Fragrant Hill! (a.k.a. Stanky Mountain)

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This past Friday I went with a handful of classmates and teachers to Xiang Shan (Fragrant Hill). Even though we went on a weekday to avoid the crowd, there were still about 0.5 billion people there to enjoy the fall colors. It was also the foggiest day ever, meaning that you couldn't see anything that wasn't directly in front of you. Apparently planes could not land in Beijing that day.

...And like every other tourist site in China, there are hundreds of opportunities to buy Mao stuff, swords, plastic devil horns, and all the other things you might suddenly need at a scenic mountain.

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Photos

special leaves
some clever entrepreneurs gathered them up and sold bundles for 1 yuan.

beijing!
wa se. such scenery.

some parts really crowded.
...like the subway at rush hour.

cable car to nowhere
spooky, no?

local wildlife
the elusive Fragrant Moutain bear, indigenous to the region.

trailblazing!
kind of.

this one reminds me of a song that goes:
i sailed a wide wide sea
climbed up a tall tall mountain
i met an old old man beneath a weeping willow tree
he said now if you got some questions, go and lay them at my feet
but my time here is brief, so you'll have to pick just three
so i said
what do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
and how can i man like me remain in the light?
and if life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?
and then the sun went down and he sang for me this song:

back in the city
and by the time i got home, they had knocked over the building across the street.