Wuyishan

When I first started thinking about what I wanted to see in China, aside from the obvious tourist sites, I really wanted to visit some mountainous countryside that was far removed from the big cities. I found this in Wuyishan.

Wuyishan has a polulation of less than 30,000 and is essentially a town at the entrance to a national park. In the days that we spent at Wuyishan, we never saw another westerner and had significant challenges in communicating with people, as there was very little English spoken in this region. In fact, Marty and I felt like some sort of bizarre circus attraction, as people would simply stare at us with their jaw gaping open. Younger folk tended to scream excitedly to their friends and point at us, on a few occasions even asking for photos with Marty. It was rather strange to be viewed in such a way, but we still had a wonderful time in this beautiful region.

The town is flanked by mountain ranges and we made it our main objective to enter the national park and ascend some of the peaks. We stocked up with unfamiliar food supplies and eventually made our way to the base of Heavenly Tour Peak, one of the many striking peaks that dots the horizon. As we began the climb, we soon realised that this was one tourist activity that would not be possible back home in Australia, as the inherent danger of the climb was exacerbated by the occasional rope railings where the fixed railings must have fallen away, leaving only a flimsy cord between yourself and the ground a sheer couple hundred metres below. Marty has a fear of heights, so for her to finally reach the summit was a tremendous achievement and one that required a supreme effort of will. Once we reached the peak, the views of the park were spectacular. Far below was the turquoise 'Nine Twists River' that wound its way through the landscape, with the various mountains rising up to intersect with a brilliant blue sky. From our vantage point, we were able to make out a number of precarious paths zigzagging their way up some of the cliff faces of nearby peaks. We thought that you would have to be mad to attempt such a feat. We decided to stop for lunch and take in the magnificent view. We ate in the front courtyard of an ancient Taoist temple - how they ever managed to scale the mountain with the necessary building materials, I'll never know.

During our ascent, Marty and I had noticed a tiny structure atop a nearyby peak, appearing to sit precariously on the narrow tip of the rock, with striking sheer cliffs on three sides. Once we made our way back down to the starting point of our initial climb (during which we had noticed a few paths of steps carved out upon a ridge of the rock leading to unknown places, with no railings!) I mentioned to Marty that I'd like to venture up to the tiny structure we had spied earlier. She thought I was joking at first, but once she realised I was serious, she said she would wait for me at the bottom. She had done quite enough of scaring herself out of her wits for one day! This particular climb was not as well maintained as our earlier one and I never once saw another tourist on the path. Ignoring the first rule of hiking and going alone was not a sensible idea, especially considering the condition of the path. At times it was so steep that ladders had been installed, albeit some time ago, as one in particular was trying its best to come away from the cliff. At one point I was edging my way around a rock, with a drop to one side that was beyond surviving if I fell. The path was so narrow here that I had to stand facing the rock. Needless to say, my heart-rate was well and truly elevated and it occured to me that it was for instances like this that mothers are fearful about having sons. I eventually made my way to the aforementioned structure, discovering that it was a tiny lunch spot! There were tree stumps for a table and two chairs. Sitting here on a windy day would be unimaginable. During my adventures I discovered ancient engravings of Chinese characters and some type of small stone building. Being amongst these old paths and structures by myself was an amazing experience, and when combined with the route taken to get there I felt an exhiliration that made me tingle all over. It was definitely a highlight of my trip thus far.

To reward ourselves for our efforts, we caught a shuttle bus to the departure wharf for the bamboo rafts which take you down the 'Nine Twists River' for a couple of hours. This was a very relaxing way to enjoy the scenery, with two men using bamboo shafts to direct our raft through all the bends and occasional tiny rapids. The water clarity was incredible, as we were able to make out every rock below the surface (the entire river bed consisted of small rocks). We knew it must have been deep when we couldn't see the bottom (up to 28m at some points). The most incredible aspect of the journey was seeing the remains of hanging coffins fifty metres up the sheer face of the rock, completely inaccessable. The most amazing thing about these coffin remains is that they are 3000 years old! The practise of placing coffins in the cavity or cave of a cliff face facing a river or the ocean was once very common all throughout South East Asia, right down to the Philipines and Indonesia. What is interesting (for me, at least) is that the hanging coffins at Wuyishan are the oldest in the world, meaning that this is where this particular burial ritual began, sometime around the neolithic age or the beginning of the bronze age.

The final bit of useless historical information that I will write (sorry if this is boring you - for some reason I am fascinated by history) is that one of the enormous rock formations that juts out of the land at Wuyishan is the origin of the Chinese character for the word 'mountain' (Wuyishan actually translates to Wuyi Mountain). All of the Chinese tourists we saw were very keen to get their photo taken with this particular mountain/rock formation in the background. Anyway, enough of me boring you with my interest in all things historical.

During our time in Wuyishan we had a couple of meals at a restaurant where we came to know one of the members of the family who owned it quite well, a young woman named Shui Yang (she told us that her English name was Juliana). She explained to us that many of the citizens of Wuyishan used to live in the mountains until ten years ago when the government moved them out to form the national park for tourism. Marty and I felt really sad for these families, but at the same time I was also glad that at least one part of China will remain undeveloped and remain natural and vegetated. The family who ran this restaurant were one of the families who had to move. They were very friendly and when Marty asked Shui Yang if she ever hoped to travel outside of China once she finished her teaching qualification (which explained her excellent English), she said that one day she hoped "to see the tall buildings" in Shanghai and Beijing. This was a stark reminder to me how fortunate Marty and I are in our lives, as Shanghai is only a ten hour train trip from Wuyishan, yet for her entire family it may as well be on the other side of the world.

Our next destination is Hangzhou, which is a city that many local Chinese people have told us is very beautiful and worth visiting. The only train tickets we could get were 'standing' and it's an eight hour trip, so it won't be anything like the luxury of our sleeper train from Xiamen to Wuyishan. Should be interesting...

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