Weishan

We were allowed to bus from Dali to Weishan, which was totally better than a train. Also, the bus windows open by sliding them sideways, so one can stick their whole head (or torso, if one was feeling dumb that day) easily out the window. No more questioning why dogs do that. In any case, it helped with reflection-free pictures. Weibaoshan smelled like dust and pine--so, Mt. Hood.

Weishan was going through a drought when we got there, which I understand is unusual for the area, as it is supposed to be rainy all the time--hm, that's also awfully like home.

The hottest part of the afternoon is when we got to bus up to Weibaoshan, which is the sacred mountain that he town of Weishan is named after. It has a collection of temples up there, which is why we went. One was even solely dedicated to dragons.

You can see the moss line where the water should be, if it weren't all drying up.

We visited two that were fairly close and fairly shaded, and then took a long, stair-ridden and sun-dried path down to the last on our visit list, which very nearly killed us all. According to Vincent, he has never seen the path so exposed (and therefore hot). We were all low on water by the time we got to the temple, and then they served us hot tea! I'm telling you, it could be 90 degrees out (it was) and all they have is hot food and hot drink all the time. Do not understand.

Anyway, the way back UP the stairs was really the part where we all almost melted into little puddles, which I'm sure would have immediately evaporated. It did not help that apparently our bus drive had somewhere to be after bussing us back down the mountain, so we were hurried along faster than I had the energy for.

Grave site. Could have been us.

After that ordeal, the teachers decided maybe they should make us work in the morning, then get 2-3 hours off in the afternoon when it's hottest. Which sounded swell until it rained the next day, which I'm sure was a joy to the farmers.

We spent the first two days walking to various sites in town and sketching. Ohgawd, so much sketching. Even those that weren't even taking the studio credits in this trip (ahem, ahem) had to sketch roofs and buildings for two days. It was a lot of blllrrrrgghh.

At least my hotel roommate decided she'd rather pay a little extra for her own room so she can wallow in cigarette chemicals. Means I got to spread out a little.

The actual restoration site is one restored temple and a bunch of run down buildings with rubble piled in the courtyard--foundation stones, roof tiles, walkway stones. Some of which I may have pilfered.

I only have pictures of the first courtyard, because the inevitable sick knocked me out of the game the 3rd day, so I never got to see that part. One day of sketching the buildings around town, one day sketching in the first courtyard, one day sketching in the second courtyard, and the rest of the week was spent on redoing the proposal and presenting it. (Basically, we came up with the plans for restoring rest of the buildings in the complex to turn the whole thing into an "international arts center," which means lots of studio space everywhere and some dorms for future study trips.)

Since Weishan's tourism is a little low at the moment, there were more real stores in town that tourist shops.
Like noodles

Or just cool houses

We found the grocery store too, which was good for getting snacks at. I got some dried winter melon things and a stick-shaped cookie with Winnie-the-Pooh branded on the package. They're Pooh sticks, get it?? And we discovered even more odd Oreo flavors in China: green bean, birthday cake, and a set of dual-flavors. I tried the bean and the blueberry/raspberry. Both were... odd.

By the end of the week, the rain sputtered out, and after too much "group" in the group project, we somehow came up with a completed thing to present to the board of the town. Afterwards, they invited us to lunch, which was great until the only thing that wasn't spicy was the rice. Hurrah, I had rice for lunch. (Good thing there was a food market not far from the hotel which sold these awesome fried dough pancake things.) With a few rounds of what was basically ethenol at lunch, we left Weishan.