Hiking up Huangshan!
Here, here, and here are some pictures. Check back for a few days because I don't have time enough to upload all of them now.
Yeah, I hiked up China's Yellow Mountain.
Notes:
Pengyous = friends
dongxis = stuff
lil' bitches = Jesse (and sometimes Sam) when they're cranky
Wang DeGuide = our tourguide, Wang Dong
Friday
We woke up at 700 Friday morning to head off to Huangshan. We spent some 4 hours in a car, everyone except Max, with a driver and Wang DeTourguide. Jesse and Sam were bellyaching for the first half of the ride, but chilled out by the third hour. Long drives in China are scary as hell, though. We almost died some 800 times. Example: yellow lines-suggestion, not rule.
We ate lunch at some random hotel restaurant on a lake. It wasn’t wonderful, but for two American dollars it was just fine.
After lunch (which Wang DeGuide calls “dinner,” as he calls every other meal, except dinner, which is “breakfast”) we went to the hotel at the base of the mountain. I stayed with Morgan, which was okay; we make good roommates. It is very easy to live with her.
We took a break for about an hour, then headed to this pretty place. It was a river coming down a mountain that seemed highly synthetic but beautiful regardless. We went swimming in one of the pools despite the many “no swimming” signs. On the way out, Julio bribed one of the guards to let him jump off a high platform into one of the pools, for Y50 ($6).
I got some souvenirs for people. Yay for being responsible.
Sam and Morgan didn’t go to dinner so it was just me, Nathan, Jon, Jared, Jesse and Julio. Dinner was overpriced, but we didn’t really care. Y15 for a bottle of beer? No way.
When I got back to the room, Morgan had fallen asleep with the TV on, so I took the opportunity to turn up the AC. Yeah, that’s right, AC.
Saturday
We woke up at 700 to actually go up Huangshan. We arrived at 900ish, bought some knick-knacks at little shops where it’s plenty easy to haggle the price down and then entered the mountain area. Wang DeGuide somehow tricked Sam into agreeing to walk up the mountain, so all of us hiked the 10km up to the top.
Morgan got frustrated at the opening of the path and ran ahead. We asked her to bring a phone with her since she wanted to alone, but I guess she just wanted to be free. She got to the top of the mountain long before the rest of us.
I’m not much of a hiker, and I think the journey is more important than the destination, so I went slowly. Nathan hiked with me, despite that he could have gone much faster by himself. He also carried my backpack for some 90% of the way, which was super awesome. I may not have made it up in reasonable time otherwise. Still, we were the last ones to arrive, though only by about 10 minutes.
Along the way we met two people from Whales, four Frenchies, one Swede, two Americans, and German. Just thought I’d mention.
By the time we got to the hotel, our legs were tired to the point of shaking. My calves may not forgive me for not taking the tram. That’s a lie; I’m very fatigued and dirty and there’s no shower at the hotel but I feel good, and that’s all that really matters. Also, I’ve climbed Huangshan. Not many 18-year-old Americans can say that.
Our room in the hotel is really our room. We all (all nine of us) are sharing one room. As I mentioned, there are no showers in the hotel, and the bathroom is one of those delightful Chinese shit-troughs. It’s only for a night, though, so I think I can handle being filthy until tomorrow night.
Dinner was stressful. The lil’ bitches were complaining about being hungry and ate like horses, which frustrated me only because Jon was late to dinner. The poor guy hardly got anything for dinner - he ate rice and spinach, as far as I know. I’m not exactly sure why it bothered me so much, but I would guess it’s just the lack of respect for our compatriots. Jon’s a good guy, he doesn’t deserve to be treated like that, especially with all the bad talk about him and no remorse for eating his dinner. Sometimes I wish I were the sort of person who could really take a stand against that kind of thing.
Now is sleep; we have to get up at 400 tomorrow morning and hike to see the sunrise!
June 26, 2005 (Sunday)
China Time: 1700
Location: Van from Huangshan to Hefei
We woke up at 300 this morning because a child in the dormitory next to us was screaming like a banshee. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of abuse going on; the amount of public violence against children we’ve seen is shocking, especially since we know that we’re only seeing 10% of it, if that.
Some of the pengyous went back to sleep when the child quieted down, but a few of us just stayed awake until we left to go to the Red Cloud Peak for sunrise. It was very foggy, so we didn’t get to see the sunrise, but it was still pretty cool to get to the very top of the mountain. It was also very interesting to be in the middle of a rain cloud. An invaluable experience.
When we got back, we were all pretty tired, so we slept for a few hours. When Wang DeGuide woke us up at 830, the lil’ bitches were complaining of being tired and demanded more time. Morgan, Nathan and I walked to the trolley stop together, taking a 45 minute detour to see this really cool cliff of stairs that went to nothing. When we got to the trolley station we still waiting for about an hour for the rest of the pengyous to arrive, the slowbies. After that we had another 3 hour wait to get onto the tram down the mountain, packed in with 50 Chinese people. The whole ordeal of getting down the mountain took us 4.5 hours. It was better than walking down the mountain, though.
Tensions have gotten pretty high here. It seems that everyone is stressed out about something. Jon seems to be in a particularly bad mood lately, responding more harshly to our silly suggestions than usual (example: we half-joked about stopping at McDonald’s for lunch and he freaked out). Everyone’s a little edgy, except Nathan, who’s just a bit quieter than usual. I don’t think I’m being particularly touchy, but one never realizes when one is behaving abnormally.
Now that we’re in the car, things are calming down. People are cuddling up to sleep and listen to music and rest from our hard weekend.
I’m surprised it doesn’t smell worse in here, considering that none of us have showered in two days and we hiked up a mountain.
I hope Max is okay; he’s been in a bad mood for the past two weeks, and though it’s all speculation, we’re all pretty sure that he’s very depressed about something, probably homesickness or a girl. We think he decided not to come to Huangshan so that he could have some time alone to relax, but we’re still pretty concerned. I’m a little scared that something bad might have happened this weekend while everyone was away. I hope he’s okay.
Now
Max is not dead. He's much happier, actually. He went sightseeing this weekend and bought a lot of dongxis and is in a generally good mood. That made everyone happy.
Yeah, I hiked up China's Yellow Mountain.
Notes:
Pengyous = friends
dongxis = stuff
lil' bitches = Jesse (and sometimes Sam) when they're cranky
Wang DeGuide = our tourguide, Wang Dong
Friday
We woke up at 700 Friday morning to head off to Huangshan. We spent some 4 hours in a car, everyone except Max, with a driver and Wang DeTourguide. Jesse and Sam were bellyaching for the first half of the ride, but chilled out by the third hour. Long drives in China are scary as hell, though. We almost died some 800 times. Example: yellow lines-suggestion, not rule.
We ate lunch at some random hotel restaurant on a lake. It wasn’t wonderful, but for two American dollars it was just fine.
After lunch (which Wang DeGuide calls “dinner,” as he calls every other meal, except dinner, which is “breakfast”) we went to the hotel at the base of the mountain. I stayed with Morgan, which was okay; we make good roommates. It is very easy to live with her.
We took a break for about an hour, then headed to this pretty place. It was a river coming down a mountain that seemed highly synthetic but beautiful regardless. We went swimming in one of the pools despite the many “no swimming” signs. On the way out, Julio bribed one of the guards to let him jump off a high platform into one of the pools, for Y50 ($6).
I got some souvenirs for people. Yay for being responsible.
Sam and Morgan didn’t go to dinner so it was just me, Nathan, Jon, Jared, Jesse and Julio. Dinner was overpriced, but we didn’t really care. Y15 for a bottle of beer? No way.
When I got back to the room, Morgan had fallen asleep with the TV on, so I took the opportunity to turn up the AC. Yeah, that’s right, AC.
Saturday
We woke up at 700 to actually go up Huangshan. We arrived at 900ish, bought some knick-knacks at little shops where it’s plenty easy to haggle the price down and then entered the mountain area. Wang DeGuide somehow tricked Sam into agreeing to walk up the mountain, so all of us hiked the 10km up to the top.
Morgan got frustrated at the opening of the path and ran ahead. We asked her to bring a phone with her since she wanted to alone, but I guess she just wanted to be free. She got to the top of the mountain long before the rest of us.
I’m not much of a hiker, and I think the journey is more important than the destination, so I went slowly. Nathan hiked with me, despite that he could have gone much faster by himself. He also carried my backpack for some 90% of the way, which was super awesome. I may not have made it up in reasonable time otherwise. Still, we were the last ones to arrive, though only by about 10 minutes.
Along the way we met two people from Whales, four Frenchies, one Swede, two Americans, and German. Just thought I’d mention.
By the time we got to the hotel, our legs were tired to the point of shaking. My calves may not forgive me for not taking the tram. That’s a lie; I’m very fatigued and dirty and there’s no shower at the hotel but I feel good, and that’s all that really matters. Also, I’ve climbed Huangshan. Not many 18-year-old Americans can say that.
Our room in the hotel is really our room. We all (all nine of us) are sharing one room. As I mentioned, there are no showers in the hotel, and the bathroom is one of those delightful Chinese shit-troughs. It’s only for a night, though, so I think I can handle being filthy until tomorrow night.
Dinner was stressful. The lil’ bitches were complaining about being hungry and ate like horses, which frustrated me only because Jon was late to dinner. The poor guy hardly got anything for dinner - he ate rice and spinach, as far as I know. I’m not exactly sure why it bothered me so much, but I would guess it’s just the lack of respect for our compatriots. Jon’s a good guy, he doesn’t deserve to be treated like that, especially with all the bad talk about him and no remorse for eating his dinner. Sometimes I wish I were the sort of person who could really take a stand against that kind of thing.
Now is sleep; we have to get up at 400 tomorrow morning and hike to see the sunrise!
June 26, 2005 (Sunday)
China Time: 1700
Location: Van from Huangshan to Hefei
We woke up at 300 this morning because a child in the dormitory next to us was screaming like a banshee. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of abuse going on; the amount of public violence against children we’ve seen is shocking, especially since we know that we’re only seeing 10% of it, if that.
Some of the pengyous went back to sleep when the child quieted down, but a few of us just stayed awake until we left to go to the Red Cloud Peak for sunrise. It was very foggy, so we didn’t get to see the sunrise, but it was still pretty cool to get to the very top of the mountain. It was also very interesting to be in the middle of a rain cloud. An invaluable experience.
When we got back, we were all pretty tired, so we slept for a few hours. When Wang DeGuide woke us up at 830, the lil’ bitches were complaining of being tired and demanded more time. Morgan, Nathan and I walked to the trolley stop together, taking a 45 minute detour to see this really cool cliff of stairs that went to nothing. When we got to the trolley station we still waiting for about an hour for the rest of the pengyous to arrive, the slowbies. After that we had another 3 hour wait to get onto the tram down the mountain, packed in with 50 Chinese people. The whole ordeal of getting down the mountain took us 4.5 hours. It was better than walking down the mountain, though.
Tensions have gotten pretty high here. It seems that everyone is stressed out about something. Jon seems to be in a particularly bad mood lately, responding more harshly to our silly suggestions than usual (example: we half-joked about stopping at McDonald’s for lunch and he freaked out). Everyone’s a little edgy, except Nathan, who’s just a bit quieter than usual. I don’t think I’m being particularly touchy, but one never realizes when one is behaving abnormally.
Now that we’re in the car, things are calming down. People are cuddling up to sleep and listen to music and rest from our hard weekend.
I’m surprised it doesn’t smell worse in here, considering that none of us have showered in two days and we hiked up a mountain.
I hope Max is okay; he’s been in a bad mood for the past two weeks, and though it’s all speculation, we’re all pretty sure that he’s very depressed about something, probably homesickness or a girl. We think he decided not to come to Huangshan so that he could have some time alone to relax, but we’re still pretty concerned. I’m a little scared that something bad might have happened this weekend while everyone was away. I hope he’s okay.
Now
Max is not dead. He's much happier, actually. He went sightseeing this weekend and bought a lot of dongxis and is in a generally good mood. That made everyone happy.