Moganshan Bamboo Forests 16-18 Feb 2017
Hi, Norm,
In Cincinnati, some ten years back, I was hiking in the deep forested valley that exists near my home on Cyclodrama. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, I came across a thick and wild grove of bamboo. I marveled at this because, at that time, I believed that the Cincinnati climate had a winter that would kill bamboo. Not so, I discovered later. Here was living proof that some bamboo can survive the winter freeze. The grove was too dense to penetrate. The shoots of bamboo shot up in the air four to five meters high. It was majestic.
Thus, when I came to China to be with Elena, I wanted us to be able to experience a bamboo forest together. So we did!
We take a two-hour bullet train due west of Shanghai. This train travels up to 350 mph. The current velocity is posted on an electronic screen inside each carriage. I am curious to understand how China has these very modern forms of transportation while the USA does not. Have any hunches on this question?
When one of these trains travels through the station without stopping, it whizzes bye! There are no barriers between the bullet train and ourselves standing on the platform. It’s truly impressive. I keep my distance, however. Never have I experienced a train charging past a platform at such speeds. Yipes!
Once our train arrives, we notice that is twelve carriages long. Everyone is assigned a prearranged seat; hence, hundreds of people are moving back and forth on the platform looking for the correct carriage number and, upon stepping up into the train, looking for the correct seat number. Each carriage has thirty rows of seats (comfortable armchairs)–half are facing the direction of travel and half are facing away from the direction of travel. At the very center of the carriage, there is a narrow table and eight seats are arranged on both sides of the table. These would be the seats preferred by groups of passengers that are traveling together.
As the train begins to move, I notice immediately that one does not hear the clack-clack as the wheels pass over the gaps in traditional rails. Here the steel rails have been welded together, and they are clamped down to cement (and not wood timber) footings that are meticulously laid. Click here for one-minute video showing how this is done in China.
We have two seats facing the direction of travel so that we can enjoy seeing where we are going. As it turns out, the landscape near to the train whizzes bye so fast that our eyes can not settle upon anything and eye fatigue results. Hence, we quickly discover that it’s much more relaxing to look out 20 or 30 meters for the tracks so that we can easily focus on the gardens, homes, and factories that we pass.
After our train arrives, we take a 40-min taxi ride to a small village (Hou Wu) which is situated on the national hiking trail passing through the bamboo forests. This is where we want to be!
As we approach these majestic trees–6 inches in diameter and 30 feet tall)–I notice black ink markings on the bark indicated the tract of land and tree #. No one can perpetually own any land here in China including the land on which private homes are built. After 70 years, all land rentals expire and must be renewed or the land is turned over to the people’s government.
We move toward the buildings where we will stay. There is a large, black, imposing dog at the entrance that barks at us aggressively. Clearly he wants us to go away. But after a minute, the owner comes out and calls him back. Now the dog lies down at the feet of his master and acts as though we don’t even exist. We get directions and enter the building where we register.
눇Someone from the staff contacted us the morning of our arrival to assure us that they were ready to receive us. When we arrived, they had hot tea and watermelon slices ready for us. Bunk beds are very comfortable and wide enough so that you can easily sleep with your lover. Night light allows bed-time stories. . . .
Trecking the National Nature Trail
The nature trails were extraordinary! The art room was very appealing. We made water paintings that gave us great satisfaction. This is not the sort of extra that one expects of a hostel.
Elena in her familiar happy hiker mood, shows that these national hiking trains were established in 1982. The national hiking trail is straight ahead (following her right side).
Pic below = Elena has picked up a walking stick (bamboo, of course) and admires the tops which, for reasons unknown to us, have often been sliced off. I borrow the walking stick. Note that I’m wearing my down jacket for the weather is cool=15 C.
The trail takes us up, up, and up 600 meters (1800 ft.). Here you can see how the mists make the far-away mountains seem lighter–a strong feature in Chinese landscape paintings.
At this same spot, I show how well the trail is constructed stretching out in front of us.
Pic below = Here is the same spot with a view of the trail behind us.
After hiking for three hours, we use my compass and map to go overland to find a quick return to our hostel. My earlier training in path-finding as a Boy Scout comes nicely into play. My Beloved is impressed. We return exhausted. We kiss and take a nap prior to our supper. Elena tells me that the food is authentic Chinese and very tasty.
This is not supper but my breakfast. We slept in the dorm room that had ten double-decked Queen-size beds. This is the off season; hence, we are the only ones sleeping in the dorm. We lucked out!
Yes, the one dish consists of steamed yams and corn on the cob. The other dish has pan-fried sliced potatoes, a spicey cabbage mixture, and tasty mushrooms (elephant ear?). Elena takes the Western breakfast with fried eggs and various asides (not shown).
We found a carpenter at work constructing tables using a variation on the tongue and groove method to hold things together. We watched him work for twenty minutes. A great craftsman! At this point, he is applying a varnish on his finished table.
In this area, bamboo is used to construct the scaffolding in the construction of a new home. You can see a big pile of bamboo on the ground next to the roadway. This is for use in the interior of the home.
In the mountains, we saw men cutting down tall bamboo trees, stripping off the side branches, binding six or eight together, and then dragging them downhill to this spot on the road next to some gardens. I hefted the load and estimated that the weight was 200 to 250 pounds–quite a load. Workers on construction sites normally live in the rooms that they are making. They also create gardens (shown) so that they have access to fresh vegetables while working on the site. Every few weeks, they go and join their families for three or four days. When the Chinese Lunar New Year rolls around, they take off a full fifteen days for a family reunion at their ancestral home.
As we hiked in the bamboo forest, we came across some unusual structures (like the one shown here). A one-meter-high wall made of cut stone forms a “D” when seen from a bird’s eye view. The interior of the “D” contains a conical mound of earth. What could this possibly be?
This is a traditional burial site, one of the hundreds that are scattered throughout the bamboo forest. The cut stone has likens growing on it, so it has been there for a long time, over a hundred years. There is a very small altar with a bottle of whiskey and three half-filled tumblers being offered to the deceased at the front, bottom of the burial site. See blowup below:
Chinese Burial Customs
Since Neolithic times, the Chinese have been obsessed with remembrance of those in their family who have gone before them and then died. To be forgotten by one’s children and grandchildren is tantamount to a total disaster. One’s ghost would enter the spirit world as a low-ranking personage, looked down upon by other spirits. To prevent this terrible fate, the ancient Chinese buried their dead with plentiful provisions, including a large supply of the deceased’s favorite food and alcohol. These burial sites were normally constructed in remote places. No one wanted to live near a burial site.
Today, oranges, meat buns, and other delicacies are left on graves when relatives gather for the annual remembrance ceremonies. Wax fruit, plastic jade bracelets, and paper Rolex watches are common symbolic offerings. A cigarette might be lit and left burning on the grave. Here you can see the whiskey bottle with three glasses of half-filled with the liquid–the sign of a final farewell toast to the dead person. The square red box is a sign that four roman candles had been fired off–a traditional way for warding off unfavorable spirits/ghosts from the burial site.
In the USA, folks routinely take leisurely walks in cemeteries. I myself used to routinely cycle to Spring Grove Cemetery, and my daughter and granddaughters delight in visiting the ponds there. In China, this would not happen. Chinese avoid cemeteries and enter them only when they are prepared to gather their clan for an annual commemoration of a dead ancestor. Before any ceremonies are attempted, however, roman candles and fireworks are exploded around the tomb in order to frighten off evil spirits.
Burial in Modern China
In modern China, cremation has been law since 1956 when 151 communist party officials, including Chairman Mao Zedong, signed a Funeral Reformation proposal. Given the nearly half-billion Chinese deaths that occurred from the 1940s to 1960s, there was a simple logic to incineration. According to the China Funeral Association, modern China has a death count of over eight million people each year. Four million of these bodies were cremated, which brings the cremation rate to 52.7 percent. Where have all the others gone? They have been buried in these ancient burial sites. Some have even preferred to have their bodies shipped out of China and buried elsewhere so as to avoid cremation. Needless to say, this is one area where old traditions are devotedly upheld and where the government appears to allow official policies to be weakly enforced. Click here to view the desperate measures to attain a proper burial.
Click here to read a dutiful granddaughther’s family story of visiting grandfather’s burial site.
That’s all folks.
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PS: Here is an afterthought. The Chinese have a tradition of welcoming Chinese Lunar New Year by setting off firecrackers and fireworks, in the belief that the noise will scare away evil spirits and bad luck.
So this is the second arena wherein popular compliance falls short of the government regulators.
Fireworks in the USA originated around (a) the purchase of cheap fireworks from China and (b) the wish to celebrate the 4th of July “with bombs bursting in the air.” Originally they were British “bombs” being used to put down an uprising of British colonists in the New World. So Americans celebrate their war of independence by lighting Chinese fireworks made to scare evil spirits. What a lovely illustration of cultural differences. Two continents on opposite sides of the world using the same fire works for two very different meanings. So what do you make of that? [You’ve invited to post your response below.]