Confessions of a Drifter

Day 2 - January 27th, 2011

The bus’ wheels crunched in the snow as we came to a stop.

This was as far up as cars could go. 9 GEPers stumbled out of the bus and looked around… Huge sloping mountains in the distance, dotted with bamboo stalks and shrouded by mist… Snow falling on a frozen river… Pine trees with white powder coagulating each green strand…

I had that awe-inspiring feeling, when you see something so beautiful that you know you won’t be able to describe it…you can’t take a picture of it, can’t capture it…just try to register it in your memory as best as you can…

We started walking up a hill, breathing fast, gently showered by snow, just looking and taking photos…

In the distance there was a mountain with a beautiful red and yellow temple built on its peak. It looked like it was teetering on its edge, about to tumble down and get swallowed by that misty precipice… How did they build that?—I wondered. Tree’s branches reached up to the mountain like the fingertips of hands paying homage…the Jiuhua Shan’s base stood unmovable in front of us…its celestial peak, too high and foggy for us to see.

We’d reached the foot of the stairs.

Our mission was to make it to the top…like that brave monk so many years ago that built a great temple and died at the peak of this mountain to honor Dizhang.  

-Seb