Dengfeng, China Day 3 (Part 2 - Forest of Pagoda)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t dear believers!

Salam saiyidul ayyam and happy barakah Jumuah. 

All praise is to Allah s.w.t and may peace be upon our dearest prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his companions.

Yesterday, I shared my tour in the Shaolin Temple see Luoyang, China Day 3 (Part 1 - Shaolin Temple) and today will be on the Forest of Pagoda. Forest of Pagoda is the buried place for the master of Shaolin temple, juga bermaksud kami melihat kubur sami Buddha..err.. We weren't aware of this until Mr Leo ehem.. told us about it and so as Muslim I look at it as an opportunity to see other religions custom. This actually strengthened my faith even more and I see that Islam is indeed such beautiful religion that touches on every aspect of our life here and the hereafter.

The last place we visited was the temple and from there we again walked for 10 minutes to the pagoda. We kept complaining how tiring it was walking in not suitable shoes and climbing stairs and you know what did Mr Leo said? We are NOT healthy. Just a lil walk and complaints a lot. Wait whaaat?? It was not lil, each places were so far away from one place to another and... fine. No wonder Chinese there are so healthy, wherever they go they'll walk or cycle. Jealous! 

More places to visit to but I don't think you can finish it in just one day.
Somewhere on that mountain is where it used to be the monk's meditation cave, the cave is still there though.

Not sure whether they are Shaolin or just workers who dressed up like one.
They were actually selling things, Calligraphy perhaps. Sorry, don't understand Mandarin.   

Some local people selling Buddhist prayer beads by the pathway.
And that hand not to say Hi to me but more to "No picture please!" and obviously I ignored them, oopss!

Pagoda Forest here we come!
There's cable car too but we didn't get a chance to ride one and I bet it'll definitely be awesome!

There were also some souvenir shops

After complaining and mumbling and of course enjoying the breath taking scenery, we finally arrived at these pagodas, pwheeh!

Each pagoda vary in heights, the height indicates the monk's ranking level. What level? I don't know.
But I was told that the higher the pagoda means the 'religious' the monk is during his lifetime.
9 is the highest level if I'm not mistaken.

Lots more in there as these were from 791 AD during the Tang Dynasty through the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty.

One of the interesting facts was that if you observe very carefully at the lowest part of the pagoda, you will be able to see some shapes carved on the stone. There was one pagoda for the late monk who took care of this monastery and his pagoda was carved with shapes like laptop, bullet train and few other things that I can't remember. These carving are symbolize possessions for him to bring along in his life after death. 

In other word would be, now (since he already passed-away), he have laptop as well as bullet train to be used in his hereafter life. So I was thinking, monks were not supposed to have any desire towards materialism including wife, new clothe and sometimes even the desire to talk! But after death he can finally gets it all. Even the bullet train. Wow.

You can actually go further up and explore this huge monastery and spend at least days to finish touring but unfortunately for us, there ain't enough time. But the good news was no more walking! Yeay!

Remember Aru? He became so popular after that Kung Fu show.
The man second from right is one of local people who wish to take photo with us.
Not sure whose the tourist here, haha. 

We thought that we were supposed to go back the way we came and we gonna die along the way! But miracles happened, time for buggy ride (about 5 minutes ride). Ya Allah sujud syukur! So no worries, no injuries or death taken part in the making of this story lol. Anyway, the ticket for the Kung Fu show, temple entry and this buggy ride is inclusive in our package.

The ride of miracle! Haha!

While queuing for buggy, I saw these lovely ladies.
It was like watching Mandarin series when I was at secondary school, simply authentic!  

The final view in the monastery.
Mountains on your left and right making it such a soothing scenery.
Souvenirs shops waiting outside for you to grab on.

Around 2 pm we finished touring and went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is about 20 - 30 minutes from that monastery and I don't know the name of that restaurant sorry. Actually once you got out from the Shaolin temple,you can see a lot of places to eat along the road including Halal and vegetarian restaurants.

This restaurant makes me felt as if I'm in another era of Chinese's Dynasty, mesmerizing! 

You can choose to dine indoor or outdoor and enjoy the peaceful ambiance.

There were few other cuisines served to us but since I didn't eat any of them, including this one (because although it was vegetarian, I still do not have faith it is Halal so I ate Mamee cup) so I just took this one picture of the food.
This is bun or pau in Malay that is served with a bowl of spicy sauce (sambal)  

Somewhere near that restaurant there were few hawkers selling nuts and fruits so we bought some from them and it was really cheap!

This uncle selling varies of nuts like almonds, walnuts and peanuts as well as fresh tamarinds.

And this uncle selling fresh fruits but to me their mandarin orange and pomegranates were a bit sour.
Love the persimmons though! Sweet and juicy like tomatoes! 

Around 3.30 pm we went back to Luoyang town and reached at 7.00 pm, about time for dinner. So we went back to yesterday's Halal restaurant but this time the foods were so much better because we said what we would like to eat and Mr Leo ordered it.

Grateful faces as we did starved for the whole day and only instant noodles.
The polite guy next to me is.. you know who.. lalala

Look for that writing above us for Halal restaurant!
Now he became masculine, haha! Enough Ain enough.

And so after that we end our night by going to the underground shops, I mean these shops have license of course but were built underground to preserve the cleanliness and tidiness of Laoyang town. It used to be above the ground but China's government had moved them not so long ago.

Luoyang was such a nice place to go where local there were friendly and I noticed that they were very fashionable, love it! Foods were delicious, just make sure you choose the right one and no problem in finding Halal food.  Other than that, stuffs like clothes and bags here were cheaper than in Xi'an but one small tiny problem either its Xi'an or Luoyang, their shops and shopping malls closed as early as 9.30 pm. I wish they had a downtown like in Malaysia where you can shop at 3 am in the morning!

Anyway, with this it is the end of day 3 and up next is day 4. We visited the first in number among all other grottoes in China. 

Until then, Assalamualaikum!

Happy weekend!

Dengfeng, China Day 3 (Part 1 - Shaolin Temple)

Asalamualaikum w.b.t and happy Thursday!

I hope my previous post on Xian, China Day 2 is helpful for those who needs information on Xi'an trip. Today, I'm going to continue to share on Luoyang.

22nd Oct 2014 (Day 3)

As usual after we had our breakfast around 8.30 am, we hop on coach and headed to Dengfeng where Shaolin is popular there. We went to the over 1,500 years Shaolin Temple  that bore witness to the rise and fall of several dynasties, and is well known for its ‘Kung Fu’ and also according to Mr Leo (the cute tour guide, still remember? Haha), Jet Li was once student there. How cool is that huh?

 

The coach that took us everywhere there comes with a really nice driver.

From hotel to the temple took about 2 hours and we used highway to get there. The highway there has 6 lanes but only 4 were used while the other 2 in the middle looks like still in construction. But one thing for sure I love about the road is that it is clean, beautified with greenery landscape and definitely NO holes or cracks unlike Malaysia's road! Not that I am not being grateful but yeah..

Anyway once we reached Dengfeng area, on the way to that temple we passed by many private Shaolin schools. These schools are where students able to learn standard school syllabus as well as Kung Fu. Kung Fu has become their only curriculum activity and I wonder, can't we do the same with silat?

Around 10.50 am we finally step foot in the Shaolin area but I would like to WARN you! This place is huge! We spent about 2 hours in there, and yes, by walking. So please ensure that you wear walking shoes or sport shoes. The long walking on uneven ground and stairs was definitely exhausting. Bring also some snacks and drinks in your bag-pack.

There wasn't any security check here like in Terracotta Army , just a normal ticket checking but at few different checkpoints and so please keep your ticket.

The main entrance for Shaolin monastery

From the parking lot to the main entrance we walked for 5 minutes and another 10 minutes to a hall to catch the 11.30 am Shaolin Kung Fu Show. While walking, we saw these young Shaolin students were trained.

Young Shaolin undergo training

Closer looks of the young Shaolin who were coincidentally jogging that morning in our pathway 

The Shaolin Kung Fu Show was a 30 minutes show that was performed by students there. It is free-seating so be fast to catch the best seat in the house. 

There were group performance as well as individual and all of them have their own weapon to play around with. At the end of the performance, 3 Shaolin showed off their skills and then invited the audience to take part.

Shaolin training nearby kept you entertained while waiting 

The statue that can be seen near the performance hall and top right, hit the bell the Shaolin style 

After hitting the bell, they took my picture which I'll show you later and then we queued up to enter the hall.
While waiting in the line, there this cute couple we met.
Bercakap dengan mereka we were like bagai itik dengan ayam, body language that matters haha
And one thing for sure, Shila Amzah is so popular there!

The Shaolin with their respective weapons

That is Aru, my colleague, who was chosen to part of the show.
He won 1st place and presented with Kung Fu vcd, nice!

At 12 noon the show was over and we continued to walk to the Shaolin temple. This means more walking! Good news is the walking this time took about 20 minutes, okay not good.. silly me.

The happy faces BEFORE knowing that we had to walk really far.
And psst.. that guy with the blue flag is Mr Leo ehem haha 

The temple's inside area is 160 x 300 meters, that is, 57,600 square meters. It has 7 main halls on the axis and 7 other halls around, with several yards around the halls. (Taken from wikipedia). With this huge area of course we didn't able to see it all but these are some of the places in the temple that we went to.

At the main entrance of the temple we needed to showed our entry ticket once again. We were told that the original monks and Shaolin masters no longer used this temple and they have moved somewhere peaceful, far from tourist. Most of the workers there were just local people who works for this temple and dressed up like Shaolin.  But of course those young Shaolin we saw earlier were really there to learn Kung Fu. 

The Buddhist praying area where they can also meet up with the monks  

Behind that closed door is where Shaolin masters used to train. Only limited Shaolin masters can train at a time for their comfort. But now this temple is no longer being used for training or meditation purposes due to 'distraction of tourism'.
Well, we did make a lot of noises there.. sorry!

One of the master's meditation centre, the Shaolin Chin (sumpah no idea who he is!)

 

The temple was built on a high ground so as you go further, it became higher. Lots of stairs to climb up to.  

Even in the temple they were selling pomegranates, persimmons and many kind of nuts

This temple tour is most suitable for the Buddhist to really get to know in depth on their religions and also get to pray and met up with monks for wishes. While for Muslim like me, my niyyat was purely to witness the history of well-known martial art and get to know other religions as well to respect them.

And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah , lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. 

Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do. (Al-An'am:108)

And if you are a person who loves architecture, the temple and old structures here were pretty impressive. Can you imagine they built all these beautiful structures at times when there is no so- called 'sophisticated technology'? All praise is to Allah ‘Azza wajalla who gave creative brains to them, subhanAllah.

While waiting for our Buddhist colleague, we kept ourselves busy and we were very good at it haha!

Trees there had lived for hundred thousands of years

After touring for almost an hour in that temple, we next continued to walk to the Forest of Pagoda and that I'll share in the next post.

Till then, Assalamualaikum!

Xi'an, China Day 2 (Part 2 - Xi'an to Luoyang)

Assalamualaikum w.b.t!

Allahumma salli ‘ala Muhammad wa Ali Muhammad.

The journey in Xi'an continues and to catch up on my previous post just read this Xi'an, China Day 2 (Part 1 - Terracotta Army)

So after a long walk in the museum, we finally went for lunch somewhere near that area which is reachable in walking distance. The authentic Shaanxi Chinese cuisines were delicious but do mind on the herbs, once you got a bite it'll definitely changed the taste of the rest of the foods.

Beautiful art on the pathway

Souvenir shops and food stalls along the way to the foods area.

So here is where the foods area situated.
Many restaurants and foods to choose from. Please ignore the hungry us posing ridiculously.

Our non-Muslim had their lunch at this restaurant

For Muslims, worry not as Halal food is also available there. Just look for restaurants like below. Can you see the Jawi/Arabic writing on top of the billboard? Well that writing indicates that this is a Halal Restaurant, InshaAllah.

This restaurant is situated at the end of the shop lots and a bit at the back so walk through til the end of the pathway.

Enjoying the delicious foods, semua tunduk focus on foods haha

Some of the Shaanxi Cuisine we ate in that restaurant while many more to come after that!

But there is one thing, Muslims here are minority and according to the local in order to be successful in their restaurants business, they had to sell alcohol to the non-Muslims. Well.. emm.. so don't be shocked if you see people drinking in the Halal restaurants or bottles of alcohol in the beverages fridge. And may Allah have mercy upon us, the sinful slaves. Forgive us oh Allah, and present us Hidayah!

Again, pomegranates! This is near the restaurant we had lunch.
And those in the baskets are small juicy persimmon that looks like tomatoes.

While walking through those shops and restaurants, we were approached by old ladies insisting us to buy their pomegranates and persimmons but unfortunately majority of them can't converse in English so it is very hard to do business with them. But one thing you can do is, take out that gadget you have and find the calculator apps to press on. You can also bargain!

After a yummy luncheon we then hurried to the Xi'an Railway Station to catch up our bullet train to Luoyang This was my first experience on a bullet train and all these while I really thought that only Japan has it, kurang membaca punya pasal huu ignorance me. Well anyway, this ride took about an hour 40 minutes in the 310km/hour bullet train.

The railway station is somewhat like our KL Central.

A lot of facilities except for prayer room so we just prayed at the corner in this station and yes it is open space.
Wudhu' taken at public toilet.

Can't read Mandarin but I bet you can purchase ticket using this machine kot.

Passengers waiting for departure.

The ticket price from XiAn Bei to Luo Yang Long Men is 174.50 Yuan\RMB.
The ticket has name and the seat is fixed.

And ohh at the main entrance we were supposed to queue up for security check and yes it is the same like at the Terracotta Army, put all the belongings in a tray and passed through a thorough security check. After that, wait until your departure time and once it is time to depart, go to the correct gate and ours was Gate A13.

Ensure the correct gate and off you go to the train.

The train was so fast that I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of the front of the bullet train.

So off we go to depart on the train. I had the chance to see the breathtaking scenery outside the window but it was just a while because we departed about 5.30 pm and by 6 pm it is already dark like 7 pm in Malaysia. There is no change in time frame between China and Malaysia but the sunrise and sunset in China is faster about an hour compared to Malaysia.

So for Muslim, please bare in mind that this would also means that time for Solat there is an hour faster for each prayer time for example Zuhr is at 12 noon and Asr at 4 pm. But of course, since China is a 4 seasons country so the time will keep on changing. So do install useful Solat apps to ease you there!

It would be so much easier if you travel with a Muslim agency, not to be racist or anything but for us it was really troublesome to find a clean spot to pray. Alhamdulillah that this station is  clean enough for us to pray at the corner of an open space area. 

When you had to pray anywhere clean then it is also means that my dear Muslimah, a proper, decent and suitable attire is required. Because there is no way that you gonna put on your telekung in the public and meleret-leret atas lantai. After all, a Solat ready attire is actually what we Muslimah supposed to be wearing every single day. Hashtag Notetoself. 

At about 7 pm we arrived at Luoyang Station and it was super cold! Here the weather is colder than in Xi'an and definitely foggier. 

Freezing cold! At least for us Malaysian with this hot and humid weather we have.

Once arrived, we met up with a handsome (Astaghfirullah Puan Ain!) local guide, Mr Leo. We then stop by for dinner and from that railway station to the restaurant took about 30 minutes by coach. Unfortunately for us, dinner was not as great as lunch perhaps Luoyang province foods just not suitable with our taste, my taste at least.

After dinner about 9.15 pm we headed straight to Bohemia Hotel for check in and then went for quick walk near that hotel. We wanted to go to the shopping mall nearby but sadly at 9.30 pm, it is already closed.. sob sob.

Cold and foggy Luoyang town.

Failed attempt of group jump in front of the closed shopping mall.

Feeling disappointed and so we went back to hotel and you know what happened next right. Yup okay. So Luoyang, China Day 3 continues in my next post.

Till then, Assalamualaikum!