Near Qingdao, Hiking a Magical Mountain

在青岛周边的神山徒步

　　The sun was low and the air still hot when I swallowed the last drops from my canteen. My companion and I were hiking up the southern pass of Laoshan, a mountain of sun-bleached granite and hidden oases, rising over the Yellow Sea on China’s eastern shore.

　　我喝光水壶里最后一滴水的时候，太阳已落山，但空气依然很热。此时我和小伙伴正在徒步爬上崂山南侧的山口。崂山是坐落在中国东海岸黄海之滨的一处隐秘绿洲，花岗岩构成的山体在阳光下白得耀眼。

　　The trail began at Dahedong, a village in the shadow of a great dam, and climbed up steep terraces of tea fields before winding along a dry creek, a tumble of boulders suspended in mid-flow down the slope. When I touched them to steady myself, they seemed to pull the dampness from my skin and stow it away. There had been no rain for two months, and even the stones were thirsty.

　　徒步路线的起点是大河东，一个绿色水坝阴影中的小村。接着我们爬上长满茶树的陡峭梯田，再沿着一条干涸的小溪蜿蜒前进。沿斜坡而下的河床散落着各种大石头。当我摸着石头稳住身体时，它们似乎将我皮肤里的湿气直接吸出并夺走。这个地区已两个月没有下雨了，连山里的石头都饥渴至极。

　　Along the path, lilies bloomed like orange flares, and hikers before us had marked the way by knotting red ribbons to the tree branches as is done in Chinese temples. The forest directed us with the soft rustle of a thousand prayers. Still, somehow we had gotten lost.

　　一路上，百合花像橘红的火焰一样盛开，走在我们前边的徒步者将红布条绑在树枝上为我们指路，仿佛中国寺庙里的幸运红丝带。森林发出的沙沙声就像善男信女的祈祷，指引我们前行。但即便如此，我们还是迷路了。

　　The Laoshan Scenic District is an easy drive along the coast from the city of Qingdao, 19 miles or so to the west. About two million visitors come each year to ascend Laoshan’s peaks, which are strewed with oddly shaped moraines resembling stacks of books and curving horns. Around the mountain’s pale stones, cedar, elm and pine sprout in lush green tufts, fed by rainfall-charged aquifers deep underground. The water filters through the strata and then courses up from crevices in the granite before collecting in clear, azure pools that are scattered all over the mountain.

　　从青岛市区出发，沿着海岸线向西开车19英里，很方便就能到达崂山风景区(Laoshan Scenic District)。每年大约有200百万游客登顶崂山。崂山顶峰，许多形状奇特的冰碛石叠成书本或弯角的模样。灰色山岩的四周，雪松、榆树和松树枝繁叶茂，因为地面深处的蓄水层保存了许多降水。降水流下地下的土层，渗过花岗岩的石缝，最后聚集在一起，形成清澈湛蓝、遍布崂山的湖泊。

　　This otherworldly beauty was not lost on the Taoists, who some 3,000 years ago deemed the mountain a home of the Immortals, elevated beings so removed from worldly concerns that their skin is unlined by worry. Though most of the temples here have been lost to revolutions and time, monks in blue and white still tend the sprawling grounds of Taiqing Palace, a Taoist temple that has stood at the mountain’s base for the two millenniums since the Western Han dynasty. For about as long, the monks have credited their good health to drinking from the Shenshui Quan, the Spring of the Immortals, a slow-moving seep that still feeds the temple grounds.

　　这种超凡脱俗的美对道教徒来说并不陌生。大约3000年前起，道教徒就相信崂山是神仙居住的地方。神仙是一种远离人间烦恼的角色，忧愁困苦从来不会出现在他们的脸上。尽管崂山大部分的寺庙都已毁于革命和时光，穿着蓝白服装的道士仍悉心照料着规模宏大的太清宫。太清宫是崂山脚下的一座道教寺院，建于2000年前的西汉时期。大约从那个时代起，道士们就将自己的健康归功于饮用神水泉。神水泉的意思是“神仙们喝的泉水”，它那缓慢渗出的泉流至今仍在滋润着道观四周的土地。