QingCheng Mountain!

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So last weekend we were going to visit Tibet, but unfortunately plans fell through and it would have been extremely expensive. We did some research and found a famous mountain only an hour and a half away by train, so we decided to go for some hiking. When we got to the city it was absolutely pouring and none of us knew how to say "hostel", so we wandered around in the rain until we stumbled on a hotel. There were four of us and we somehow managed to get a room for 400 RMB, which is equivalent to about $16 per person to stay in a very very nice hotel for one night with breakfast included! The hotel staff asked for us to help translate a sign they had, which currently said "QingCheng The Hotel Big Celebration Opening" for the English part...

We have seen a lot of mistranslations which is so entertaining and makes us feel less insecure about our sloppy Chinese. One short had a coffee mug on it, with the caption "Bath Room"...

The mountain had many signs promoting "No Burning" (no smoking cigarettes). Hiking was very fun, once again we had many photos taken of or with us but we are getting used to that. However, when I say hiking in this instance I do not mean dirt paths. The mountain's trails were all old, manmade stone staircases, that ranged from being extremely steep to narrow, to flat.... We only tripped a few times!

We found an ugly frog on the side of the mountain, convinced a few people we did not speak english so they would be forced to speak Chinese with us, and saw a million Taoist temples and wondered how they managed to get all of the beautiful statues to the top of the mountain.

There are actually a lot of bats in China too. You see them especially at night around areas with trees, but suprisingly more than I have ever seen in America.

On a side note, I also learned how to cook potatoes today, and I saw a giant roach in a store (you get the good with the bad).

We will be climbing another mountain Friday and Saturday, and being as its massive we are hoping to be able to make it to the top! And i do not know if I mentioned our new pet turtle?

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