day 82: 万荣 (wanrong) - 孤峰山 (gufengshan) = 15,6km

I arrived at the weird thing today, but before that, I had to go to hell:

地狱 (diyu) means just that: hell.

Now that’s pretty neat, thought I, fearlessly opened the door and went in.

And on the inside, hell looked something like this:

Interesting place. It’s behind a small prayer room in 东岳庙 (dongyue temple).

Judging from the amount of incense, this place seems rather highly visited:

Anyways as long as I was there, I was the only person visiting.

The main building in 东岳庙 is this one:

It’s originally from the Tang-dynasty (唐 618-907) but has been rebuilt during the Qing-dynasty (清 1644-1912).

I really liked the wooden structure, as I found it had a great sense of harmony to it:

Also, there were many small details that were very interesting to look at:

I found a lot of these little guys on every corner of the roof:

Now who does this remind you of?

Did anyone say Napoléon Bonaparte?

Well, I obviously don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, so maybe it’s time to get out of the confusing depths of Chinese (and French) history and dive into something that I should be more familiar with by now:

Snow.

Temperatures dropped considerably again today, making walking a really miserable sport.

I warmed up and had some noodles in a small restaurant:

It was when I sat down that I noticed a strangely familiar pain in my buttocks: remember when I showed you a picture of my red flaming butt (December 30th)?

Well, here I am with the same old flame again, and now I know that it is because my butt doesn’t like subzero temperatures, and another thing I realize now is that the term “to freeze one’s ass off” really does make some sense.

Anyways, even though my butt hurts and I’ve been to hell this morning, but today was a very pleasing day nonetheless:

This is it: 孤峰山 (gufengshan), the weird thing on the map I’ve been so looking forward to set my foot on.

Three facts about 孤峰山:

1) Ever since last fall, this place has undergone massive changes in order to develop a major tourist destination:

2) There’s even a skiing resort on the north face of the mountain:

3) 孤峰山 is a 1400m molehill that is said to have been a volcano once.

Check out the red banner in this video:

“Welcome every leader to the scenic spot of 孤峰山” is what it says.

How did they know I was coming?

I am staying in a hotel that is attached to the skiing resort, not very far from the top of the mountain.

As of now, I don’t think I’ll continue walking tomorrow, I’ll stay here.

And wait for my butt to stop hurting.

Soundtrack: Elvis Presley - “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise”

—total: 1142,4km