Again, this is a late entry, happened last Tuesday, and today is Sunday, but here it is anyway.
Tuesday, we went to Mt. Huashan with the group from Brookline and had a hike in the foothills of what appeared to be serious mountains, southeast of Xi'an. Each school divided up into two smallish vans and we drove through the city, then a suburb and then the countryside to reach the mountain.
Suburbs in China are not like suburbs in the US, not surprisingly, and visible declines economically and with regard to the infrastructure were sudden once we left the "city proper", whatever that is. It didn't take us long to get out of the high rise section of the city into areas with brick buildings, and small communities divided into villages or neighborhoods with gates. These should not be confused with "gated communities" (ala Hilton Head or something) except that's what they were in the most basic sense. All through China, you can see collections of one floor brick or tile buildings or housing developments of apartments that are closed off by walls and courtyards with a gated entrance. In some cases, the gate or door itself is no longer there, just the opening where one once was, but frequently, these openings have a sign over them. These are names that the communities have been given at one point or another.
We also drove through rural areas with various plants, trees and flowers planted. These were all for some sort of crop or farming use. Mulberry trees, for example, make nice juice which is served frequently here, but also feed silk worms that help create beautiful cloth. This part of China is not a rice growing area -- though it is served three meals a day in the dining hall -- so we didn't see paddies, but there was lots of stuff growing.
To get to the mountain, we drove through a kind of "resort" area, with basic hotels and restaurants. We stopped at one point because our guides had to contact the local guide and notify him of our arrival -- for our "protection." They have been very concerned about our "protection" lately, more to follow.
The mountain had an official parking area and place to pay. It was clear that we were in a much larger range of mountains, and like the time Ruthie, my mom, and I went to Fussen, Germany and got up an Alp for an afternoon, we were not going to see the whole thing, for sure. We walked for over an hour up a fairly steep granite walkway which at several useful points had stairs as part of the route. Y remarked at one of these places that it was like "another Great Wall." Sort of. It was steep anyway and with a view, to be sure.
The weather was in our favor, and we were also blessed with beautiful blossoming trees. As well, there was a large brook or stream that had been managed and routed down the side of the mountain. We stopped at a pagoda part of the way up and took pictures. I remembered Flat Stanley for this trip, but forgot my hat. I took a picture of Flat Stanley against the mountainous backdrop and also one with the Brookline teacher's 6 year old son holding him.
When we reached the top of this part of the mountain, more or less, there was a large lake with boats in it. Our trip had been paid for and arranged by Madame Jiao -- she footed the bill for our restaurant lunch there later and the bus and the guides -- and she had made it clear that no one was going boating: too dangerous. There was very brief and very mild grumbling, but not much,really. A couple of girls I was walking with contented themselves with scrambling up a boulder and looking into a fairly extensive cave. What I thought was great is that one girl asked my permission first: "Ms. Beebe can we please climb this rock and look down the cave?" This is exactly the sort of thing I would have wanted to do, so of course I said yes. "Please avoid splitting your skulls open," was my reply, or words to that effect. I totally forget I am a grown-up half the time here. They didn't want bats in their hair (nor did I-- theirs or mine) so when I asked them to come back down, they did so obligingly.
Several food hawkers had established small businesses up there, and we walked past them to get to the tourist attractions -- the wind and ice caves. I am not sure which was which, but they were caves all right, real ones you had to duck and/or crawl through at different points. The landscape in general was a little strange -- Star Trek (The Original Series) meets Planet of the Apes -- but it was natural. The interiors of some of the caves though were silly. Whether actual stalagmites or stalactites had actually formed or not was difficult to determine as they had plastered versions of them in the caves. Were they real, just plastered over, or fake? I have no idea. This is a kind of symbol of some things Chinese anyway, particularly the Tang Paradise Park we'd also visited with the Brookline group. I would love to learn the Chinese character for "Ersatz".
We'd brought several people from the school and Madame Jiao's office with us to make sure we did or didn't do something, I am sure. They were all very nice. We paused before lunch to have several group pictures taken. We posed, passed cameras around, and the other Chinese people also hiking up there found all of this fun to watch.
Lunch was in a castle-shaped (not the least bit Chinese on the outside) restaurant overlooking the lake. We sat at three tables -- I was at the grown up table with the guides. As has been the case at our restaurant meals here, the food was very good. Lots of vegetable dishes and locally grown chicken (saw some of the relatives of our protein source on the way up, most likely) and locally produced eggs. There was also a sweet treat-- Chinese meals are not about dessert -- that was a hot pumpkin cookie, for lack of a better way to describe it. We have been eating a fair amount of pumpkin here in restaurants. Yummy.
We took more pictures on the way down. Mr. Zhong, who had accompanied Y and George and me to the center of Xi'an when we first got here, gave me suggestions as to what to photograph. He is a great guy actually, and also drags a camera around with him. I think he appreciates the hobby and may have a good eye for it as well. I took his email address at the end of the day to send him some photos. Zhong is another of Madame Jiao's assistants -- I am not sure of his function, though it may be translator or something like that. All of her people are very nice and easy to get along with. She is too, amazingly so considering her considerable wealth, influence, position and the fact that she speaks absolutely no English.
Our trip down the mountain was not particularly eventful, and certainly easier. The weather still held, so we had a pleasant time of it. I walked for a while with the Brookline teacher's 10 year old daughter who is one of those great girls -- pretty low key, but very bright and articulate. I got lots of information about how they managed to leave their home and dog and come to China as a family, which was interesting.
Kids sacked out on the ride back -- we took a different route and so saw more of the mountain range out of one side of the van. It was good to see some more of the countryside. China has many mountains, and many with temples and monasteries that I would like to see for more than one reason. It would be a different way to see this part of China -- there is so much to see here, so many layers, so many types of experiences.
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