Path to Immortality

One way ticket

I can say I am truly in love with China. I am very fascinated by Chinese culture. I am crazy about Chinese food. I really admired Chinese mentality and language that I always wish to learn the most is Mandarin. I was 19 when this love suddenly developed. My heart was searching for new world to explore, new doors to open, new things to discover and of course to learn and experience more. It was the time when a young man like me full of excitement cannot sit still in one same spot any longer while his star of fortune shining lonely somewhere beyond the horizon of being and calling for him. Eventually, I followed my star, I followed my dreams and I ended up in China. It is like a saying in Russia - One way ticket. Now I am 22 and this is my fourth visit to China. I have already been to Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Macau, Guangxi and Yunnan. It may seems to be more than enough for one country but our loves (or my love) still feel as strong as first day. Somehow, we never were lovers , we are always just admirers.

While I am writing this, I sat in the summit of a sacred mount which is one of the five sacred mounts (peaks) in the whole China. Here almost reach evening, skies became yellow and air changes gently from warm to cold. I know very soon sun will leave and I will leave too. But I am sure I will be back in China again the same like sun always back in the morning.


I will come for my fifth visit, fifth date and fifth act of love.


One thing

Anyway there is one thing (maybe few, but I try to mention only that one) in China which I really do not favor. Where ever you go (from world heritage to a simple park in nobody-knows-city) you will always find a ticket booth. Quite often prices are not cheap. For example Longmen Caves for 80 yuan, Shaolin Temple for 100 yuan, Army of Terracotta Warriors for 90 yuan and Taishan for 100 yuan. It maybe necessary in the sense that collected funds goes not just in someone's pocket but for maintenance, improvement of infrastructures, cleaning and etc. I totally agreed with that, no complains. But on another hand if you are a budgeted traveler like me, you simply cannot afford it. So that is why sometimes I have to avoid ticket booth by jumping over fences, cross over through holes on the walls or sneaking in while security guard is not watching.


Taishan mount is one of the examples. I made my way through forest, climbed over fences and ended up entered far away from the main gate. It was bad from my side but I do not have a choice. I hope authorities of Taishan tourist side will forgive me. Anyhow, I hope they collected enough entrance fees from other hundreds of visitors that can afford the entrance ticket on that same day.


Mount Tai

"Let's protect the mutual heritage of the whole world - Mount Taishan!" notice on a wall for tourists.


So what is Taishan?

How to describe it?

What to search for?

What you will find?

Maybe I have an answer.

Taishan is where a real China, innocent and pure, old and traditional, peace of land with preserved image inside, spot for pilgrimage, sacred place associated with sunrise, birth and renewal.

There is a history. Chinese emperors, philosophers, poets, writers make ascent to the summit of Mount. Taishan still kept their breath in air and stones keep memory of their footprints. In 219BC there was proclaimed the unity of the empire. Some of constructions dated back to those days which left us only dust of the past. For example Temple Dia was first built during Qin Dynasty (221-207BC).

There is a religion. Taishan is sacred for Taoists, but have Confucius temple and Buddhist shrines as well. People from all over the China came here everyday for worships.

There is an art. You can see almost thousands of Chinese calligraphy masterpieces carved in a cliff of Mount Tai.



There is a natural wonder. Marvelous peaks covered by fog on 1500 meters (peak of Jade Emperor 1545 meters) above the sea level with scenic areas for watching beautiful landscapes around. Melody of nature sounds peacefully created by song of birds, play of wind and whisper of Han Dynasty Cypresses. Perfect harmony between the man and the mount.

There is a myth. A myth about legendary Pan Gu - first man in the world who was born to separate the ground and the sky. After his mission has been accomplished his eyes became the moon and the sun. Mount Tai is what his head was before.

Taishan is truly Chinese place more than anything else in the whole Middle Kingdom.

People saying: “If Mount Tai is stable, so is the entire country.”

Others are saying: “If you come to Mount Tai, you will see Chinese culture in miniature.”
Perhaps, that was what I have been looking for.


Path to Immortality

I followed red walls of Doumu Hall.

Ding...Ding...Ding...Wind was playing with bells while I staying in front of the gate keepers. I look at them, they look at me. Even eyes not moving and ding-ding-ding are the only one sound exists in that reality. We keep a distance for a while before I make a step forward without asking permission to enter. I know the gatekeepers - two big cats that will not stop me. Since very old time when the world was different their job is just to stare in silence. So I walked in. The Hall has few temples to worship Goddess Dou Mu. I wonder around and fill my lungs with air which is smelled like burned paper mixed with aroma. Sky surprisingly blue and a bunch of small clouds pass slowly over my head. When I see a Chinese student I stop. They were throwing coins trying to hit metallic plates which are hanging over a pond. No, they are not vandals. Perhaps, they do this for bringing themselves good luck. I smiled at them gently and continue my walk. At that moment I wish to have good luck too but my pockets are empty.There is no coins.

Later I found a monk. He was sitting on a chair while hundreds of visible lights came from the sun to give something almost sacred to his look. I cannot see his face clearly, so I do not know whether he is smiling or he is sad.


I start to wonder: What was he searching in his life when he decided to become a monk? Peace? Happiness? Immortality? I do not know but all of us do that and he is not an exception.

Maybe (I want to believe so) he have found this ‘something’ and he satisfied with his discovery while others unable to understand it because they are blinded with their own selfishness. Maybe he even wants to share his truth with the rest of us and we just have to come and ask him about it. But I did not do that. I left him in peace, to rest in his own world. Blank face with eyes on it tells me nothing.

I did not know his name, his past, his thoughts, but the monk, his still silhouette of calmness stuck in my mind. He appeared to be a great mystery to me.

As for answers to my questions, they will stay forever with that man who sitting lonely under the blue sky at Doumu Hall.

I start my ascent at late afternoon from First Gate to Heaven and by the evening I have reached Middway Gate to Heaven where I decided to overnight on top of a stone in a cliff. Skies were full of stars. In the end of next day I pass through Archway to Immortality and finally reach summit of Taishan. Overall a bit more than 6500 stairs with 22 kilo backpack. How was it???

It was simply hard. Staying almost on my knees and putting hopeless eyes in the sky at the final gate (South Gate to Heaven) I was far away from being immortal and definitely do not feel myself like in heaven. No doubt, I looked half dead and half breathing God's creature. It was kind of sophisticated way of suicidal. I should have left my backpack at the feet of the mount, but it was too late to think about it now and I am paying a price for my own silly mistake.

When night came I closed my tired eyes at Pagoda at Moon View Peak with hopes to open it again next morning when the sun will wake up on the east side of the mount. This is how new day will be born...

I called my ascent Path to Immortality, but I was not searching for it. I never did. I believe that life is so wonderful and we should be happy with what the nature given us. Yes, there is a clock but it is nothing to be afraid of. We come and then we leave. We always pass by. This is the rule of eternity.

To be a guest in this world is better than to be a gatekeeper of it.

I hope when we gone, only than we will become immortal in a words we leave to the people. The words same as this one carved in a cliff of Mount Tai centuries ago.


Epilogue

Mao Zedong said: "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man"

Those words became immortal. The same as well for words of Confucius the philosopher from Qufu and others whose names I did not mention. Mao Zedong was a truly one leader of Chinese nation, the man who made a history. What he once said is inerasable since the time he past away in 1976. Anyhow, from my opinion, his words about Great Wall fit more to Mount Tai. Taishan is the place every Chinese should visit in their life. It is a great pilgrimage to the gates of Real China.

***

There was a woman. I had seen her while I was on my knees in front of South Gate to Heaven. She looks over 60 and colour of her face shows that she will not last for long. Her body and her soul were almost separated from each other, but there was a hope that these two parts will find a peace at the summit of the sacred Mount. Maybe she will get her last breath over there. Two young men were carrying her on their shoulders. They look like in a hurry. My eyes locked at them and after those people disappear I never in my life see this woman again. I stand up from my knees and said to myself:

"It is never too late for a step which leads you to something you always wish to do. Do not think, do not look back. Just do it!"