D8: Zhao County to Gaoyi County 赵县 → 高邑县

September 3, 2018

Rooflines at Cypress Forest Zen Monastery

Somehow, I was under the impression that I've been a bridge geek for longer than just the past 8 or 10 years. However, re-reading what I wrote back in October 2002 about the "Road to Zhaozhou Bridge", I see that this clearly wasn't the case. I spent at least twice as many words describing the sheepskin comforter that I didn't buy as I spent describing the whole of the actual visit to the bridge.

In point of fact, given that much of the bridge had clearly been repaired and refurbished, and that the water under the bridge was there only with the assistance of a dam, I was singularly unimpressed by Zhaozhou Bridge at the time and very nearly equally unimpressed by the Cypress Forest Zen Buddhist Monastery.

Despite being listed as a "Nationally Important Cultural Heritage Item" in 1961, the Dhāraṇī Pagoda in Zhao County (built 1038) is not important enough to show up on any of the electronic maps as a possible "Site of Interest". I accidentally discovered it in the middle of a roundabout while looking for a hotel that would let me spend the night.

The carved garlands of hanging flowers make me think of neo-baroque or Roman carvings

Atlas like demon figures holding up a level of the pagoda which features scenes from the Life of Buddha

Sixteen years later, this is no longer the case. I'm still singularly unimpressed by any bridge which I'd have to pay an entrance fee to go see when I've already freely biked across a bunch of other thousand year old bridges in the vicinity but I was absolutely blown away by the Cypress Forest Zen Buddhist Monastery.

Badly damaged by a fire in the 1950s which was caused by improperly stored fireworks, further damaged by an earthquake in 1966, there was nothing left but a single stone pagoda by 1970. And then, in 1988, eight years after a delegation of Japanese Zen Buddhists first came to Zhao County to make obeisance at the former site of the Cypress Forest Zen Buddhist Monastery, the Hebei Buddhist Association got approval to rebuild Cypress Forest.

Of course, in 2002, I barely knew anything at all about the Great Leap Forward, about the Cultural Revolution, about the destruction of China's traditional culture, or the slowly forming movement by the newly well-to-do to refind that which had been lost.

These days Cypress Forest is a giant complex at least one third of which is off limits to the public and is intended solely for the numerous monks and nuns studying there. It still has ticket windows but it doesn't sell tickets. It's a tourist attraction, of sorts, but it's not actually all that commercialized.

Various signs warning about scammers selling overpriced incense or pretending to be fortunetellers

Elephant that is part restoration and part original

Being as I'd left my bike—lying on its side, pedals off, working on the assumption that no one would know I had a laptop in one of my panniers—outside the gate with a 'parking attendant' cum incense seller, I was a little nervous most of the time that I was in the temple. Walking quicker than I might otherwise. Not really stopping to linger. Not that (unless I wanted to take pictures of people praying) there was a whole lot to stop and linger and look at the way there would be in a smaller temple where I could get up close and personal with the statuary without being rude.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the grove of cypress trees which gives the monastery its name might have only just been recently planted when I was last there.

Supposedly the cypress trees that make up the cypress forest are descended from the original cypress tree forest. I'm dubious.

Glassed in relics of the original Cypress Forest Monastery

After a quick stop by the remnants of the City Walls, and a very quick pass by Zhaozhou Bridge, it was mostly farm roads and nothing hugely interesting until I got to Gaoyi [高邑]. Nothing hugely interesting once I got to Gaoyi either. The only sites of interest I could find in the city proper were either clearly completely modern rebuilds that weren't done very well or, like the museum, completely locked up with no sign of when or if they were ever open.

I'd turned around and was going to get off the road and take a leak at this not-yet-open petrol station but the giant sign "It is Forbidden to Piss or Shit Here!" along with the video camera dissuaded me from doing so

I took a really nice really big road out towards the Gaoyi West Train Station with occasional brief forays out of the sunlight and on to the marked bike trail until it went away yet again. On one of these short sidetours, I had just passed a road that was called something like 福塔街 (Fortune Pagoda Street). Seeing a bunch of old men in their 60s and 70s sitting nearby playing Chinese chess, I decided to ask them whether or not the Fortune Pagoda existed and which direction I should turn to find it.

It started out as an enjoyable conversation. Lots of repeating and rewording both on my part and on the part of conversation participants repeating things to other conversation participants who didn't have very good hearing. Lots of confusion over whether I meant "pagoda" or "tower" (which are actually the same word in Chinese) as one person was trying really hard to send me to a very large mobile phone mast located nearby.

I have a certain fondness for bad art. This particular example of bad art is a longform mural explaining why it's better to have daughters instead of sons. Sons will only give Mom & Dad 300元 apiece at the holiday times but if you have daughters, the government will automatically give you 900元 just for the fact that they aren't sons and aren't supporting you and then you'll also get whatever support they give you.

It's very dangerous to have an imbalance of genders as it will make it much harder for men to find wives and they will have to spend lots of money to get married.

Why are so many men going to matchmakers and still finding themselves unable to get wives? It's because there are more men than women and this is not a good thing.

Before getting pregnant or giving birth, it is very important to make sure that you are healthy and have had health checks. That way you can make sure that the baby will also be healthy. The four stages shown here are "Before Pregnancy", "After Conception", "During Pregnancy", and "After Childbirth". I especially like the drawing of the woman getting an ultrasound. The speech bubble by the parents on the far right says "It doesn't matter if its a boy or a girl so long as it is healthy. Health is the most important factor."

This building has had an interesting history, as a restaurant (小楼饭店), as a place which sold all kinds of lights (灯具大全), and now as a sex toy shop under the fabulously descriptive yet euphemistic name "Husband and Wife Health Protection Goods Shop" (夫妻保健)

The pears are just starting to come into season

These oilfield workers forgot to bring the keys to the gate

Lots of cute little derricks scattered throughout this area.

And then, after pointing me in the direction of some (not actually very) interesting modern things, things were finally cleared up completely between us and it was made to be understood by all that I was trying to find old things. Interesting things. Remnants of China's history. And one of the men said something like "yeah, that stuff, it was all destroyed during the Cultural Revolution." It's hardly the first time anyone has said something like that to me. But it was the first time that the anyone who was speaking to me was just about exactly the perfect age to have almost certainly been one of the Red Guards doing the destroying.

After that, my rising sense of disgust made it very very hard for me to keep talking with them so I took the next possible opportunity and kept biking.

I actually found an old temple quite by accident a little bit before I found the train station. Like most high speed rail stations in China, there was absolutely nothing of any kind anywhere nearby and I had to go some two or three kilometers back towards the main roads before I found myself dinner and a really nice truck stop hotel that agreed to let me store my bike and the non-valuable parts of my luggage (little does he know the bike is the most valuable part of my luggage) for the week while I go to Shijiazhuang (to visit old friends) and Beijing (for Rosh Hashanah).

The next train station west of Gaoyi is Zuoquan [左权] and even though I've technically got 6 days in which to do it, I'm not comfortable with the idea of operating on a deadline when I've got friends to visit in Shijiazhuang.

The remnants of a big character slogan painted on the front of this temple appear to be "推纲" except that that doesn't make any sense

Wall hangings inside the otherwise bare temple

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 551 km (342 miles)

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