My idyllic walk in Dehang was interrupted by the sight of my path slowly climbing up a small hill right in front of me. I guess it wasn’t that flat after all. The hill itself doesn’t look that high, though I can’t really see the summit from the ground. I just followed the path along the hill which we still nicely made. At this point, there were still no people so I wasn’t really sure whether or not I was going in the right direction. Either way, I could easily backtrack in case I change my mind. It was only midday anyway.
Like the path I used to come to this hill, the hill is surrounded by green. Along the way up, there was a small waterfalls on the mountainside across the hill. This place is really blessed with so much water, no wonder the villagers can grow their crops here. As I went higher the waterfalls grew smaller and smaller, I didn’t think that the hill would be this high. The stairs just keeps zigzagging across the fare of the hill.
I had to stop my breath a few times to catch my breath. The climb is not really that steep it is just my poor physical conditioning. However, I was determined to climb this hill, it is just a hill anyway.
After 45 minutes of stopping and climbing I finally reached the top of thid hill. The hill has a flat platform-like rock formation which is called amusingly called Heaven-Questioning Platform 天问台. Supposedly this is where a lot of wise people meditate and “ask heaven” their questions about life. It was said that an old wise man came here and sighed a thousand questions in one breath. Boy, his problems much be so serious.
Needless to say, the views from the Heaven Questioning Platform were marvelous. It is no wonder that old wise men climb all the way up this hill to meditate. The views from the platform will make you forget your problems. The views might not be able to answer the your questions but you sure won’t forget the the magnificent views.
Beyond the platform is surprisingly another set of terraced fields. There was even a water buffalo near the path to the platform. I wonder if there is another path from the village to the Heaven-Questioning Platform. Unfortunately, there was nobody nearby that I could ask. After a 30 minute break of watching the amazing view, I made my way down the hill.
From the hill, I noticed that there was another tourist wandering into these parts of the village. I met her at the foot of the hill and I encouraged her to climb it because the views were great. She was from Changsha 长沙 the capital of Hunan Province and was here on group tour. Apparently they only have a few hours to explore the village. It turns out that they were supposed to watch some performance at the theater area in the village square. The lady was surprised to learn that I wasn’t Chinese and really thought that I was a local. I felt flattered which meant that all these days of speaking Chinese must have improved it somehow.
The lady didn’t climb the hill but accomopanied me back to the village. It was great to be able to speak to someone again, though the conversation was still in Chinese. When we got back to the village the performance has already started. It was basically a cultural show featuring dances and costumes of the Miao minority group. Now I understand why all the ladies were in traditional attire. It was mainly for this performance. Well, it was good while it lasted.
The performance itself wasn’t really particularly noteworthy. But what caught my interest was this dance where they used two parallel bamboo poles to let dancers tip toe between them. There was a timing to it and the dancers need to be fast, if not the bamboo poles will close on their toes. Not a pretty sight. If this all sounds so familiar, it is. It virtually identical to the tinikling dance found in the Philippines. I now wonder about the origins of this dance. Who thought of it first? Though this is certainly the first time, I saw it in China or anywhere outside the Philippines.
I thought there was going to be a parade of costumes but turned out there wasn’t one. Either way, I found this whole performance thing too touristy and didn’t really pay attention to it. However, it did seem that the local tourists were quite interested in it and were obviously having a good time there. I continued wandering around the village area until I got tired and went back to the inn to rest.
The Heaven Questioning Platform is one of the highlights of the village and it would be highly recommended to climb it at least once. No guarantees whether the heavens will answers your questions though.
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