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Published: October 10th 2012
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Although kissing a panda bear is hard to beat, we did do other amazing things in Chengdu.
Day 3 of our trip started off on a great start. And by great start, I mean horrible start. The goal was to climb a mountain, but in order to climb a mountain, you have to first get to the base of the mountain. The day before, we had tried to buy a train ticket to a mountain we wanted to hike two times, but unfortunately we were too late. The receptionist at our hostel told us that we could just go to the bus station at 6 AM Sunday morning and get the first bus out to the mountain. So, at 6 AM we were at the bus station, attempting to buy train tickets to a mountain that we weren't sure of its exact location using my minimal Chinese. After a while, we finally figured out that the receptionist was wrong and the bus didn't leave until 8:20. Not a huge problem--we ended up meeting a Chinese college student whose English was about as good as our Chinese and we passed the time trying to figure out what we were all saying.
Stopping to Pray
Many people stopped in numerous places along the way to pray. At one point, he says, "I want to teach you a swear word in Chinese. If you really want to offend someone, like if they are really stupid or do something really dumb or you just hate them, you can call them 'ri ben ren'". For those of you that don't read pinyin, that translates to "Japanese person". I was caught off guard because something like that would never fly in the states, but every Chinese person we've met thus far has gone off on rants about Japanese people. But if you actually listen to what they are ranting about, they have no idea what they're talking about--they are just all taught at a young age to hate the Japanese.
At 8:00, we decided to try and find our bus. I asked three different people which one was our bus, and they all pointed to the last bus in the terminal. The bus ride had assigned seats. Thea and I got on the bus to find that two Chinese women were sitting in our seats. At about 8:17, we realized we were on the wrong bus! With three minutes until our bus departed, we ran through the terminal and
Snack Anyone?
Just a few of the delicious-looking snacks many shops offered on the way up the mountain. eventually found the right bus. Whew.
Halfway through the bus ride, the bus driver yelled out that whoever was hiking the mountain had to get off the bus to change buses. So we get off in rural China and I'm trying to figure out what bus we need to get on next when all the Chinese people realize my Chinese is not up to par. I'm not sure whether they were trying to be helpful or just wanted to see Thea and Rob up close since they are both 100% white, but they all came up to me and started yelling in Chinese on top of each other trying to talk to me, which obviously helped no one.
Eventually we got on the right bus, and started driving up the mountain. For those of you Californians, it was like Highway 17 on steroids, and the bus driver was going a million miles an hour. We almost got into a car accident, and right after the driver's cell phone rang and started playing "If I Die Young", at which point I think Thea had a small heart attack.
By noon, we were finally at the mountain and could
Idols Everywhere
Each place in the wall held a different Daoism idol. begin our hike. It was beautiful. It was like hiking in Hawaii--or what I imagine what a hike in Hawaii would be like since I usually spend all my time in Hawaii swimming and golfing. Waterfalls followed us up the mountain, with pools of crystal clear water on either side of the path. I definitely liked it better than our Huangshan hike a couple of weeks ago. Qing Cheng Shan is the place where Daoism was founded, so all along the hike we saw temples and small towns and remains of statues. At the top of the mountain was a giant buddha, as well as some monks and other statues. And of course, it wouldn't be China without a million tourists also at the top.
I think my biggest shock in hiking in China is the difference in who does the hikes. In America, the people who hike do it because they love it and they love the outdoors. In China, people hike because they want to show off that they've been there. Women hike in their high heels, with their boyfriends holding their purses and dragging them up the mountain since they aren't wearing the proper shoes. They
have no respect for nature, and throw their empty plastic water bottles, cand wrappers, and other garbage on the trail as they hike up. I was shocked.
We ended the day with
Finding Nemo, a true classic. I'm not sure any of us made it through the whole movie though as we were all exhausted from the hike.
We had a brilliant plan for Day 4. For the equivalent of 5 USD, you can get an hour long massage from these blind women. Some of the people in the hostel said it was a great massage, so our plan was to go. However, Monday was the major national holiday so everywhere was closed. We ended up just sleeping in and having a movie marathon instead, and packed up for our flight to Beijing the next day.
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Auntie Mamie
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So Why Did They Think YOU Could Speak Chinese??
Wasn't it fun having people talk to you, expecting you could understand every word? I had that happen to me in Japan back in 1972, when Gen's high school buddy Marion and I would walk around Tokyo. Marion, white girl, spoke really good Japanese because she had been living there for a couple of years, and I spoke only what I learned in Japanese 1A in summer school at UC Berkeley, were wandering around, getting lost in the Ginza. So, Marion would ask for directions, and then the Japanese people would proceed to answer to me, who couldn't catch one word. So, I know how that feels. The reason why most Chinese, including those who immigrated from China after WWII, like my parents, hated the Japanese was because of the WWII atrocities committed by the Japanese to everyone they invaded, and they invaded the eastern coastal areas of China. The Japanese soldiers were probably as bad as the Nazi's when it comes to atrocities.