The instant I saw the landscape in this photo, I thought, “This must be just south of Xi’an.” Sure enough, when I read the full article from www.thisiscolossal.com I discovered that this 1400-year-old gingko tree sits in the courtyard of a Buddhist temple in the Zhongnan range of Shaanxi’s Qinling mountains.
Foothills of the Qinling Mountains south of Xi’an, Shaanxi. ©1981 Patti Isaacs.
In 1981 Gauss and I went with our students to nearby Cuihuashan. It had not been developed as a tourist destination and was a poor but scenic agricultural area.
Rice paddy at the base of Cuihuashan. Photo © Patti Isaacs.
Every bit of arable land was used. Photo ©1981 Patti Isaacs.
The following spring we were able to bike to a nearby monastery, one of the few left intact following the Cultural Revolution. Steve Jackson (far left in the photo below), another American teacher, rode with us. He got a flat tire just south of the city and when we stopped for a quick roadside repair we drew a crowd of onlookers who were quite willing to give advice to the guy fixing the innertube.
Steve Jackson (left) looks on as a roadside repairman fixes his flat tire. Photo ©Patti Isaacs.
Monks spread grain on pavement to dry at the Xing Jiao monastery in the foothills of the Qinling Mountains. Photo © 1982 Patti Isaacs.
Inside the monastery. Photo ©Patti Isaacs
For more gingko tree eye candy, visit the Chinese website where it originally appeared, or go to This Is Colossal for English captions.
Time Travel in China 