day 80: 稷山 (jishan) – 翟店 (zhaidian) = 19,9km

There’s a site in 稷山 (jishan) that’s called 大佛寺 (dafo temple):

大佛 means “big Buddha” – and BIG it was, this 1142 A.D. earthen statue of the seated Buddha:

I’m in the top left corner of the photograph, kind of like in those frustrating Where’s Waldo books.

I forgot to mention the best thing: they told me this 20m-statue is practically in original condition.

Not the biggest sitting Buddha in the world, but still… awe-abiding.

Well, at some point I had to leave town and get on the highway again, so I waved good-bye to the old guy with the headphones who was watching the bridge over the river:

And with a distance of roughly 15km to go, I felt pretty relaxed about today’s walk:

Then it started snowing:

…and it came down really heavy:

Not very many people around, so it got quite lonely on the highway, and I was happy to run into a friendly face every once in a while:

A bit after this was also the first time I slipped and fell. I would have liked to be able to say that this winter I didn’t fall down, but here I swirled and landed flat on my ass.

When I got up (which wasn’t that easy with all my gear on), I first made sure that nobody had seen anything, then I brushed off the snow, walked around the next street corner, and realized I was there:

This is 翟店 (zhaidian).

Really feels like a place where you’d be looking for a saloon and a shoot-out at noon, doesn’t it?

Soundtrack: Rancid – “Time Bomb”

—total: 1113,1km