day 149: 平凉 (pingliang) = 0km

There was still a mountain left to climb.

Me and my friend from destiny (April 3rd 2008) decided to go together:

…and along came 珂珂 (keke):

Almost five years old; a very smart kid.

And even though she snickered at my blue slippers…

…still we became buddies right away:

The mountain is called 崆峒山 (Mount kongtong) by the way.

It is a very important religious site, mainly dominated by Taoism:

People say there are more than 200 shrines:

And I think there must be even more monks:

You can find pretty flags everywhere:

And there are lots of little red ribbons that people like to tie as a good luck charm:

What I found most interesting though:

Even though this mountain is obviously dominated by Taoism - still, Buddhism and Confucianism are also very present wherever you look.

They even have a shrine that features all three of them in one cave:

Cool, huh? (Excuse the picture quality, I had to shoot this in a hurry if you know what I mean.)

Another area around a fairly large pagoda is entirely dedicated to Buddhism:

We found a large Chinese character for “heart” next to that area, so 珂珂 and me decided to take some souvenir photographs.

And while I was showing off the fact that I was still endomorphic after 5 months of walking (and ripping up my pants in the process):

…珂珂 thought I was being silly and decided to go for a more classical approach:

…which seemed like the smarter choice. Zen.

Then, as the monks went about changing the wax in the candles…

…we figured it was about time to head home.

Riding down the mountain in the air-conditioned car felt very nice.

But I kept worrying about my pants.

Soundtrack: Paul Simon - “You Can Call Me Al”

—total: 1904,9km