After Baoding, I got onto a motorcycle without a helmet and went to the North Mountain entrance. It was risky, no helmet. It reminded me of days riding on the motorcycle with my dad when I was little. It brought back memories. I really enjoyed riding with my dad. Ihat was risky too, no helmet either or a toddler seat, my seat was the gas tank. But it was fun. I had the same motorcycle driver wait for me at the North Mountain and then drive me to the bus station afterwards.
North Mountain sculptures are about 100-200 years older than BaoDing. They were significantly different stylistically. In the prayer wheel cave, there were perfect looking beautiful, most beautiful images I have ever seen of Bodhisattvas. They were truly well done and mostly undamaged. It was breath taking for me. Lots of the images have been harmed, heads or hands are missing. This was unfortunate. I attempted to take photos even though it said no photos please and had a surveillance camera. It was cloudy today so the chances for good quality photos are slim in the caves. These images are different than Yungang Caves. I was amazed and was actually quickly over sensitized by all the beauty that surrounded me.
I then got onto a bus in Dazu, to get to Chongqing city, to get onto a train to Haihua to then transfer onto another train to Wulingyuan a.k.a ZhangJiaJie. There is a bus that leaves tomorrow at 1pm from Chongqing city and would take 15 hours to get to Wulingyuan. Since I didn't want to deal with sleeping in Chongqing in a cheap poor condition place and also didn't want to fork out the money to stay at a nice hotel, I decided to sleep on the night sleeper train, two in one with price and time.
On the bus from Dazu to Chongqing I met a Munich man and his Shanghai girlfriend on the bus. They just spent 5 days on a cruise on The Three Gorges. They showed me photos, and recommended I go on it. I think I will pass. I’m not sure why, but at least from his photos, I didn't feel as inspired as they were.
