Another place to add to my 'to visit' list is the Hanging Monastery of Hengshan, or Mount Heng in Shanxi, China. It's an engineering marvel, just imagine building on a sheer cliff face, 50 m above the ground. That translates to roughly 15 stories up above the ground.!!
As usual, I saw in on TV - what a marvelous invention that idiot box is!! And so wonderful for armchair travellers like me. What I saw really intrigued me - the whole building is made of wood, save for the roof tiles and is very cleverly cantilevered out from the cliff face. The long poles you see in the photo only 'appeared' to be supporting the structure but in fact, they are there only to give the illusion of security. In reality, the poles are merely wedged between the platform and the cliff face. They are not even buried inside the rock!!!
The whole monastery is actually very spacious as the monks apparently burrowed into the cliff face to make cave rooms. This is so ingenious, and to think that the building was built 1400 years ago!! That means practically no machines and super tools. Just imagine the amount of manpower and time it required. And it is still standing..or rather hanging today! ( Of course it has been repaired, restored etc but still...) I am really impressed and I want to go and see it for myself.
The whole idea of building it against a cliff is for protection from floods and strong gusts. As it is a Taoist monastery, the idea of calm and serenity is also very important - who is going to come and kacau such a precarious location!!
If you are thinking of going there, it's roughly 300 km west of Beijing, near a town called Datong, in the Shanxi province. My idea is to go before my legs give way and cannot make the climb up....but that's only a plan. Hope it materializes!!! See you there! :)
PS: Meanwhile, I'll still be slogging in the gym to make sure my legs are still working!
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