Advertisement
Published: September 14th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Because the whole group (consisting of all the international students) wanted to make a trip to Changbai Shan, and because the place is not easily accessible without transport, the Chinese students proposed to go on a trip organized by a tour organization. In the end, unfortunately none of our Chinese classmates could join us on the trip. Especially I was a bit sceptic towards the whole Chinese way of going on tours, but because it is the only option to visit Changbai Shan and because everyone was joining I decided to participate. Of course, it is also part of the Chinese experience to go on a real
Chinese tour...
The nine of us went by taxi to the train station of Harbin, which was crowded as always. The woman from the travel agency, recognizable due to her
flag - how else? - took us, including a lot of waiting in the waiting lounge, to the entrance of the train, which was - of course - unnecessary. At 19:30 exactly at the departure time, the train left Harbin. We all had a lower berth in the same carriage and with some drinks and snacks, with the nice Chinese co-passengers,
we had a great two hours. At 21:30, the lights were turned off and we were asked to be quiet. So before 22:00 everyone was in their beds and at least I almost slept immediately.
We arrived Saturday at 5:45 in
Antu, where another tour guide (non-English speaking) and a small bus was waiting for us. There we met a Chinese family who would join us the whole trip. After about half an hour of driving, we made a stop to get some breakfast. Because breakfast was not included in the trip, we were told, we already had brought our own. In the end we took a little bit of the food they served there, but there was nobody who we could pay, so it was free anyway.
We all used the rest of the bus ride to get some more sleep. We arrived at 9:00 at
Changbai Shan and we had lunch (we know now, because it was more breakfast time in our view) in an old, deserted restaurant. When we finished, we entered the mountain area. First, an environmental friendly bus took us to the point where we had to transfer to a
4WD, which took
us to the top of the mountain. Normally, I would have chosen to walk up, but because of the time limit due to the tour that was not an option this time. The driver of the car acted crazy. The steep road full of hairpin bands was taken as it was a racing circuit. He didn’t change gears, stepped on the gas the whole time, and we could hear the tires beeping at every turn... so much for safety and fun, in my opinion.
When we arrived at the top, glad to still be in one piece, it was as if I was back in Iceland again during winter. The only think we could see was
fog. Because the temperature is very low on the top of Changbai Shan, there was no vegetation what so ever, and there were piece of icy snow around us. It has the feeling of the moon-like feeling. After a short climb we reached the spot where the lake can be seen when there are no clouds or fog etc. We couldn’t see a thing and especially when it started hailing, it became very very cold. Luckily, I am in China and you never
have to worry about bad weather... For the small amount of 30 yuan (3 euro), they make a picture of you with the great view with their supersonic camera that sees through the fog!
Freezing and a bit disappointed, we made the way down in the 4WD. There the tour guide picked us up again and showed us some other highlights on Changbai Shan. The first was the hot springs, although the only thing we could really see was the steam coming of the ground, the second was a waterfall, which we could not see because of the fog when we approached it, and two small lakes of which one was quite nice. What we've seen overall was beautiful, but the fog made it less overwhelming (probably an understatement) than it would have been without the fog. Because of the bad weather, also the spirit, which is normally very good in the group, was not that cheerful as normal.
Back at the base of the mountain, we had dinner (around 16:00) and it turned out that the hotel was also there (instead of a in a village). The rooms were nice, but the only downside was that there
was nothing to do there. No reception with drinks and the shops in the street all closed around 17:00. So with some guitar music played by Bart and two
decks of cards we made ourselves comfortable in one of the hotel rooms.
The next morning, the weather had changed completely, the sun was shining on an almost
clear blue sky! After we had a bad Chinese breakfast we started our bus ride. The first stop was at some special trees (so why did we go out of the bus?). The next stop was at a place where we could do some
rafting. Because I had the feeling this could become the most exciting part of the whole trip, I was happy to pay some extra money to do so. The water was quite slow, but with the guys trying to get everybody as wet as possible, it was really water ballet! (And indeed it became the best part of the trip).
The following stops we made were actually too boring to tell about. We did not want to leave the bus every time, but because the sun was shining it was not too bad after all. We arrived
Heavy mist and strong wind...
Couldn't they tell us before we went up? in
Yanji around 16:30, leaving us in the city for 3 ½ hours. We walked around, found the river and saw the beautiful view of the river, the mountains and the sun combined. There was actually nothing special about the town. It is the capital of the
Korean Autonomous Prefecture, but except for some Korean signs, there is not much different to it.
We found ourselves a restaurant, which turned out to be some kind of individual hotpot. Compared to the food that was included on the trip (which wasn’t that bad in my view), this was very good. At 20:50 the train for Harbin left and we arrived 11 hours later in the hustle and bustle of Harbin! Looking back at the trip, I can say it has been a bit disappointing due to not seeing a lot on Changbai Shan, but the weekend was relaxed and I really liked the views from the bus during the travelling and the rafting!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 59; dbt: 0.1159s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb