qing cheng shan (green castle mountain)

so the first day that steve and strav got here, we woke up, grabbed a bus and took a two-hour ride to qing cheng shan. after a nice bus ride full of cards and reminiscing we arrived in the crisp, cleaner air of the mountain. we had an expensive lunch of unspicy sichuan food. i think they saw us as wimpy tourists and took it easy on us. way too easy. boring kung pao chicken, boring fish flavored eggplant, boring qing cheng greens. ah well, it set the guys up for a delicious initiation into chengdu cuisine, which they had yet to experience.

as we climbed we ran into porters which were carrying people up the mountain in sedan chairs. pretty ostentatious. at one of the temples which line the path to the top, i had a conversation with one of these porters. quickly we got on to politics, and soon he was talking about bu si. i couldn't figure it out until he yelled it 80 times in a row, at which time all three of us laowai realized he was talking about our illustrious president. he went on to talk about yi la ke, and how that was a big bad egg. very interesting.

we thought the steps would never stop. finally, we reached the top of the mountain, and in the clouds there was a giant pagoda with a huge golden cow inside. it was about 30 feet high, and 40 wide. i'm pretty sure the god of the 10 commandments would not be happy about it.

we climbed down, and had a nice bus ride back. we had a quick nap, and then went out to celebrate st. patty's day. huge deal in chengdu. big irish-chinese population. not really. but it would be cool if there was.