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cable car ride over the Bamboo Sea
not recommended if you have vertigo! The 1st of May signalled the beginning of the 'Golden Holiday' here in China, which meant that us teachers get until the 7th of May to relax and forget about our lovely little terrors that we teach every week.
Funds not allowing me to take off to Beijing or similar, I decided to stick around in Sichuan Province and take a trip to Yibin, which is a port city approximately half the size of Chengdu, set in the mountains and which also has the famous river Yangzi running through it. Yibin is the home of 'bai jiu' ('buy joe'), the notorious 'fire water', an alcoholic drink that one usually drinks straight, down in one. I've never tried it as I haven't touched alcohol for a few years now, but if the smell's anything to go by it's pretty lethal...
To get to Yibin from Chengdu I had to get the bus from the local bus station. You have to go to the side ticket office (which is smaller than the main one) and just say 'Yibin' to the people there. A single costs 88 yuan (about 5 pounds) and the bus journey takes 4 hours. I was actually
on the bus stationary for over an hour but I figured perhaps the bus wouldn't leave until it was absolutely full! The journey itself was fine, beautful scenery, as less than 30 minutes out of the extremely flat city that is Chengdu, you're in the company of mountains and hills, rice fields and orange trees as well as the occasional billboard saying how wonderful this province is (!).
I had a couple of friends who were staying in Yibin over the holiday as one of them, Rose, is from Yibin, so luckily I had some help getting to my hotel and anywhere else I needed to go in the few days I was there. In Chengdu you get stared at every day and called 'laowai' ('foreigner') everywhere you go but in Yibin it reaches another level, as it's not a town many laowai visit I imagine, not at this time anyway, so I was the talk of the town when I arrived at the bus station! Anyhow I was picked up and taken to Rose's house where we had some food and looked out at the view of Yibin. It was nice to be surrounded by mountains and blue
me
boating on the lake with some newly-made Chinese 'pengyou' (friends) sky as opposed to the cloudiness of Chengdu. That night I wandered around the town, had a full body massage (60 yuan, about 3 pounds 50p) and went back to my hotel.
The next day I had to be up at 7am to take a trip to the Bamboo Sea, which is around 50km southeast of Yibin, consisting of more than 40sq kilometres of mountain slopes covered by bamboo. Rose's family booked the trip for me, as with so many places here, no-one spoke English including the guide on the bus which was fine but it can get a little confusing! With a tour (even though I barely understood anything) it cost me 168 yuan (about a tenner). Anyway I was directed onto the bus with barely-disgused mutterings of 'laowai' when I hopped on, and we set off on the hour bus ride to the Bamboo Sea.
An hour later, we entered the Bamboo Sea and were ushered to the queue for the cable car. I have been in several cable cars in my life, but this one had to be the smallest! It said there was room for 2 people, but I'd say that's 2 CHINESE people
(i.e smaller than everyone else in the world) as it would have been pretty tight with me + another person. Luckily it was only me! The cable car didn't pause or slow down when you had to hop in so it was more like a scramble in before you took off, but I made it and ascended to the top of the Bamboo Sea. The views were amazing, everywhere the eye could see was covered in bamboo, just a sea of green. Those of you who are afraid of heights, don't go for the cable car option, it was the highest I've been in one!
After disembarking from the cable car our group wandered down to what they call the 'Jade Garden' which is basically a long walkway surrounded by bamboo trees curved into a natural archway. Then we began the hardest part of our walk/trek! We meandered up and down steps until we were walking around a cliff face, 875 metres above sea level, with fantastic views of the rice paddies below. It was so funny seeing everyone posing for pictures. I swear, if the camera hadn't been invented, Chinese people would be lost. At every opportunity, even
in front of a boring museum piece, or a rubbish bin, they pose, with their 'peace' signs and a smile. My Chinese friend said that they don't believe a photo is a photo without themselves in, otherwise what's the point? So they were very helpful in offering to take pictures of me, for me. The climb to the cliff face was pretty tiring especially as it was very warm up there and the sun was beating down on us. However the sights were well worth it and it was great to have a glimpse of what some people would call 'the real China' instead of the reality of oceans of concrete, pollution and trillions of bicycles that I live with in Chengdu.
We stopped off at a couple of other places before ending our trip at 5pm, including a waterfall and a museum (cue more mindless photo opps). It was a relief to get back on the bus and enjoy the air conditioning! I met a girl in the group who spoke a little English and with me knowing a little Chinese (and pulling any Chinese words I knew out of the bag!) we got along fine and she
was lovely, her and her family adopting me for the trip and taking me boating on the lake. It's surprising how much of the language one can speak if you have no option but to speak it! I was quite impressed with myself, though I am still rubbish at Chinese!
Overall, the Bamboo Sea was well worth visiting, but you need your trainers, several bottles of water and a large dose of stamina before you attempt it! For tea (dinner for you southerners, I say 'tea'!) I met my friends in Yibin at this barbecue place in the mountains which was fantastic. You hire a room out and they kill an entire sheep for you, cook it and put the pieces in a big plate in the middle of the table (on the Lazy Susan of course), you put on a plastic glove and dig in! It was fresh and tender and yummy, just what I needed after my exhausting day! I could never be a vegetarian...
The next day I took it easy (well, easier) and slept in late before my friends took me to a mountain in the city. Again, I took the cable car and
decided to walk back down. It was another sunny day but the shelter of the trees and various temples shaded me from the heat which was good as I caught the sun the day before. The walk down was punctuated by various temples, Buddhas, gardens and ponds, as well as offering good views of the city below. It was quite a relaxing (if steep!) walk down and I knew it was my last dose of the mountains for a while so I enjoyed it.
Unfortunately the rest of my trip was tainted by the fact that I suffered from food poisoning for 24 hours (dodgy burger!) which wasn't the best experience during my 4 hour bus ride home, but I made it. I've lost count of the number of times I've had food poisoning here, I barely eat in as it's cheaper to eat out but I guess I just get unlucky! All in all though, I enjoyed my trip and Yibin was well worth a visit.
And as a footnote, after deliberating for a few weeks, I've decided to accept a job offer teaching EFL in Dhaka, Bangladesh, so I'll be blogging from there permanently from this
me
at the Bamboo Sea August onwards!
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