shanxi is well known for their smart merchants and because they did such huge transactions, often they cannot carry so much silver/gold ingot to pay the seller. Here is where the "I Owe You" note was invented for the world. Just yesterday, I went into a small village shop to buy a few apples and was given a pack of chewing gums as change. Not only did she manage to sell an extra stock, she also cleared one - smart and wily indeed.

Sep28. Day9: 08:30-18:36. Shiwugou - 40°12'9.19"N 112°40'4.49"E Road S209 (about 1km from Shiéryaocun). (27.4 km).

The days are getting cold (1-16C), made worse by the morning drizzle when we started. My Karrimor boots, supposedly to be waterproof failed its test, and my feet almost froze. A difficult day where we had to cross many ravines and the cold Mongolian breeze certainly didn't help. But we made good progress and completed 27.3km, ascended 1,156m and climbed to the highest point at 1,923m - spectacular view of the sunset. And not wanting another "home stay", we headed to another small town Zouyun. Luckily a room was available and the night brighten up with a delicious meal.

Sep29. Day10. 06:30 - 17:15. Near Shiéryaocun – Xudayaocun. (26.4 km).

Dry day and warm up very quickly. Return to the mountain top to resume our trek, quickly reaching the elevation of 1,941m. We then came down the longest slope of 500m to be greeted by a beautiful Heibei style "14-eyed" tower, with living quarters and a chimney, which would take 60 steps to the roof top. Another climb and down from there, we reached the village of Bataizicun, where the ruins of a Neo-Gothic church stood majestically on the hill top. On further exploration, we found a newly build church (with a bell) and were told that most of the villagers were Christians.

On the way, we found a large white mushroom along the path. Some mushrooms can be eaten raw, some only when they are at the young stage, some Ok only with alcohol but definitely you can eat the mushroom at least once - try it next time.

We ended the day covering 23.5km and climbed only 865m, reaching the village of Xudayaocun, whence we were picked up and went back to Zouyun. Enroute we were mesmerised by the appearance of a sun halo at sunset - rainbow curves around the sun. A phenomenon only in the high north - it's a reflection of the sun's ray on the surrounding ice in the clouds.

Time to bid farewell for now and till the next, all the very best. Good night.
 

Rgds,
Hin

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