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Welcome to Takeaway Chinese!
I'm Nihong Hoelun, with Steve Heatherley in the studio.
I'm back! Thanks for having me once again, and I'm looking forward to our elevated topic today.
Ooh, that is a smart pun.
Ahh. Very smart. I was ready with that one today.
Yes. It is an elevated topic.
It's about mountains.
Are you a mountain climber, a hiker?
Do you enjoy it? I actually do.
But I cannot say I am a mountain climber because I don't do it often enough.
I still remember when I was a kid.
I mean, mountain climbing is definitely something.
It's definitely you're doing cardio.
It's something that it requires a little bit of strength and also a little bit technique So you do not get bored on your way because for a lot of people it is the veil on the peak that matters Yeah getting to the top getting to the top is like the journey and the journey can be a little bit painstakingly Long Yeah, right.
It can be long for sure but the cool thing I think about a lot of mountains is that they tend to have different ways to get up to different points in the mountain.
Some trails are designed for beginners, more casual route to the top, but some of the ways up are more challenging for more experienced people and those are much more difficult and then, of course, they can have the intermediate routes as well.
They're kind of like ski hills, in that sense, you're going in the opposite direction, but still the Challenges are quite similar.
Yes, and the mountain climbing experience can always be quite philosophical in the Chinese Culture or I think anywhere because when you climb a mountain that is very steep Very sharp.
Mm -hmm. It's hard and it's a little bit dangerous and the thrill is there But it's also very demanding for your body in Chinese we even have the saying shang shen rong yi xia shen nan shang meaning up shen oh shen by the way mountain yes the theme character and word of today mountain shen and shang shen means going up the mountain shang shen shang shen shang shen yes and the xia shen sia shen yes xia shen means going down the mountain and people would say shang shen rong he reveals easy and session nanam is hard it's easy to get up to the top of the mountain but hard to get down because the only
strength it requires for you to get up to the peak of the mountain is hardworking and you need to bite your tongue and just bite the bullet and just get there but when you are going down you need to be able to stop you need to control your sore muscle yeah that's why I say when the mountain is relatively dangerous there's that because you're much more tired going down than you are going up I guess and also going up requires you to be very determined to just go yet going down requires you to have the ability to control not go too fast yeah not roll down exactly or slide down the mountain yeah that's
right I that's a good point it seems counter -intuitive doesn't it going down seems like it would be easier than going up but when you're going up you have that motivation that drive that determination but when you're going down you've already seen the top you've already made it to the top you've spent your energy so your focus might not be as strong as it would be if you're going up as well so yeah different kinds of energy being definitely and there are different types of mountains there are the very tall and hard to climb one.
There's the mild, but very beautiful ones.
And there are definitely in the mountains, there are different sites.
Some mountains have something to do with certain, for example, Buddhist temples and some mountains have very beautiful trees and interesting creatures living in the mountains.
So when it comes to mountain climbing and appreciating the view of different mountains there are so much in China in Chinese natural destinations and Chinese cultural philosophical world yeah no doubt and even a visit to the Great Wall can feel like a hike yes up a mountain if that's what you do when you go to the Great Wall you have a lot of choices right you can simply look around the little town I don't know if we can call it a town but the shops and the restaurants that are at the base of the wall and by the way there's various wall locations that you can go to, but the one that I went to
uh it has those shops and restaurants.
I'm sure most of them do.
And then you can kind of just take the stairs up to the wall and have a look around if you want.
Or you can start your hike and go for I don't know if you'd ever finish it if you started and that was your goal, but the Great Wall is a great way to experience a different kind of hiking too.
A different type of hiking.
Yeah. Have you done that on the Great while before a little bit yes but like you said there are different routes in different ways in different tracks yeah and there's gondola exactly the thing is climbing mountains in China can be a very enriching experience both physically and spiritually and it is today's topic so for those of you who are interested in Chinese culture and want to get a grip on the Chinese language, then this is the show for you.
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So we've talked about that mountains hold immense significance in Chinese culture, language, and philosophy.
And that starts with the simple character Shen Shen.
Yes. So the character Shen itself.
If we take a look at that character, it's basically three vertical lines and one horizontal line.
The horizontal line at the base being, you know, the base and the vertical line, the two vertical lines on the side, on both sides are a little bit shorter.
and the middle one is a little bit taller.
That's the shape of a mountain.
Do you know what I see when I look at this character?
Do you? I see an Olympic podium.
Ah! Gold, silver, and bronze.
Oh, makes a total sense as well.
Right, that's exactly what I see when I look at this and I think it's a great way to remember this character because the middle vertical line is the gold medal and that's the tallest line and the gold medalist is always a little bit higher than the silver medalist and the bronze medalists who are at the same level on the podium and those are the other two vertical lines and then you have the horizontal line at the bottom connecting them all.
Make total sense. I will never forget this character I guarantee yes and that is the character Shen Mountain it by itself you know it's a pictographic character created in the very beginning of the Chinese language and Shen so when we have Shen we can also have Shan Ding that's the mountain peak Shan Ding it means top a mountain top mountain top okay Shan Ding the character Ding can also be found in Wu Ding that's the rooftop mmm so Ding the top of anything almost almost mhm so Shan Ding and if you have Shan Ding you must have Shan Jiao shan jiao, mountain foot, at the bottom of the mountain,
yes! and since mountains go up and down, and when it goes down further down we've got shan guu, shan guu, valley, the valley yes!
shan guu, shan guu, perfect!
so shan ting, mountain top, shan jiao, foot of the mountain, mountain foot, shan guu, mountain valley, Shān -dīn, mountain top, shān -jiāo, the bottom or the foot of the mountain and then the valley was shān -gu And also there are other words like Shān -fīng, mountain peak like the top The very top, the very top top top top top The top area, yes, Shān -fīng, mountain peak and also Shān -mai, mountain range Shanghai yes and in the mountain you probably would also see Shendong Shendong cave caves have you ever gone cave discovering before discovering not so much but I have went into a blue ice cave in Iceland mmm and it's
like you go into the cave so deep and within it the ice I'm not really sure if it's because the intensity of it, or anything, the eyes appear to be blue, and inside it's quite beautiful, and you have to find the perfect area for photo shooting.
You notice when you go into a cave, don't you?
The deeper you go in, I mean, this is obvious, but it's just weird when you experience it.
The air becomes different, and the temperature becomes totally different.
It's humidity. It gets cold and damp inside of caves, doesn't it?
Yeah, it gets damp.
Yeah, I was in Chaeju Island, the island south of the mainland of Korea.
There's a famous kind of cave system there, cave area there.
And it's really popular with tourists.
And I was entering into it, and it's quite funny because it's a date thing to do, I guess.
And I saw a couple there, and they were dressed like they were going to a five star buffet, not into a cave. high heels and dresses and and dress shoes and suits and I was coming out of the cave at that time.
It's like a kilometer to walk inside and it's all rocky and not even and I was just kind of laughing at them like I wonder how far you're gonna make it in there.
But really beautiful, really beautiful inside of deep caves.
I can imagine in Iceland it was just stunning.
It's stunning and here in China there are many beautiful caves linked to beautiful valleys as And it's also a very common and popular scene depicted in Novels, especially traditional Chinese novels as well as martial art novel.
Oh caves are caves All right What's the connection the connection is that once the main character is in a dire?
situation when the main characters meet adversary out there and there's just no way out and they fell off the the mountain to the mountain foot, Shen Jiao.
They look for a cave?
And, they find a cave, and tai mei chao da li ge shan dong, they go into the cave. The cave is so deep, and so dark, but when they continue to walk, it gets brighter, and an exotic and strange animal appears.
Give them a secret book of the best martial art combos and they live in the cave because the cave is linked to a valley, Shangguo.
They go into the valley, live there for a while and practice the great martial art combo with almost magic powers and come back out and beat the adversary exactly so i think mountains are very important in chinese what if it's not a mountain what if it's just a hill a hill i think a hill is also in chinese a shen or a xiaoshan small mountain, but you can also use the Chinese word Qiuling.
Qiuling. Qiuling is much more professional in the geographical world or geology world.
Ah I understand. I don't think people use Qiuling in their daily language quite so much. Mm okay.
So small hills. Got it.
But the fun thing about hills and mountains and all these concepts in Chinese are related to shan the character for example volcano if you think about it volcano it's a mountain it's a mountain mm -hmm and in Chinese we call it a fire Mountain huoxian, yes precisely a fire mountain.
Right I've never gone I've watched videos on the internet of people doing volcano walks and things like that but I've never had the opportunity to do that myself I don't know if I would do that to be honest. I remember when I was in middle school my geology teacher said that I do not remember the name the couple of scientists anymore but he said that these two people love volcano so much that is why at the end they stayed in that volcano for a handbook It was a tragic story but that's how i remember volcano's Huoxian and iceberg if you think about it there is not much soil in icebergs but iceberg
It's definitely the shape of a ice mountain.
Mm -hmm Yeah, right, and in Chinese we call it an ice mountain bing Shan bing Shan.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, and We have an expression in English Yeah, when we look at an iceberg, we only see the top and we think our brain thinks that's it, right?
But it's often much more deep under the water So we have that expression in English tip of it's just the tip of the iceberg Meaning just a very small part of the entire thing.
Oh we have similar expressions in Chinese as well We say bing shan yi jiao, so bing shan yi jiao Yi jiao is one.
Jiao is a tip or an angle just a one -tip of an iceberg so I think the similar it's a similar idiom and bing shan yi jiao is also the idiom you would use to express the idea that you only know a little bit of the fact of the entire story so tip of the iceberg also if it's a for example snow capped mountain in chinese we say it's a snow mountain we understand that under the snow cap there is actually a mountain but we call it a snow mountain it's so pretty to look at, I'm reminded of Vancouver Island.
There's an island off the coast of Vancouver and they decided to call it Vancouver Island, and it's really beautiful there.
And when the weather is warm and sunny, you are sitting in front of a lake, the weather's great and you look up in the distance and you can see snow covered mountains on the mainland.
It's pretty beautiful to see.
Yeah, the beauty of nature would always remind me how small I am, how insignificant I am.
100 % true. And knowing that we're so insignificant actually makes me think I am important maybe only to myself and my family, which is why I should live better.
I think that's why people, when they go mountain climbing or when they just look at a mountain from the distance and they see its enormity, they get that feeling, right?
They're reminded...
we are reminded of how small we actually are, which makes me wonder what it's like to look at the earth from outer space.
Ah yes. That feeling must be like times 100 million when you see it like that.
It could be so surreal.
Oh I would think so.
Yeah. So what would you use or what word would you use to describe a mountain?
mmm tall that would be the first word that comes to mind I remember you used big to describe China.
It's simple but it's very much accurate.
How do you say tall?
Gaoshan, tall mountains.
Gaoshan. What if it's extremely tall?
Like when I stand next to someone who I'm six feet tall what if I stand next to someone who was six foot eight?
I feel like... they are not just tall they are like a tower.
we don't have an expression for that but you can say that in Chinese and people will understand.
so in that situation if a person is standing next to me and I feel like I'm standing next to a mountain can I use the term Gao Cong?
which is towering right?
see the thing is it is towering yet it can only be used for mountains or architectures Because there is also a Chinese idiom, Gao Cong Zhu Yun, so towering Zhu is into, Yun is cloud.
Towering into the cloud.
Yes, so you cannot really use it for a person.
I understand. But Gao Cong can be used about a mountain.
Yes. Or a building?
Or a building. Or a building just not a person.
Yes. Got it. so the mountain peak is high up into the clouds very beautiful.
Right what about like when I think of mountains I often think of greenery too, right surrounded by like lush trees or lakes or rivers or something like.
In that case, you can use the word lu shui qing shan to describe the entire scenery.
Lu is green, shui is water, qing is blueish green.
Bluish green, in my opinion.
Like an emerald kind of?
That depends on how you see it because I feel like when it comes to colors, there's always a range you can call green, you can call light green green really dark green green and Qing, the traditional Chinese character name for colors are also like that people have different understandings about these colors but anyways Qing would be at least the darker green okay and Shen is mountain Liu shui qin shan lucid water and lush mountain okay very nice and that makes sense that that's in the vocabulary because there's a lot of beautiful places in China that can be described exactly like that.
So these are I think many mountain related words and you're listening to Take away Chinese with myself Niuheng Lin and Steve Hatherly, we'd love to hear from you.
Send us your thoughts via e -mail to learnChinese at CRi .com .cn.
Coming up next let's learn about the famous mountains here in China.
Don't go away so you will take some Chinese away.
Welcome back to Takeaway Chinese.
I'm Nihon Lin, joined by Steve.
Mountains are not just geographic features in China, they're deeply tied into Chinese philosophy and spiritual world and culture connotations, and one of the most important mountain series in China would be the wu yue, five yue, they are really very much valued and mentioned in a lot of Chinese articles and traditional famous pieces so knowing about the wu yue would be your Chinese Mountain Knowledge 101.
okay so that's kind of where you begin your studies.
yes okay so coming up The first mountain is in the Eastern area of the country and its name is Tai Shan or Mountain Tai or Mount Tai.
Mount Tai, Tai Shan.
Mount Tai. Tai Shan.
Tai Shan is in Tai 'an City, Shandong Province.
It is the most famous and culturally significant of the Five Great Mountains the wú yu Five Great Mountains.
Oh, by the way, the character wú actually means Shan as well.
Oh, really? Yeah. So Wuyue is five great mountains.
Oh, OK. Got it. Mount Tai has been a place for imperial worship for about 2000 years, since the Qing emperor, the Qing emperor paid tribute to the mount to inform the gods of his success in unifying all of China.
That is why Tai Shan Zhi Tian So Guo paid tribute to the god is what a lot of emperors would do.
I'm guessing then culturally in that Shandong area, Taiyan, people still today look at the mountain as not just a mountain, but as something really important in Chinese culture, do you think?
In Chinese culture, definitely.
But we still find Mount Tai quite magnificent and very beautiful.
And knowing that a lot of emperors have come here, paid tribute in the belief that they can communicate with the heavenly world because they stand in this specific mountain just put a little more fun in traveling in the mountain tai.
And here I have to introduce the concept of the wu hua, the five great mountains.
What the designer of the five great mountain concept did was to pick five mountains from five directions.
So east and west, south and north and middle.
That is why all of these five mountains have a location of it.
So the Taishan is the eastern mountain and we have the western mountain being Huaxin Mount Hua.
Huaxin? Huaxin is in Huain Shan Xi province.
It's known for its steep and dangerous cliffs.
The kind of mountain I personally enjoy, climbing quite so much. Oh, really?
Yes, I like thrill and i like having my legs shaky a little bit in the middle it's fun and it has long been the center of taoist worship and is famous for its breathtaking scenery and for those of you who don't know the taoist religion where taoist believe is an authentic chinese belief and then we go to the middle mountain the mount Song Shan.
Song Shan is in Henan, Henan province.
This mountain is known for its historical importance as the site of the Shaolin Temple.
That's one of my china bucket list things.
Well I have a life bucket list and I'm developing also a china bucket list and being very specific visiting the Shaolin Temple is on my China bucket list. I would really like to go there.
I'd like to spend some time there, actually, even if it's only for a few days, because this temple is, the Shaolin temple is internationally famous for the Shaolin monks.
Yes, and it is with the Buddhism, and it is with the Buddhism religion.
So as you can see the Hua -shen mount Hua is with Daoist religion whereas Shaolin or Song Shan is with a Buddhist religion background, I mean.
And that's the birthplace of Chinese martial arts.
Yeah it's considered the birthplace of Chinese martial art.
Amazing. And the southern mountain Hengshan.
Mount Heng. Mount Heng.
Yes it's in Hunan province and the famous Zhuzhong peak which is named after Zhuzhong the god of fire in Chinese mythology.
Wow, ah very important person or mythological figure, Zhuzhong.
And in Chinese folklore and literature, there is a concept called Sánghai, Sāngtian.
It is also a Chinese idiom.
Now we use the idiom to talk about things have changed so much, time has passed and things have changed.
And the idiom itself, Sánghai Sāngtian means the blue sea has turned into mulberry fields again everything has changed everything's changed time has passed yes and this phrase symbolizes massive changes in nature such as oceans becoming land and vice versa and scientific researchers suggest that parts of what is now Mount Heng would indeed have been underwater millions of years ago.
And it rose up because of i guess the way geology works, right?
Yes! So that is Hengshan, and there is another Hengshan similar actually same pronunciation and different character.
Okay. The northern mountain is also a Mount Heng, but it's in Shenxi, my hometown.
Oh very nice You're very familiar with this mountain then.
Yes. Yes, I've been there I've climbed the mountain when I was a little girl it was very much fun and the mountain features steep peaks dense pine forest very very beautiful and numerous caves, I like caves.
As a little girl, I remember when I was climbing Mount Hong, it was not that much equipped or there was not that many facilitation allowing people to, instead of climbing, just stay in the little box and be transported off.
Okay, how about now?
Now there are so many different ways to enjoy mountain climbing without mountain climbing, but what I was about to say is that I can go climbing the mountain and at certain places go into the cave it's a small cave or there were small caves as a little girl I was able to go in there it was not that dangerous it was not that deep but was very much fun very cool yeah and these type I mean I guess all of these mountains would be inspiration for the artistic citizens of the and also the artistic citizens of now, mountains often inspire things like paintings and poetry and all different types of art.
And there are many other important mountains, I think I know most of the mountains because of traditional Chinese poems just like you said, we have sayings like top of the mountain.
To gain a broader perspective.
Yes. And when it comes to the beauty of different mountains, people definitely have different understandings about it.
We talk about the Five Great Mountains of Wuyue being very important.
Yet, there is this idea of Wuyue Gui Lai book handshan once you've traveled all the five great mountains, you do not have to climb other ones because these five are really, really good.
But yet Huang Shan, Guilai, Bucan, Yue, if you visit the Mount Huang or the Yellow Mountain, then you do not have to see the Five Great Mountains because Huang Shan is even more beautiful.
I understand. If you've seen that one, there's no need to see the others.
There are so many different concepts and different interesting philosophical ideas as well as poetry verses around mountains.
and also in reality so many beautiful mountains just right there waiting for you to explore.
Awesome, awesome that we have so many places to go and check out such natural beauty here in the country.
Yes, that brings us to the end of today's Takeaway Chinese.
I'm your Honglin with Steve here in the studio.
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