So, I've been wanting to go back there (went 4 yrs ago) since I got back to China this year. Two of the girls that I home teach (Sara and Tina) were talking about going and so I essentially invited myself :) But I think they were all pretty happy that I was going. So first, Tina and I talked some via Skype about going and decided it would be best to invite all the BYU Flagship students along with all the China Horizon teachers, basically the flagship students and the 20 girls and 1 guy that I home teach. Out of this group, it turned out to be me (the only one who speaks Chinese), the one guy I home teach and 13 girls...I was kinda getting in over my head.
Friday:
So, from my city here in Nanjing, there were just three of us going: Me, Heather and Aimee. They're both really cool girls, I actually had class with Heather last year so I knew her a little bit before China. Anyway, they're both into hiking and high adventure stuff and such so I knew that they would be a big help on the trip and they were.
Sara and Tina's liason was getting all the train tickets for everyone living outside of Nanjing because the train stopped in Zhenjiang, where they were all getting on, before it got to Nanjing. Heather, Aimee and I were gonna get sleepers (we'd each get a bed on the train instead of just a seat) but I heard that tickets were going fast and when I got there there were only seats left. Oh well, better this than nothing. I'm a member of a rock climbing club out here, so I went to the store, along with Heather and Aimee, just hours before having to leave, to try to rent some sleeping bags and tents. Sara and Tina had already rounded up some tents which was good. I also, just from friends here in Nanjing, was able to pick up backpacking packpacks for me, Heather and Aimee which was really awesome, along with a tent.
So, when we get there, I talk to Tina and Sara and try to take orders for more sleeping bags and tents ('cause I don't know who has/needs what still). After several phone calls here and there and all around, Aimee, Heather and I pick up 2 tents and 4 pads and 7 sleeping bags. We race back to our apts, they pack, I get on the computer and write two 600 character essays in Chinese and send a couple emails for internships and such, pack and run out the door to the taxi (instead of parking my bike in a different place) and I go pick them up in a taxi and we head to the train station. When packing, of course thinking of other ;) I packed WAY more than I needed...aka a couple pairs of warm pants, gloves, a beanie for me, and several jackets 'cause I know people are gonna be cold.
We had to wait for about an hour or so before we could board our train, so I went out to 4 or 5 different little stores, just looking for snickers bars (fairly common here in China) and I am SORELY dissapointed when I can't find ANY. I just wanted to have some good chocolate to take hiking-I think that snickers bars are one of the best ways to help build up morale when things are rough/cold/etc. We go on the train and we ended up being in the same car as all the others which was really cool. Most of the others were all asleep before we got on the train (oh, we boarded at 1:34 am Saturday morning), and the others at about midnight or so. I had to ask three people to get out of our three seats, which is normal really in China (you can buy standing tickets...some people get them 'cause they're cheaper, even if they're going for an entire night or longer!) So, we got our seats and Aimee was super tired and slept some while Heather and I just talked for quite some time which was pretty fun. Eventually I took an uncomftorable nap, in and out, until several people had gotten off the train and I got three seats to myself and I was able to sleep for a full hour and a half I think. Then I was awake for a couple hours until we got to our destination.
Saturday Morning:
We get into Huangshan, the city, and we take a bus to get closer to the base of the mountain, at which point there is a bus to take you to the gate for Huangshan. Before boarding the second bus, we got lunch, gave money to this guy, Mr. Hu, that was gonna get Lisa's return train ticket (she got a ticket last minute to get TO Huangshan, but hadn't got a return one yet), so got him the money, and got lunch and we were about ready. On the first bus, there was a tour group amongst the 15 of us along with a bunch of other random travelers. We passed a place just before getting to the lunch stop called "Nine Dragon Waterfalls." I asked everyone if they wanted to go there first before hiking the mountain and everyone was down for it :) Plus, we got student discounts everywhere we went, even with American student ID's (I'm the only with a Chinese on). So, we get there, and this is one of the first things we come upon:
This is me and Julia-super cool girl that's way into hiking and Disney
This is the view from the top of the WaterfallWhy I didn't jump in?? *sigh, I really don't know, but I think everything would've been better for me had I jumped in...So, we took some cool pictures here and such, then we all started up the trail. I had a bunch of energy (I find that I somehow start to draw upon energy from the wildlife around me, kinda like the Dragon Riders in the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon)) so I ran up a bunch of the stairs (yes, stairs EVERYWHERE if you're in the mountains...) to catch up to the part of our group that was in the front. Apparently the Nine Dragon Falls are all one source, just falls broken up into nine different parts. We got to a pretty cool part (still not as cool though as the very first one I don't think) and a bunch of us got a picture together there:
Then we found out that this wasn't the whole thing, but one of nine here! So we pushed ahead and got to some more. I was just climbing around carefully of course, when I decided to go near the base of the waterfall where the water was hitting the small pool. Well, I got pretty close to the water, and I stepped on a part of the rock that was wet and had an EVER-SO-SLIGHT curve to it and it sucked me right in! It was incredible. The water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be either. But right when I hit the water, I knew my camera was in my pocket. I made a heroic attempt at pushing myself up quickly to grab the rock and get my camera out as quick as possible, but in my hastiness I forgot how slick the rock is when it's wet...and I slid right off. I gave up on my camera, and thought "wow, I dunno if I can actually get out of this..." but made another valiant attempt and stuck it this time. I wiggled out of the water now (during all of this, several of the group had JUST taken a picture of me or at least saw me before falling in and had already turned to leave, but heard a splash). Gracie, with her nice camera was kind enough to start filming me from the point that I had just gotten out of the water. I realized that climbing up the rock was gonna be a little more tricky that I thought because I was soaked. All of a sudden there was this Chinese guy with a big long peppermint stick-looking-stick that had a hook on the end (to save people) and I grabbed the hook, carefully got my footing and started to pull up. I then realized that I had more traction than I thought I would and somehow scampered up the side of the rock without anymore of the help from the stick, but I was so grateful to that guy, 'cause that first step would've been much harder without him. So now I was soaked up to my chest, my camera was being inspected by some group members. They said, "you should just buy some rice" so as to help try to soak up the water from the camera and save it. Of ALL the places in the world, who'd have thought I'd have a difficult time finding rice!?? But rice is exactly what I couldn't find. Oh well, what's a guy to do? So yeah, I wish I would've jumped off the first waterfall 'cause then I would've had my fill of "getting super close to the fall" I think and wouldn't have got my camera soaked. Should've listened to that adventurous spirit of mine. Next time, no holding back :)
Me sitting, looking at the fall before I fell in
Close up of the fall, right where I fell.
I was standing right there at the bottom right
of the picture before I got sucked in
Saturday late afternoon/evening:
So, we finish this part of the hike, get back, take the bus back to the beginning of the base of the mountain that has to take us up 3o min to the gate where you buy your ticket to be able to start climbing the mountain finally. Problem was though, we were gone a bit longer than I thought and I knew it would be getting dark sooner than we would be arriving at the top. For an extra 80 kuai you can take the Gandola thing up-it's basically a really nice chairlift and takes maybe 10-15 minutes instead of climbing for 2.5-3hrs. I was gonna climb if there was anyone that wasn't willing to do the Gandola, just for safety reasons, but fortunately all eventually agreed to take it. We were completely submerged in clouds for most of the way up (it was completely enclosed though, so we didn't get wet...yet). Made it to the top, and most people put on their ponchos and we were off. We got a bit turned around a couple times, but finally made it to the place I planned on setting up tents. Actually, I'd only heard that there was a place to set up tents...I had no idea it was on a cement basketball course, haha! And we were still stuck in the cloud, so everything was cold and wet. The tents all went up really smoothly, except for one. I eventually figured it out (or figured out a way) but it still baffles me how it stayed up all night. The tents we rented did have rain flys but did NOT have tarps on bottom...not good for sleeping in a cloud that's for sure. People's tents were getting water in them through the bottom after a while. There was a little police station near us and they let us "chill" in there by their space heater and dry a bunch of clothes. Oh yeah, so there was one or two other tents (Chinese people) but everyone else just stays in the big hotels at the top...really weird, but convenient for sure. We rearranged somethings and managed to keep everyone dry. We read scriptures around the heater, had a prayer and then just before going to bed, realized that the sky was COMPLETELY clear! We were hoping and praying for clear skies for Sunday morning so we could watch the sun rise at 6:24 am. Even though it was dark, we went out to a peering out spot and we could see the moon shining off the clouds below us and peaks poking up through the clouds. So beautiful. But, minutes later, the clouds were coming back and we all retreated to our tents and went to sleep.
Oh yeah, so I HAD a sleeping bag, but somehow this girl in the group was under the impression or something, that we had got one for her...so of course when she asked about her sleeping bag (when we were setting tents up), of course I just handed it to her. Fortunately, I had a really good pad that kept me up off the ground/water that got into our tent and stayed mostly dry and relatively warm :) Everyone else slept pretty decently/well so that's good.
Sunday Morning:
Got up around 5:30, got helped wake everyone else, and we went to a look-out-point in hopes that the thick fog would clear before the sunrise. We went early because we didn't know exactly how far it was nor did we know how busy it would be, although I didn't think it would be too bad with the thick fog and I was right. We were the only ones out at the look-out-point that we chose (始信峰, or Begin Believing Peak) and so we just chilled, took pictures, climbed around on some rocks until we realized that for sure we weren't gonna see the sun rise. We still played around there for a bit, then went back to our stuff, packed up, and left around 9am. This was meant to be the whole group, but Gracie and Lisa somehow weren't in the picture:
Everything was still really foggy. But, at about 10 am or so, things cleared up where we were and we could see some cool peaks aka floating mountains! So magnificent! We were all at this really great point when all of a sudden the clouds came in and all the other peaks disappeared for a bit. It's amazing watching it all happen before your eyes.
Sunday Afternoon:
When you've got the adventurous spirit I have, you just see a fence and it says "climb me", so that's what I did. Well, not that I had to climb, I just stepped over it, but then I climbed/scaled down. I knew Heather would come, which she did, and Kara did as well. We got some really cool pictures out on these cool rocks, most of the pics I have not got my hands on yet, but this one is one of the coolest I'm sure:
Kara, me, Heather.
Funny how it kinda looks like if we fell from here, we just fall into oblivion...
Then we found out that this wasn't the whole thing, but one of nine here! So we pushed ahead and got to some more. I was just climbing around carefully of course, when I decided to go near the base of the waterfall where the water was hitting the small pool. Well, I got pretty close to the water, and I stepped on a part of the rock that was wet and had an EVER-SO-SLIGHT curve to it and it sucked me right in! It was incredible. The water wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be either. But right when I hit the water, I knew my camera was in my pocket. I made a heroic attempt at pushing myself up quickly to grab the rock and get my camera out as quick as possible, but in my hastiness I forgot how slick the rock is when it's wet...and I slid right off. I gave up on my camera, and thought "wow, I dunno if I can actually get out of this..." but made another valiant attempt and stuck it this time. I wiggled out of the water now (during all of this, several of the group had JUST taken a picture of me or at least saw me before falling in and had already turned to leave, but heard a splash). Gracie, with her nice camera was kind enough to start filming me from the point that I had just gotten out of the water. I realized that climbing up the rock was gonna be a little more tricky that I thought because I was soaked. All of a sudden there was this Chinese guy with a big long peppermint stick-looking-stick that had a hook on the end (to save people) and I grabbed the hook, carefully got my footing and started to pull up. I then realized that I had more traction than I thought I would and somehow scampered up the side of the rock without anymore of the help from the stick, but I was so grateful to that guy, 'cause that first step would've been much harder without him. So now I was soaked up to my chest, my camera was being inspected by some group members. They said, "you should just buy some rice" so as to help try to soak up the water from the camera and save it. Of ALL the places in the world, who'd have thought I'd have a difficult time finding rice!?? But rice is exactly what I couldn't find. Oh well, what's a guy to do? So yeah, I wish I would've jumped off the first waterfall 'cause then I would've had my fill of "getting super close to the fall" I think and wouldn't have got my camera soaked. Should've listened to that adventurous spirit of mine. Next time, no holding back :)
Me sitting, looking at the fall before I fell in
Close up of the fall, right where I fell.I was standing right there at the bottom right
of the picture before I got sucked in
Saturday late afternoon/evening:
So, we finish this part of the hike, get back, take the bus back to the beginning of the base of the mountain that has to take us up 3o min to the gate where you buy your ticket to be able to start climbing the mountain finally. Problem was though, we were gone a bit longer than I thought and I knew it would be getting dark sooner than we would be arriving at the top. For an extra 80 kuai you can take the Gandola thing up-it's basically a really nice chairlift and takes maybe 10-15 minutes instead of climbing for 2.5-3hrs. I was gonna climb if there was anyone that wasn't willing to do the Gandola, just for safety reasons, but fortunately all eventually agreed to take it. We were completely submerged in clouds for most of the way up (it was completely enclosed though, so we didn't get wet...yet). Made it to the top, and most people put on their ponchos and we were off. We got a bit turned around a couple times, but finally made it to the place I planned on setting up tents. Actually, I'd only heard that there was a place to set up tents...I had no idea it was on a cement basketball course, haha! And we were still stuck in the cloud, so everything was cold and wet. The tents all went up really smoothly, except for one. I eventually figured it out (or figured out a way) but it still baffles me how it stayed up all night. The tents we rented did have rain flys but did NOT have tarps on bottom...not good for sleeping in a cloud that's for sure. People's tents were getting water in them through the bottom after a while. There was a little police station near us and they let us "chill" in there by their space heater and dry a bunch of clothes. Oh yeah, so there was one or two other tents (Chinese people) but everyone else just stays in the big hotels at the top...really weird, but convenient for sure. We rearranged somethings and managed to keep everyone dry. We read scriptures around the heater, had a prayer and then just before going to bed, realized that the sky was COMPLETELY clear! We were hoping and praying for clear skies for Sunday morning so we could watch the sun rise at 6:24 am. Even though it was dark, we went out to a peering out spot and we could see the moon shining off the clouds below us and peaks poking up through the clouds. So beautiful. But, minutes later, the clouds were coming back and we all retreated to our tents and went to sleep.
Oh yeah, so I HAD a sleeping bag, but somehow this girl in the group was under the impression or something, that we had got one for her...so of course when she asked about her sleeping bag (when we were setting tents up), of course I just handed it to her. Fortunately, I had a really good pad that kept me up off the ground/water that got into our tent and stayed mostly dry and relatively warm :) Everyone else slept pretty decently/well so that's good.
Sunday Morning:
Got up around 5:30, got helped wake everyone else, and we went to a look-out-point in hopes that the thick fog would clear before the sunrise. We went early because we didn't know exactly how far it was nor did we know how busy it would be, although I didn't think it would be too bad with the thick fog and I was right. We were the only ones out at the look-out-point that we chose (始信峰, or Begin Believing Peak) and so we just chilled, took pictures, climbed around on some rocks until we realized that for sure we weren't gonna see the sun rise. We still played around there for a bit, then went back to our stuff, packed up, and left around 9am. This was meant to be the whole group, but Gracie and Lisa somehow weren't in the picture:
Everything was still really foggy. But, at about 10 am or so, things cleared up where we were and we could see some cool peaks aka floating mountains! So magnificent! We were all at this really great point when all of a sudden the clouds came in and all the other peaks disappeared for a bit. It's amazing watching it all happen before your eyes.
Sunday Afternoon:
When you've got the adventurous spirit I have, you just see a fence and it says "climb me", so that's what I did. Well, not that I had to climb, I just stepped over it, but then I climbed/scaled down. I knew Heather would come, which she did, and Kara did as well. We got some really cool pictures out on these cool rocks, most of the pics I have not got my hands on yet, but this one is one of the coolest I'm sure:
Kara, me, Heather.Funny how it kinda looks like if we fell from here, we just fall into oblivion...
The rock was SUPER grippy, but fall apartish as well, really weird. While playing here, Heather discovered this SUPER sketchy wooden path that was somehow connected to the mountain (a worker's path?) and it took all the fibers of my being to not go down there, only 'cause I knew we might be pressed for time, so we left. But next time Huangshan, Next time I will scale you all over the place, and it's gonna be me, the boys and Morgan and John.
As we continued down the mountain (and down consisted of lots of ups as well as downs), there were areas that were incredibly crowded with Chinese people, and some not so much. We all took another break at a place called Matress Rock I think. Looks like matresses I spose:
The more time that went on, the more I was worried about Gracie mostly. Her right knee was hurting her pretty bad, she didn't wanna take Ibuprofen, she was using a cane and time was short. After a while, (having been going back and forth b/w Gracie/Lisa in the back and everyone else in the front) I again went to check on them in the back. I ran up hundreds of stairs, literally. I was exhausted, but still didn't find them. Went back, we used a phone (oh yeah, cell phone service on all parts of the mountain too!) and got ahold of them. I had to make a decision. Gracie and Lisa weren't gonna make the train, so I should stay back, but it's gonna be cutting it close for the rest of the group to make the train too, and how're they gonna get there on their own? I did what I felt was best, but worried a ton about Lisa and Gracie. I went with the group to the bottom, we caught a van/bus thing, who drove us to meet up with Mr. Hu who had bought Lisa's return ticket. (Oh yeah, he called me at 5am this morning to tell me that the train didn't have any available seats for Lisa and so he'd have to get her the later train. I told him to do it, thinking that if worse came to worse, I'd go on the later train. But I devised a plan in my head of course ;) ) Anyway, I got the ticket from him, paid for this other bus that would take us to the train station and we were off. I called Lisa, told her the plan and asked her if there was any Chinese people around her. It took a minute on the mountain, but she found one and I used him to find out how far they were and everything. They were closer than I thought and my mind was racing with plans and options. I told Lisa when she got to the next destination point (in another 5 min or so) to talk to either the Police officer that was there or a driver. She found a driver and gave him the phone and I continued to plan. Told him he needed to take them to my friend Mr. Hu. Then I get ahold of Mr. Hu who tells me he has to leave, but to tell them to go to another place. Back and forth b/w drivers, Lisa and other random people it went, but eventually got Lisa and Gracie into a van/bus and the driver took them all the way to the train station. They got there just 15 minutes before the train left! What a tender mercy and miracle! (Apparently their driver was HAULLIN'). Also, I gave Lisa and Gracie two tickets, and kept the other ticket for myself-they were gonna make the train no matter what. I tried to show the lady my ticket (same destination, wrong time and wrong train #) but she took it out of my hands, looked at it, and then like everyone else's, she hole punched it and I was in!
Getting on the train was easy 'cause we were the first stop, and it was somehow less packed the whole way back I think, so we all had seats the whole time. On the ride back, before sleeping like a baby for several hours, a bunch of us just talked and listened to music and I was just bein a goof ball I think. Probaby partially because that's just who I am and what I do (especially when there's lots of girls around), but mostly I think it was to help me relieve the stress build up. The train ride back was much better than on the way there.
Lastly, as we were getting off, carrying these HUGE packs, Heather, Aimee and I pushed through crowds of Chinese people (we went one direction on the train, found out that door was locked, so had to go the other way and by this time all the people getting ON the train were on already, so the aisle was FULL, but I did a pretty dang good job of "politely" pushing people out of the way. I didn't want to get stuck on the train! Got off, realized forgot a pad, went back to get it, and Sara brought it to us. Then I realized something terrible....my pillow was still on the table in the train!!! My feather pillow, the one I take with me EVERYWHERE (yeah, it's like my security blanket, and proud of it). I got to the window, and made a sad face, then Julia motioned that she'd meet me half way I thought. I ran back on the train, contrary to the officer's demands, pushed through more Chinese people, saw Julia (who had just woken up by the way), with pillow in hand, but stuck behind a throng of Asians. I yelled to her "just throw it", and for being really tired and out of it, she made a pretty dang good throw! The best part might have been the fact that it clocked some old Chinese lady in the face, haha, but it was w/in my reach then and I grabbed it and ran off the train. Of course, I yelled "careful" in Chinese as the pillow was being thrown and "sorry" after she got nailed. This caused several Chinese people to make exclamations. Instead of saying something like "wow are you ok old lady?" or "woah watch it!" it was more like "woah, the foreigner speaks Chinese!" haha, it was a great way to end the trip :)
This is my favorite picture so far I think. It's me, Heather, then Aimee:
As we continued down the mountain (and down consisted of lots of ups as well as downs), there were areas that were incredibly crowded with Chinese people, and some not so much. We all took another break at a place called Matress Rock I think. Looks like matresses I spose:
The more time that went on, the more I was worried about Gracie mostly. Her right knee was hurting her pretty bad, she didn't wanna take Ibuprofen, she was using a cane and time was short. After a while, (having been going back and forth b/w Gracie/Lisa in the back and everyone else in the front) I again went to check on them in the back. I ran up hundreds of stairs, literally. I was exhausted, but still didn't find them. Went back, we used a phone (oh yeah, cell phone service on all parts of the mountain too!) and got ahold of them. I had to make a decision. Gracie and Lisa weren't gonna make the train, so I should stay back, but it's gonna be cutting it close for the rest of the group to make the train too, and how're they gonna get there on their own? I did what I felt was best, but worried a ton about Lisa and Gracie. I went with the group to the bottom, we caught a van/bus thing, who drove us to meet up with Mr. Hu who had bought Lisa's return ticket. (Oh yeah, he called me at 5am this morning to tell me that the train didn't have any available seats for Lisa and so he'd have to get her the later train. I told him to do it, thinking that if worse came to worse, I'd go on the later train. But I devised a plan in my head of course ;) ) Anyway, I got the ticket from him, paid for this other bus that would take us to the train station and we were off. I called Lisa, told her the plan and asked her if there was any Chinese people around her. It took a minute on the mountain, but she found one and I used him to find out how far they were and everything. They were closer than I thought and my mind was racing with plans and options. I told Lisa when she got to the next destination point (in another 5 min or so) to talk to either the Police officer that was there or a driver. She found a driver and gave him the phone and I continued to plan. Told him he needed to take them to my friend Mr. Hu. Then I get ahold of Mr. Hu who tells me he has to leave, but to tell them to go to another place. Back and forth b/w drivers, Lisa and other random people it went, but eventually got Lisa and Gracie into a van/bus and the driver took them all the way to the train station. They got there just 15 minutes before the train left! What a tender mercy and miracle! (Apparently their driver was HAULLIN'). Also, I gave Lisa and Gracie two tickets, and kept the other ticket for myself-they were gonna make the train no matter what. I tried to show the lady my ticket (same destination, wrong time and wrong train #) but she took it out of my hands, looked at it, and then like everyone else's, she hole punched it and I was in!
Getting on the train was easy 'cause we were the first stop, and it was somehow less packed the whole way back I think, so we all had seats the whole time. On the ride back, before sleeping like a baby for several hours, a bunch of us just talked and listened to music and I was just bein a goof ball I think. Probaby partially because that's just who I am and what I do (especially when there's lots of girls around), but mostly I think it was to help me relieve the stress build up. The train ride back was much better than on the way there.
Lastly, as we were getting off, carrying these HUGE packs, Heather, Aimee and I pushed through crowds of Chinese people (we went one direction on the train, found out that door was locked, so had to go the other way and by this time all the people getting ON the train were on already, so the aisle was FULL, but I did a pretty dang good job of "politely" pushing people out of the way. I didn't want to get stuck on the train! Got off, realized forgot a pad, went back to get it, and Sara brought it to us. Then I realized something terrible....my pillow was still on the table in the train!!! My feather pillow, the one I take with me EVERYWHERE (yeah, it's like my security blanket, and proud of it). I got to the window, and made a sad face, then Julia motioned that she'd meet me half way I thought. I ran back on the train, contrary to the officer's demands, pushed through more Chinese people, saw Julia (who had just woken up by the way), with pillow in hand, but stuck behind a throng of Asians. I yelled to her "just throw it", and for being really tired and out of it, she made a pretty dang good throw! The best part might have been the fact that it clocked some old Chinese lady in the face, haha, but it was w/in my reach then and I grabbed it and ran off the train. Of course, I yelled "careful" in Chinese as the pillow was being thrown and "sorry" after she got nailed. This caused several Chinese people to make exclamations. Instead of saying something like "wow are you ok old lady?" or "woah watch it!" it was more like "woah, the foreigner speaks Chinese!" haha, it was a great way to end the trip :)
This is my favorite picture so far I think. It's me, Heather, then Aimee:
1 comment:
PS, My camera works again!!! I just let it air dry! Thank goodness! But my bike did get stolen while I was gone (pretty sure there's a theif that lives in my building). Oh well though.
Post a Comment