Towering Songshan Mountain, familiar sky-blue scenery

I felt I had to write something about the Songshan Mountain when I stood on the Junji Peak and watched the Zhifang Reservoir and the winding mountains. I had no intention to go out for mountain climbing frequently. I was satisfied to come to the nearby Songshan Mountain once a month. It’s hard to start writing because it was too familiar to me. I just simply wrote some live account as memorial words.
My first clear impression on Songshan Mountain was on 1993 when I spent my spring festival in Dengfeng City. At that time, I was still a junior in a university. It was a fine day. I stood on a roof-deck. The Songshan Mountain stroke into my eyes clearly: the main peak—Junji Peak with the elevation of 1492m. But I was a little disappointed because it was not as great and lofty as I imagined. I was still stimulated by the sky-blue mountains. I asked my friend and he said I could climb to the summit from Songyang Academy. I hesitated several times but didn’t put it into practice.
In the summer of 2001, I had nothing to do in a period of time and stirred with the idea of climbing the Songshan Mountain. Then I went to the Songshan Mountain by myself.
Henan Province is provided with profound history. After King Ping of Zhou moved the capital to Luoyang, he fixed the Songshan Mountain as the Middle High Mountain. The length from the east to the west of Songshan Mountain reaches 60km with 72 peaks. The east part is called the Taishi Mountain and the west part is called the Shaoshi Mountain. The route to the Junji Peak taken by most people is part of the Taishi Mountain. The Taishi Mountain is far more famous than the Shaoshi Mountain because emperors of ancient times paid the formal visit at Junji Peak. Therefore, Fawang Temple, Songyue Temple, Zhongyue Temple and Songyang Academy were all built here without exception. The Shaolin Temple is an exception. Maybe Bodhidharma wanted to keep away from disturbance and established the Shaolin Temple on the Shaoshi Mountain. Shaolin Temple may mean a temple in Shaoshi Mountain.
At that time, I knew nothing about mountain climbing. I took the steps for common tourists. One after another, it seemed endless. The time was near the mid-autumn, but the weather was unexpectedly hot. I was sweating all the time. At 10:28, I reached the movement zone of Songyang, this precipice was the main body of Taishi Mountain seen from the mountain foot. But it’s not the summit, just the south slope of the Taishi Mountain. Three big characters “The First Mountian” of calligrapher Mi Fu in Tang Dynasty was carved on the precipice not far away. The precipice recorded geological changes occurred millions of years ago rose straight from the ground. Looking upward, words of “rock climbing” and “hero” appeared in my mind. At this time, my physical strength reached the limit. I looked up to the summit and saw an eagle flying freely with the wind. How I wished I could have a pair of wings and move freely. At 11：15, I stood on the Junji Peak and shouted “after such a long wait, I finally arrived here”.
The second time to Songshan Mountain was in the winter of 2001 to watch the Leonid meteor shower with friends. 　　
We camped on the practicing yard of marital arts outside the Fawang Temple. At 4:00 in the morning, Big Dipper just rose from the northeast mountain ridge, the Orion hanged on the west and the scream of Shangri-La indicated the beginning of meteor. I stretched out to see: meteor, meteor and still meteor. There were two powerful and vigorous maidenhair trees of 1500 years old in the Fawang Temple. There was the Leonid meteor shower in 1533. as time went on, maybe the maidenhair trees were also filled with expectations and looking up at the starry sky. 　　
Day broke and we started. Much deep memory was kept this time. All the three tour leaders misremembered the route and we repeatedly walked in the thorns and tried to recognize specious mountain paths. We walked to the end with great difficulty and found it was a bottomless cliff while the Junji Peak was still on the other side of mountain. Finally we held a meeting to dismiss the leaders from their posts and decided to climb the mountain once again. It was 4:00 in the afternoon, if we went wrong again, we would be in a dilemma. Fortunately, our last effort succeeded. At that time there was a temple being repaired on the top, an aunt in charge of it provided us with boiled water until now did I realize the meaning of “sweet dew after a long drought”. 　
We started at 9:00 in the morning and returned to the camping site after 9 hours. It was still too early to watch stars. Mountain wind whistled; pines and cypresses looked extraordinary in the darkness. We nineteen persons lived in a 10m2 room in a martial arts school. At that time, the weakness comparison of Caisang and Xiaoshuang made us overwhelmed by laughter. These scenes would never occur again. 　　
We returned to the Famen Temple before dawn. It was a starry night. A perfect silence prevailed. Suddenly a meteor ran from the east to the west with a long figure. Its light split the whole night sky. Everyone was screaming. In an instant, meteor appeared one by one and our voices resounded in the valley. When we just stood right there, one meteor burst in the low southeast part like fireworks. That’s the most gorgeous fireball. More and more meteors appeared in the night sky and on the stage created by the Songshan Mountain. There were too many to see. Some fell together; some were separated and more appeared in succession.
The Purple Mountain Observatory released information that the densest time of the meteor shower exceeded 10,000 per hour. It was quite hard to see meteors in ordinary night sky, but the meteor shower at this moment was so extravagant as if it was rehearsing all meteors one can see in a lifetime. Did you remember the wish in the movie “Wish up on a Star”? In this meteor shower, maybe many long-cherished wishes were met. The 33-year meteor shower provided many people with reasons to be cheerful and visions of being happy. There were four meteor showers occurred since the 20th century but we had no luck to watch them. At this moment we were once in a blue moon. If we could get together 33 years later, could there be another meteor shower? Could the meteor hear this wish?
On the New Year’s Day of 2004, I chose another route. When I saw Teng Geli tossing on the cliff at the silver lining, Xiaoshuang suddenly came into my mind. I remembered we all climbed from the crack of the cliff with the help of one another, only Xiaoshuang climbed on the cliff bare-handed. When I asked Shengjiang, he said I have gone this way. I felt a little ashamed because I came here far less than them and was so forgetful. Shengjiang and Yangjing came for mountain-climbing year after year, the five climbing routes of Taishi Mountain were marked by them. I once asked Shengjiang why he came to climb the Songshan Mountain so many times, he said it was just a convenient body building method. If I didn’t ask, he would seldom think about it. In former times I was often hopeful to the future journey before getting started. I wanted to see beautiful scenery, to meet honest and kind villagers, to encounter threatening but not dangerous things. Later, going on a tour became a habit. As long as I could start off, I would no longer concern with other things. If I really encounter it, I may feel win the first prize in lottery. It was the moment that cannot be engineered. I have been to the Songshan Mountain many times but seldom encountered with these things, so I had no desire to write something. But this time I had the feeling of attachment. Maybe it was out of the habit or I realized the true feelings. I couldn’t figure it out clearly. 　
I had to spend more than 2 hours to go to the Songshan Mountain before. If I took a long-distance bus, it may cost me three or four hours. The expressway from Zhengzhou City to Shaolin Temple has launched. I drove there with Mr. Xia at the very beginning. It took us just more than 1 hour from Zhengzhou to the foot of the Songshan Mountain. At present Songshan Mountain has become the backyard of Zhengzhou people. I once bragged with people from other places that Zhengzhou was a city with the Yellow River in the north and Songshan Mountain in the south. Actually the Yellow River was a little far from Zhengzhou City and the Songshan Mountain was 70km beyond the Zhengzhou City. Now it becomes more and more convenient. We have so many friends and so many choices. I have been to the Songshan Mountain for nine times. Empress Wu had been there for ten times. She renamed the county town at the foot of Songshan Mountain “Dengfeng”. My most respectable Xuanzang also started from the Phoenix Valley here, then the Jingtu Temple (now the Cave Temple in Gongyi), the White House Temple, the Chang-an City and then the 50,000 Li faraway India.
It’s such a wonderful place and I don’t know how many times I could come. It’s a little early to answer. But as a destination, I think Songshan Mountain would be a very good starting point.