Spring Green Mentougou Again, Apricot Blossoms Blanket Miaofeng Mountain
The hibernating days of winter are hard to bear. The north is bare, gray, and rarely green, and winter is long, from late November through late March—unlike my hometown, which is green year-round. So when spring comes, I go wild. Last Saturday and this Saturday I cycled into the deep mountains of Mentougou.
Last Saturday there was moderate smog, not ideal for cycling, but having been cooped up at home, I didn't care and rode to the summit of Miaofeng Mountain in Mentougou District. Last Saturday was also when the apricot blossoms were at their peak; miss it and wait a year. So I rode up regardless, determined to see with my own eyes the mountainsides of Miaofeng covered in apricot blossoms. Though it was "viewing flowers through smog," it was stunning: blooms like snow, and the vast Miaofeng Mountain turned into an ocean of apricot blossoms stretching to the horizon.
Appreciating the blossoms along the way, I hardly noticed the climb up the winding road, and for the first time rode all the way to the Golden Summit, the highest point of Miaofeng. I even paid 40 yuan for a ticket and entered the temple at the summit.
Apricot blossoms were in full bloom halfway up, but at the summit snow had not yet melted—one mountain, two seasons. The scene of "in April the world's flowers have faded, yet the mountain temple's peach blossoms just begin" had become here: "in March the world's apricots bloom, yet under the temple eaves snow has not melted."
The temple on Miaofeng's Golden Summit is perhaps the most interesting I have seen: Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and folk belief coexist harmoniously; the summit is a gathering of immortals. Confucius, Laozi, and Buddha Sakyamuni share one hall, grandly named the Three Religions Hall. The Jade Emperor (symbolizing imperial power), Yuelao (god of marriage), Ksitigarbha (who saves suffering in hell), Guanyin (who delivers all beings), the Songzi Niangniang (child-granting goddess), the historical physician Sun Simiao (the medicine king), and the God of Wealth all have homes on this mountaintop.
There is even a hall dedicated to Wang Sannainai, a folk healer venerated by the people of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. Wang Sannainai was a folk physician during the Qianlong-Jiaqing era of the Qing (some say Kangxi), healing the people and saving the world, compassionate and highly skilled. In her seventies, while riding a donkey up Miaofeng to offer incense, she fell into a ravine and died. People believed she had become an immortal, so they built a temple here; other temples to her exist in parts of Tianjin and Beijing.
Faith and folk custom are shadows of real life. The "gathering of immortals" at Miaofeng's summit outlines the arc of a Chinese life: birth, aging, illness and death; marriage and burial; healing and longevity; wealth and prosperity—these are the life themes of most people. When we encounter on these themes hardships beyond human power, we pray to the gods in our hearts, asking them to grant our wishes.
The most interesting site on Miaofeng is the grand God of Wealth Hall on the Jade Emperor Summit, said to house more such deities than any comparable temple in the country—over twenty statues. Clearly, in the popular mind, wealth comes first. We feel this in reality too: getting rich is most people's goal.
It is said that in the past, from the first to the fifteenth day of the fourth lunar month, the Golden Summit temple opened its gates to pilgrims, with a great temple fair. Pilgrims from all over North China streamed up to burn incense; even visitors from Jiangsu and Zhejiang came from afar. Reaching the thousand-meter-high Golden Summit is not easy, so wealthy families once set up porridge and tea shelters on the mountain path, serving pilgrims.
Such grand scenes no longer exist; instead, cyclists like me now make climbing Miaofeng our goal, and Miaofeng Town has designated the area a "cycling town." From the Miaofeng archway, the characters "Ken Qixing" ("dare to ride") mark the way; following these road signs we know the kilometers remaining to the Golden Summit. Some riders have sprayed slogans like "jia you" on the road to encourage panting cyclists forward. Cycling has given me good strength and shape; after riding for most of last year, my fitness and figure are now quite good.
Mentougou is the Beijing district with the most mountains; over 90% is mountainous. Miaofeng is simply closer to the city, hence more visitors. When I ride, I wander all over Mentougou, not limiting myself to Miaofeng.
Year-round, Mentougou's scenery is pleasing, though winter is too cold for me to visit often. I love its mountains and waters. Mentougou's mountains are rugged, majestic and unbroken. Its water is well protected: rivers run clear to the bottom, and reservoirs look like jade. Even in my childhood, the Hunan countryside did not have such water, let alone now. So if I cannot return to my Hunan hometown for a farming-and-reading life, I imagine I might find a farmhouse in the deep mountains of Mentougou, rent a plot, and till and read for my own enjoyment.
In Mentougou I often recall Liu Zongyuan's poem "The Old Fisherman": "At night the fisherman rests by the western cliff; at dawn he draws the clear Xiang and burns Chu bamboo. Mist clears, sun rises, no one is seen; with a creak of oars, the water and hills turn green. Looking back, he is downstream in the sky; on the cliff, careless clouds chase each other." On a clear day, clouds chase each other over the summit; the upper Yongding River runs green. Spending a day in such surroundings dissolves even the greatest worries without a trace.