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“They went traipsing into the rice fields in their suits and office attire...” |
RYAN...
Today we piled into a bus and drove out into the countryside to visit Dao County’s famous Moon Cave (Yue Yan). The bus trundled along past the town and onto a wide paved road heading straight towards the huge mountains looming in front of us. At first we wondered why the bus was being unusually bumpy today when going along a paved wide road, but were soon informed that the driver was “learning to drive”. I thought he did a pretty good job overall, minus the occasional lurches off the road onto the dirt side strips and the narrow misses as he sped by everything from farmers leading oxen, small Tuk Tuks putting along at speeds slower than walking, and the numerous children playing along the roadside.
Accompanying us were Mr. Zor, Ms. Tan and Ms. Pong (aka, David, Jane and Monica – our foreign affairs teachers). The bus passed by a hill on which stood many large mounds with tombstones placed in front of them. Many of the graves looked ancient to me so I asked Jane if they were Graves and she said “yes,” and that “some of them could be 1000 years old or more.” But I never expected the reaction I got when I asked if one day we could go to see them. “Why?” she asked in a slightly frightened voice. “I'm just interested I suppose” I replied, “In my country the oldest graves are about 170 years old, so I find these fascinating.” “No, no” she replied, in China we don't really do that, we are afraid of the dead, it gives us shivers.” “Yes,” piped up David, “sometimes when I pass by these things I get a headache.” “Yeah, really,” he added, this being his trademark response to the end of almost every statement he makes. We pulled up on the side of the road and jumped out. We then headed into some farmland rice fields in search of the Moon Cave. As usual when we are invited to go “hiking” as they say, Claire and I take this quite literally and deck out in hiking gear. The Chinese teachers didn't. They went traipsing into the rice fields in their suits and office attire. Quite impressive I found myself thinking. When one can master tough, boggy, inhospitable terrain in high heel shoes, then I believe one can do almost anything.
The Moon Cave is quite literally a creator. A long time ago something pretty big must have went down, because the top of the mountain has been made into a massive creator and there is a wide open-ended entrance into it from two sides. When we were standing outside the entrance, we could see the sky through the creator opening and the shape of the mountain around it made it look like a crescent moon. As you walk through the entrance and the creator opening shifts slowly from in front of you to above you, the moon changes slowly from crescent to full. Standing in the centre of the creator and looking directly up the sky becomes a perfect full moon. Amazing. As we walked out the other end of the tunnel the moon diminished back to a crescent moon again.
David said that maybe a thousand years ago a rebel army came to hide here and there was a big battle. China is so different from Australia. It has been hard to find but it is these kinds of places where you can feel the history around you.
After the Moon Cave we went to another cave not far away. This was a natural stalactite and Stalagmite cave that wasn't horrizontal like most, but ascended about 150 metres vertically! This cave also had a bit of interesting history. In World War Two (they call it the anti-Japenese war here) about 1000 Chinese people hid inside this cave from the Japanese army. They hid for many days until they sent a scout out for food and he was seen. The Japanese followed him and then proceeded to smoke the Chinese out. Many died from inhalation, but about 400 ran to the back of the cave and built a smoke wall with rocks. After about 4 days they came out and were too frightened to go outside, so they climbed the impossible 150 metre assent out of the cave in complete darkness. The rocks would have been slippery because there is water dripping everywhere, and they would have been so tired and had lots of Children with them. I thought it was an unbelievable story of survival. David says that there are still people living in this area that survived that terrible climb in the darkness and can tell the story.
We climbed up though the cave on slippery steps that were almost like ladders they were so steep. All the way up I was imagining those 400 people doing in the darkness. Amazing. I have no idea how old the cave was, but it was so beautiful. David said that there are many such caves all over China like this one.
After we reached to top of the cave, we continued to climb the mountain to look over the farmland below from the top. We came to a pagoda covered in wild goat shit from a party the night before. I attempted to show them the Australian cooee!, with no success. I don't really think they understood what I was doing.
Dinner after the hiking trip was an odd mix to say the least. We had desserts brought out in the middle of the main plates and we had a plate of potato chips with tomato sauce (i.e., watery tomato paste). I think they ordered them specially for us because we ate the whole plate and no one else would touch them…
previous travel blog entry
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