Congtai Park, Hebei, China

4David C 5:00 PM Jan 21, 2016

Handan Dao Temple and Cong Tai Park
We met up with 2 other cars, just outside Jinan, one driven by Su Bin, the organiser of our trip and the other by Li Cheng, an ex policeman. We travelled in a kind of 3 car convoy, containing 12 people in all. Most of them were Ling’s age-nearly 60, although one had brought her 20 year old daughter, Liu Xiao Ke, a medical student, who could speak a bit of English. It was a hot day, about 30 degrees and although the car had air conditioning, it only lasted a while and soon the temperature inside the car averaged out at around 32 degrees. We drove for 4 hours, with one toilet stop and then stopped at a city called Handan in Hebei Province, to visit a Dao Temple. Entrance fee was about 60 yuan each, but I got in free as I am over 70 and provided proof with my passport. Apparently, it’s lucky to put your left foot over the threshold first, without touching the the crosspiece, when entering. This place was famous, in China, for the story of ‘The Pillow Dream’ about a traveller who spent the night at the temple and was given a pillow by one of the monks. The traveller then dreamt he met a rich princess, got married and lived in a palace with 2 children and had everything he ever wanted, but when he woke up next morning, he was back in real life, sleeping rough on the floor, with just the pillow for support. He said to the monks, ‘Life is just a dream’ and I’ll always be a poor man’ and the story became associated with this temple. There were several statues and carvings describing the story. Apart from that, it was the usual temple, well kept and great ornaments, statues of various gods, gardens and ornate rooms. There was also a large pond near the centre, containing water lilies and goldfish. As we left, I noticed a teenage beggar outside, very disabled, apparently without legs, although I thought I saw a sort of shoe under his abdomen, being dragged along, but I didn’t want to look too closely. No-one seemed to be giving him anything, although he might get something from visitors who still follow the Daoist religion. I asked Wang Li about it, through Ling, and he said most beggars get help from the State and beg in order to increase their income, but wasn’t sure how genuinely disabled beggars survived. Some, faked it and set up nice homes in their home villages, but there are also a lot of people who are purposely maimed by criminals, when children, to use them to beg for money and only allow them to keep enough for themselves for food etc. I was comparing this poor guy, to other teenagers in the town, with their mobile phones, tablets and designer clothes. . There was a sort of market around the temple, mostly selling incense sticks and plastic models of gods and various other cheap looking items.more suitable for children. The whole place looked a bit dusty and unkempt, with peasant like people sitting in the gutters, presumably waiting for a bus, hold their scant belongings. As we drove towards the town centre, we passed through a really poor factory area, with great cones belching smoke, like you used to see in and around Sheffield. There were some large pipes set along the ground, covered in a kind of dirty cloth lagging, which also forrmed arches over entrances to poor streets and I asked what these were and was told it was something to do with with the central heating system, which provides winter heat to the whole city and is piped to every block of flats. Things improved as we entered the city centre and we stopped for a quick lunch at a noodle bar, costing about 10 yuan each, while a couple of our party went to a KFC. After the meal we met up again and drove to a pleasant park, Congtai, for about a 1 or 2 hour visit. Again, I got free entry, one of the benefits of old age, but this time it was extended to foreigners, which hadn’t been the case last time we were here. By this time it 37 degrees in the car and about 31 outside. It was a lovely park, a bit like Battersea Park, with a large castle in the middle, surrounding by a large lake. It was set up by some warlord or famous general about 400 years ago, in the late Ming dynasty. According to Ling, everything was done in the Ming dynasty, even the Great Wall, which I knew was during the Qing period 2000 years ago, when the Ming lasted between 1450-1700 or so.She kept saying I knew nothing about China, until Wang Li confirmed I was right. We climbed the usual hundred steps or so to the top and had a great view of the city. We all took loads of photos and I guess I’ll attach these to the diary in chronological order. Although an excellent park, like most Chinese museums and parks, they lacked a decent tea room, or even café as found in most places in UK, which I regard as an oversight for making a bit of extra money for the people who run these places. We left here around 4.00 pm to continue our journey to the main destination, Shangzhi in Shanxi Province, which we reached at 5.30. Ling had told me the whole trip would take 5 hours, but in fact it was double that, not helped when the group leader, Su Bin took a couple of wrong turnings. Most of the roads in the cities are about 4 or 5 lanes, although the way drivers change lanes and dodge in and out at will, they try to add an extra lane.I’m amazed there aren’t more accidents as cars are constantly being ‘cut up’by overtaking drivers and a lot of those in front are always in the wrong lane anyway.

4MissRin 5:00 PM May 19, 2013

Congtai park
Congtai is a lovely park in the centre of the city. It has a big lake where you can go on paddle boats and some ancient architecture. There is a zoo but avoid as the animals are very poorly treated.