A continuation of my Shan Dong chronicles. You can catch up on Part I - Qing Dao. Part II documents some of the sights on the way to 濟南.
嶗山 - Mt. Lau
Mt. Lau is a mountain range around 青島 area, also known as "海上名山第一" and "東方阿爾卑斯山" (Alpes in the East). Recognized throughout China and around the world as one of the best sources of mineral water. Thirty years ago, this mountain range was the main source of the water for the citizens of nearby Qing Dao. Nowadays, the rights to the mineral water are owned by QingDao Brewery and Coca Cola. The water is known for its slightly metallic taste and its unrivalled "pureness". Of course, I cannot tell the difference, though having watched 酒是故鄉醇 many years ago and sampled different fine wines, I can certainly appreciate the importance of water. As an aside, Qing Dao's water nowadays comes from filtered Yellow River water.
Mt. Lau was one of the sights I was looking forward to the most on the trip. The saying goes "泰山雖雲高，不如東海嶗", in reference to the strong waves of the Pacific sweeping upon the rocks of Lau. The beauty of the range has been described by many famous scholars and poets over the years. On this trip, I only got to visit a small section of the scenic park - a 3km trail along a river known as "九水十八潭" (Nine waters, eighteen pools). The trail winds along a river through a narrow valley with soaring cliffs on either side. Each "water" and "pool" consisted of impressive rock formations along the river. Most of the locations were worthy of a visit by themselves and I found myself always looking forward to the next location. At most of them, you can easily make your way carefully down to the water's edge.
My favourite part of the hike was around near 四水, where there was a little pavilion on the opposite side of the river. While most of the group decided to hike on, I made the detour by skipping along some rocks to visit the pavilion. I wanted to see what the interior decorations of the structure was like, but it didn't turn out too be that impressive. However, the view was quite spectacular from that side overlooking the river downstream.
Unfortunately, moving as one big group, I did not get a chance to walk the entire trail and visit all nine waters. Only got up to 5 waters and 11 pools. I would have loved to go on, but oh well... :(
On a side note, Mt. Lau is one of the holiest sites for Taoists back in their heydays. The only thing I know about Taoists is 王重陽 and his 全真教 and their "獨門陣法" - 北斗七星陣! The little section of Mt Lau I visited only had one Taoist temple along the way, and it was under repairs at the time, so I didn't get to visit. It would have been quite cool to visit and learn more about their culture and history. Maybe next time.
臨淄中國古車博物館 - Ancient Wheeled Transport Museum
Went to an interesting museum on the way to 濟南. During the construction of the highway connecting 青島 and 濟南 (濟青高速公路), construction workers uncovered fossils of horses and horse carriages dating back to more than 2000 years ago, before the time of the Terracotta warriors. One of the top 10 archaeological finds in China. You literally stop on the side of the freeway, walk down a set of stairs to go under the highway, and you'll see the ancient fossils. A little freaky considering that these horses were drugged then killed for the burial of some rich guy over 2000 years ago.
They built a little museum detailing the history of carriages in China. Interestingly enough, wooden carriages and many advancements such as shock absorbers were developed before the era of palanquins (轎). Palanquins were more comfortable, so emperors and rich people eventually favoured them more, leading to the decline of carriages. As always, military needs really drove technological development. Pretty impressive seeing how far advanced China was compared to the rest of the world in those times.
濰坊 楊家風箏博物館 - Wei Fang Kite Museum
濰坊 - Wei Fang plays the host of a famous international kite festival every year. Scores of kite lovers from around the world invade this small town to showcase the latest and greatest in the art of kite flying. Paper making and its close ties with kite making have been part of the roots of Wei Fang for many centuries.
We took a tour of Yang's family kite museum. We first visited some of the facilities where workers were busy creating ... you guess it... kites. All the kites made by Yang's family kite factory (they been in this trade for many many generations) are hand made. Each kite is tested multiple times to ensure their flight worthiness. If it fails to take off, then the worker who made the kite is responsible for fixing it, or else it comes out of his/her salary. I was really impressed by the level of detail on these kites - the individual layers of colour, the perfection in the bindings, the fragility of the paper. Overall, I came away with a much greater appreciation on the art of kites.
They had this giant courtyard where we saw some workers flying kites. It is quite cool seeing some oddly shaped kites in the air that you'll never expect can fly. The most impressive kite in the museum was this one of the dragon - apparently winner from a past international competition. I bet it would have been quite a sight to see this take to the air.
After kites, we visited this master who has been creating these multi-layer paintings (埠木版年畫) for over 60 years. He was once featured on Discovery Channel too. You start off with these stencils onto which a single colour of paint is applied. Using a brush, the paint is transferred to a sheet of paper specifically at certain locations, as defined by the stencil mask. Each colour has a different stencil. Extreme skill is required to ensure the paper is correctly aligned for each stencil and that the paint is evenly transferred. A typical painting requires at least a dozen paint layers. This master just breezed through the process. I was just thinking, if you hesitate for a split second and misalign your paper by 1mm, your painting would be screwed. I was tempted to buy one of the paintings, but all the good ones were quite pricey.
Saw many more Chinese art, including detailed etchings, cool origamis and paper cutouts, little trinkets and toys. I imagine foreigners would swipe these goods up really quickly.
As we left 濰坊, we passed by the following statue. We were like, "What was that?!?! Brokeback action!?!"
Apparently, the statue commemorates the bonds between the soldier and farmer during the rebellion.
To be continued....
Lao Shan is also famous for producing these ancient Chinese Taoists that can perform magic and catch ghosts and most famously, can walk through walls.