opinios

Taoist Karma

In Qing Dao, Kim and I had some time to kill. We were supposed to meet up with my cousin's wife's parents but, for a number of reasons (which I will probably go into in another post) circumstance conspired against us and we ended up going for a stroll in the woods instead.

We caught a local bus out to Lao Shan (Mount Lao), a Taoist sacred site, and began the stroll up the mountain. Being off season, the cable car wasn't running, but the walk and fresh air did us some good. Sure, there was the occasional hawker to deal with, but they weren't as persistent as ones we'd dealt with in Beijing, so the serenity of being surrounded by nature and away from the city was not lost.

Partway up, after convincing the local hopefuls that we didn't in fact need a guide to climb the rest of this mountain, Kim stopped to rest her knee (what would they have told us? Follow this path. Keep following. Keep going, that's it!) In the distance I spotted some huge boulders with Chinese characters etched into them, marking the top of Pantao Peak, and decided to see if I could get to the top of the peak and give Kim a wave from afar.

Further on, more hawkers used wire to string beads and shells across the walking trail on the off chance that I might feel the urge to capture the moment with a souvenir. I dutifully ignored them and instead wandered off the track in an attempt to climb the rocks. What can I say, it was a beautiful day and I have always loved a good clamber. I don't know whether it is bad karma to climb on sacred Taoist boulders or not, but I figured the view would be worth it from the top.

Unfortunately about halfway up I had to turn back, as things were getting too damn treacherous. What good would a photo looking down on the valley be if I didn't actually live to post it on the web for you all to see?

It was on the way back to the trail that I walked into the wire.

At first I thought someone had whacked me over the head. My glasses flew off and landed on the ground, and it was a few seconds before I realized that I had connected with one of the low-hanging wires that was once used by someone to hang souvenirs for sale, but was currently empty and existed only to serve as a trap for curious tourists. My glasses were scratched up beyond repair and I felt a twinge of guilt, like it was some Taoist karma coming back at me for trying to climb the sacred boulders.

That'll teach me.