a 3 day retreat in beautiful Moganshan

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Part 1 of our Moganshan Mountain Adventure
I have been eager to visit Moganshan, about 3 hours southwest of Shanghai, since I first read about it. I've also heard stories from other friends who have visited the area at all times of the year and came back with rave reviews. Moganshan used to be the summer retreat for foreigners and missionaries in Shanghai. We have been making our way through our "must do" list and after this trip, we have a "must do again" list. It was just fantastic. I think we all agree that it was one of our best family trips thus far in China (and maybe ever).

We left on Saturday morning, after collecting Nathan at a friend's house where he had spent the night. We headed to the train station and were lucky to be ahead of schedule since our taxi driver was heading to the wrong train station. Mark caught the error and we were quickly back on course to the correct train station.

We had four seats together (remember I booked these tickets ALL by myself) and it was a quick and easy 1 1/2 hour ride on the fast train to Hangzhou. Emily made friends with some girls sitting behind us and they played games and sang songs together. From Hangzhou, we had a car waiting for us to take us to the mountain. I should pause and say we had booked our trip with the help of a recommended travel helper named Dan. Dan lives in Moganshan and was a huge part of why our stay was so enjoyable. He helped with our lodging, our transportation between the Hangzhou train station and Moganshan, and was a fantastic resource the entire time we were in Moganshan.

Thanks to Dan, the driver was waiting for us with a sign as we came out into the public area of the train station and fortunately he had a little van (and I mean little) which could hold us and all of our too-much-luggage. We are just not good with traveling light. Especially by train. Oh well.

After a sometimes bumpy hour and a half ride up a winding mountain we arrive at the section of the mountain with hotels and a market. We were on a main road and the driver stopped on the side of the road and indicated we should get out. I was a little confused since I didn't know if our hotel was right there, or what? Thankfully, and true to what Dan had described, our Villa was located many stairs down from the main road, amidst a grove of bamboo trees with the sounds of waterfalls in the distance. A far cry from the honks, noise and often bad air of Shanghai. We started getting more excited.

Our bags all made their way down to the villa with help from the driver, the villa ayi and of course, us. We were shown to our room and we were thrilled. The villa was a house converted into a series of guest rooms. We had a second floor suite with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a balcony with a gorgeous view of all that nature. It was not fancy, but it was very clean and much bigger and nicer than we had expected. Of course, the beds were Chinese hard and using the shower resulted in a lot of water on the entire floor, but we were roughing it. We didn't care (and we limited our showering).

We quickly set out with the kids binoculars and our cameras and explored for a bit before it got dark and we made our way to the Lodge. While exploring, we met the daughter of one of the ayis at the villa. She told us she was 15 but I think she was trying to fool us. She looked about 12. Super cute, super friendly and we hung out and explored with her several times over the weekend. She was visiting her mom and lived in another town. She sweetly helped us with our Chinese and spoke beautiful English some of the time.

We ended our first hike of the trip and went up to find the Lodge. We were told to go up to the main road on a path between our villa and the Lodge and it would be right there. Well, as it turns out, it was right there but we walked around aimlessly, stumbled on a small market, I tried a dried fruit that was placed aggressively in my hand by a vendor, and then we ended up back where we started on the main road. Nathan had said he thought we should go "that way" and sure enough, he was right. We climbed some more stairs and found the famous Moganshan Lodge. Everyone who goes to Moganshan knows of and has likely been to the Lodge. It's an institution. The owners used to live in Shanghai.

Now this part is wild. We said hi to Dan, who had helped arrange our trip and who had told me to email Emily at the Lodge if we wanted to eat dinners there during our trip. So I had emailed with Emily a few times and she seemed quite friendly and nice. I actually thought she sounded American based on our banter via email. So we are sitting there drinking our first of many Moganshan locally brewed beers, and Emily comes over. Turns out, we know Emily and Emily knows us! She was Nathan's Lego Engineering teacher in Shanghai. Really. We all thought it was amazing, we were all in a bit of shock, but we got over it and just marveled at the smallness of the world and how connected we all are to everyone.

Emily is the manager at the Lodge so we saw her a lot. She organized our dinners, which we made reservations for in advance. They serve everyone the same meal, and the first person to reserve picks the menu. We had a pre-selected menu for our Saturday meal (potato leek soup and roast chicken followed by chocolate mousse). Then on Sunday, we got to pick the menu and we chose beef bourguignon. The food was great. The kids had pasta both nights.

The next day we had a huge breakfast at our villa followed by very long and exciting day of hiking. Part 2 to follow shortly.

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Photos

boys reading old English language mags
this was a copy of New Yorker circa 2005 before they had the cartoon contest. Imagine! A relic.

Monopoly mania
Mark is soooo competitive

me on a bridge
yes, my latest purse find turns into a pouch around waist deal. Goofy but practical.

Comments

[Linda]

wow
Sounds and looks like paradise and a fun place to be. Being taken care of by friendly people in a beautiful place...plus great company...my kind of place!