day 99: 永济 (yongji) - 蒲州 (puzhou) = 23,5km

There is an aeroplane on a square in a public park in 永济 (yongji):

Obviously, this is a nice place to play with friends when you’re about 10 years old:

I’m 26, so I didn’t play.

Instead I was going to climb yet another pagoda, one that seemed to be leaning slightly to the right:

The afternoon air was mild, not cold, and people were hanging out in front of their doors:

Others were taking walks:

So was I, just taking a walk, aiming at the pagoda I could see in the distance, working my way up through tiny villages where people would say: “Hello!” and then smile, and sometimes laugh.

I passed through my first bamboo grove on this trip:

And then there was the pagoda - it’s called 万固寺 (wangu temple):

I ran into a group of young people at the foot of the pagoda, and we decided to climb up together.

Now I wasn’t expecting much from my previous experiences with pagoda-climbing (December 3rd, January 1st), but then we arrived at the top:

Amazing.

I was so scared though…

It was like school again - all the other kids were much cooler than me:

But I didn’t care.

I asked the monk downstairs if anybody had ever fallen down from there.

He answered: “Of course not, this pagoda is protected by Buddha.” and smiled.

Well, some parts of this place don’t seem to be protected that well though:

This masterpiece is slowly withering away:

Scientists have tried to conserve it by shielding it off behind glass, but that only led to mold - and thus made things even worse.

Besides all this, there was a building without beams:

Whatever that means: “without beams” - I didn’t understand the architectonic concept behind it.

But it was nice anyways.

On the rest of the way, I noticed some people were desperately trying to clean up the massive remainders of the Spring Festival fireworks:

An orgy of pyromaniacs it must have been.

Later that night when I got into bed and closed my eyes, I got a feeling of panic and realized that actually, today on top of that pagoda, I had been even more afraid than I thought.

I think I’m afraid of heights.

Soundtrack: Scooter - “One (Always Hardcore)”

—total: 1306,3km