China, Part Two

It has been way too long since we've updated this blog! Since our last entry we've moved further south in China, slowly working our way down to Vietnam. Here are some highlights (new pictures and videos are posted below):

Train Ride to Pingyao -- The Hard Seater (aka worst decision, ever)

In an effort to save money we decided to take the hard seater tickets for our 12 hour train ride to Pingyao. Terrible idea. Not only did we squeeze 4 people in a 3 person seat...there we literally people occupying every free space on the train. People were squeezed so tightly together, they just stood for hours at a time all along the isles and in between the cars. It was the most insane thing I'd ever seen. There was one guy that I couldn't stop staring at. He was wearing a full suite, holding a briefcase in his hand, and looked like he was on a short 10 minute subway ride. This guy stood in the same damn position holding the briefcase for 5 hours! I didn't go pee for 12 hours because the toilet looked like a disgusting pile of 150 people's poo, and I probably couldn't have climbed over all the people to reach the door anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure an old lady would have stolen my seat. We slept a cumulative 1 hour while sitting completely upright, sandwiched between strangers that were way too close for comfort. Whew! But, it's like Kirstin said to me, even the rough days of traveling are blessings...even if you came frighteningly close to pooping your pants and freaking out from claustrophobia :) I like to look at it as training for India, if we ever make it there.

Pingyao, Shanxi Province

One of the most well-preserved walled in cities remaining in China. A cool little city, that could pretty accurately be described as a mini-Forbidden City with people still living in it. It looks like the set of a movie. All the streets are lined in cobblestones and red lanterns hang from every doorway. It's beautiful. A little touristy, which is difficult for Shane because Chinese tourists LOVE to take pictures with him. The crumbling old rock walls give the city an ancient feeling, but the people within the city make it extremely colorful, especially all the cute little kids. They like to yell "HELLOOO!" at us as they pass us from the back of their parent's bicycles and motorcycles. Our hostel was inside the old governor's residence, and it had oodles of charm. It had a classic courtyard that lead to all the rooms, and beautiful antique furnishings in each room, that give it a funky new-meets-old vibe.

Chengdu, Sichuan Province -- Where the Panda Roams

Chengdu is a cool city, as far as big cities go, but we kind of used it as a transition city on our way to the mountains. We did get to see some really cute Giant Pandas! I was hoping to meet the author of "Wild Swans" a controversial book on the Cultural Revolution and Mao's policies. Unfortunately, we didn't see her. But we did eat lots of fatty pork, drank lots of beer and played Uno.

Oh yeah, we also finally got to experience a tea house that overlooked a pretty lake at sunset. It was a really peaceful, beautiful experience, and then a really old Chinese guy sat next to us and started listening to really loud early 90's Madonna music from his cell phone. Ha! I love the Chinese.

Mt. Emei Shan

Day 1: Soooooooo many stairs

After a 2.5 hour bus ride from Chengdu, we arrived at a little mountain town at the base of Mt. Emei. Mt. Emei is one of the 4 sacred mountains in China and supposedly one of the most beautiful. We decided take about 3 days to climb it, sleeping in one of the many Buddhist monasteries along the way. It was such an amazing experience! We climbed about 6.5 hours the first day - and when I say climb, I mean step by step. Every trail on this mountain is covered in rock stairs. At any point on the mountain you are either climbing up, or climbing down. By the last day I looked like a crazy old mountain man coming down from a gold digging expedition, I was so sore I could hardly move!

Day 2: The Summit

On the 2nd day we woke up at 5am so that we could climb to the top before sunrise, and beat the throng of Chinese tourists who take a cable car to the top. It was so misty and dark we could hardly see the stairs we were climbing. As we climbed higher we could hear the sounds of the monasteries waking up as we passed them on the trail. It was so surreal to be hiking in the dark, hearing chanting and drum beats somewhere in the fog. When we finally reached the top, we weren't really sure we had made it because it was too misty to see anything. We could barely make out the temple at the "Golden Summit" but we beat the crowd! We had a few precious moments of silence at the summit of this beautiful mountain to ourselves right before the sun began to rise. It was so misty, we couldn't grasp the height of the severe cliff we were overlooking. Slowly the mist around us lightened and we were able to make out the golden elephant statues that surrounded us, and the giant Buddha that stood behind us. It was a trip.

The climb back down to our hotel passed in what seemed like 5 minutes, though the hike up took at least an hour and a half. Once we reached the hotel it seemed like a dream. Like it never happened. It still kind of feels like that.

Day 2 continued: I got jumped by a monkey

The rest of that day we spent hiking toward the monastery where we would sleep. They warned us at our hostel to use our bamboo walking sticks to ward off monkeys, but I didn't believe them. Of course, I got jumped by a monkey the size of a large toddler. At first he looked really cute and we were joking that we made a friend because he was walking down the path with us. Then before I knew it he was walking toward me with his beady monkey eyes and started climbing up my leg. I'd like to say that I kept my cool and used my stick to do some kung fu defensive techniques, but I basically fell into a ditch and screamed for Shane to help me. Thank god he was there! Otherwise I seriously would have hired a guide to walk with me for the entire length of the trip just to ward off monkeys. I now hate monkeys.

We slept that night at a beautiful old monastery in possibly the crappiest room they had. The guy at the counter showed us pictures of their rooms before we paid, but the room we got couldn't have been further from the version in the picture. But, a bed was a bed, and we were so tired from our climb and all the monkey adrenalin had worn off so we were ready to crash for the night. We had a delicious vegetarian dinner with all the workers in the monastery and the monks. There was a little confusion over the bill (they kept saying "3" when really they meant "30") and finally a short monk with a sweet face told us to follow him, which was hard to do because he was really fast and took us through the labyrinth of the monastery before pointing to a bench and instructing us to sit. When he returned he gave us 20 yuan, presumably from his personal stash, because he thought we didn't have any money to pay for the food. It was really humbling.

Day 3: The hike down

More monkeys, unfortunately. This time I had the sense to keep rocks in my hand and not hesitate to point my stick of fury in their direction. The mist finally started to clear and we could see more of the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. The final part of the hike was the most beautiful and also the least crowded. When we finally finished and left the park, we were sad to be done.

Now we're relaxing at a hotel at the base of the mountain. Tomorrow we leave for Tiger Leaping Gorge for a few days, and then on to Kunming to get our Vietnam Visas!


Here are our latest pictures:

China 2

Here are the latest videos:

Kerri found gold in them hills!


Narrow canyon hike


Kerri powering up the stairs