Buddhist Temple On The Mountain

One of the highlights of my second visit to China was taking a pilgrimage up a mountain just on the outskirts of Chongqing. This entire mountain belongs to a Buddhist sanctuary, with numerous temples and facilities scattered throughout the mountain.

I set off with many members of my fiancee's family from the city of Chongqing in the early morning. The weather was a little chilly to start, but climbing the steps ascending from Chongqing warmed us up very quickly, and the sun was welcome that day. This mountain had many trees, and was the closest I had come to seeing a forest near the city of Chongqing - it was quite beautiful.


We eventually reached a halfway point up the mountain, where there was a small vegetarian restaurant with excellent food. We enjoyed lunch there, and sat around taking in the view. There are places to purchase and burn incense along the way, which my fiancee did as an offering. We stopped at numerous mini temples along the way, with various statues of Buddha.

After lunch, we decided to head to the summit of the mountain, where there was another level of temples. There were many steps to climb, and it was quite a workout, but once at the top, the view made it quite worth it. It is hard to imagine how these magnificent temples were constructed so high on the mountain with no roads, just many steps on a path to get there. The view from the top was spectacular, we could see the city of Chongqing through the clouds and haze. This day trip turned out to be quite a rewarding and education trip about my fiancee's family religion.

The Second Visit

After my first trip to China, I had another visit allowed within 6 months on my China visa, so I decided to go back to see my fiancee in Chongqing again. I arrived on the night of Chinese new year - one of the most important days of the year there.

On my previous trip, I had flown into Seoul, S Korea, then to Bejing with another flight on another airlines to Chonqing, as the flight with Asiana airlines from Seoul to Chongqing had been canceled. On this trip however, I had a stop-over in Seoul, then a flight directly to Chonqing. This presented a bit of a problem - they have a separate terminal in Chonqing for internation flights to go through customs. My fiancee was awaiting me at the terminal for dosmetic flights, as she did my previous visit. I when through customs, and waited for a bit outside the internation terminal. I refused rides with the cabs that came up, as I thought I could easily find my fiancee. That turned out to be a mistake.

I called her up, but it was hard trying to explain to her where I was with my limited Chinese, and her limited English. I finally was able to find a customs agent who spoke both Chinese and English, and was able to communicate my location. My fiancee was very worried, so she found a police officer, who very nicely escorted her on the half mile walk to the international terminal, and escorted us both back to catch a cab to town. We learned a lesson on domestic versus international flights for sure.

The second visit was wonderful, enjoying all the fireworks for the New Year celebration. We again took many pictures of us together, something that later turned out to be invaluable for her immigration to the United States.

Engagement or Marriage ?

After many months of daily emails, meeting her in person, and meeting the family, and a very enjoyable trip altogether, what should I do now ? I have met the person that I want to grow old with - so why not get engaged ? That is what we did towards the end of the my first visit.

She initially wanted to get married in Chongqing right then and there. This was a little fast for me, so I did some research, and it seemed to be more advantageous to get engaged first, and married in the US once she was able to immigrate.

We decided to celebrate this event with a dinner at a nice restaurant, inviting my fiancee's friends and family. We got a tailor to make a traditional Chinese shirt for myself, with my beautiful fiancee in a traditional red dress. I got to meet her two best friends, both who have subsequently also immigrated to the US as well. We shared food and drink with the gathering, and even Jiao Jiao the cat got some leftover fish.