Qingcheng

Debbie & I hiked up Qinqcheng (青城山 or Qīngchéng, meaning “green city”), one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism. 



Ginko trees are a symbol of Taoism because, like yin & yang, they require both male & female to reproduce.   This ancient, prayer-festooned ginko tree had roots dripping like stalactites, almost like a banyan tree.
 According to the 60 year cycle of Chinese astrology, this statue represents my birth year (1974).
The mist makes it impossible to convey the scale or grandeur of these mountains, but the distant gash in the mountain across the other side of the valley is supposedly created by the stroke of a pen.At the summit of Qingcheng — rising heavenward into the mist — is a huge pagoda, entirely rebuilt after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake leveled it.
This moss-covered, bent wood structure — like so much of Qingcheng — made me think of Middle Earth.