Debrief: Qiandao Hu

The original plan for today was to hike two peaks and then go rafting. Rafting was immediately canceled because the river was running too high from all the rain we’ve been getting (I suppose I haven’t mentioned that but it has rained almost every day since I got back from Huangshan.) The second hike also got canceled, but the only explaination I could really get as to why was because it was boring.

The hike we wound up doing was fun. The English translation of the name was “Oxygen Bar.” All along the trail—which was made up of stone steps—there were signs in Chinese and English promoting the health benefits of hiking and spending time in nature. It was a really pretty area too. The trail wasn’t as steep as Huangshan, although there were a few wooden latters we climbed up. We pretty much followed a waterfall the entire way up, occasionally crisscrossing the river on rope bridges (which are awesome!)

At one flat area there was a rope swing.

“I think it is too wet to do it,” Jin Yi said.

“You can swing without sitting down,” I said. Handing her my umbrella and camera, I walked over and stood in front of the swing. I reached up high over my head and grabbed the roped with either hands. Pulling myself up, I started thrusting my weight back and forth.

“I used to have a swing in my backyard,” I said as it pumped back and forth. Pretty soon, I was going pretty high…much higher than I ever did in my backyard. I was laughing too….it was a blast. Unfortunately, not many of the pictures Jin Yi took turned out, so I guess you had to be there.

The view from the top wasn’t really much, but the way down was exciting. For 30RMB, we could sled down on an astroturf hill. Akeena, Ericka, Jin Yi, and I decided to go for it. Akeena went first, climbing in the plastic sled and heading down. It didn’t look that exciting, but Ericka went next. When it was my turn, I climbed into plastic sled and the guy behind me gave me a push.

At first, it was fun. Nothing really special, just a slow slide do the mountain. But then it started to pick up speed…and then it got steeper and picked up more speed…my stomach dropped like I was on roller coaster and if I wanted to scream, I couldn’t catch my breath to do so. It was a way more exciting ride than it had looked from the top.

At the bottom it leveled out so you could coast to a stop. I hoped up to make room for Jin Yi to come down. When she did, I said, “You look so serious.”

She laughed. “I was a little scared.”

“Truth be told,” I said. “I was too.”

We got back on the bus and went to another restaurant. This one was outside and did table service. None of the food is really that memorable. Mostly a lot of tofu, which I’ve decided I am not a big fan of. There were also a lot of bugs, but this time I brought bug spray.

On the bus ride back to Shanghai I mostly slept. I did take some time to journal and jot down a few of my thoughts from the weekend.

·       In Europe, I had this constant debate in my head of “am I homesick or not?” In China, I feel like I’m having this constant debate of “Do I want to be alone or not?” There are definitely pros and cons to traveling alone vs. traveling with a group. I definitely like being able to go at my own pace, see as much as I can when I want to, and spend some time observing the local culture. At the same time, it is fun to have people to laugh with.

·       As of yesterday, my trip is half over. I’ve said it before but it seriously feels like years since I arrived. I think back to when my parents dropped me at security and it honestly feels like a blurred childhood memory. At the same time, it has gone so fast. I only have 8 days left at my internship and I truly don’t want it to end.

·       I think I will definitely come back to China someday. There is so much more I want to see. I’ve gotten the same question a lot of “Do you like Europe or China better?” I think the best way to describe it is the Europe is enchanting; China is interesting. Both are fascinating and fun, but in totally different ways. They are so unique it is really hard to compare them (especially since Europe is a continent and not a country.) Both are definitely worth seeing and both should be on your bucket list.

When we got back to the hotel, I skyped my friend Jacob to hear about his internship in Switzerland. I’m going to Skype my parents later this week, but for now…I’m going to keep planning more adventures! In just 13 days, I set out on my 19 day adventure around China. It’s time to get serious and plan an awesome three week journey!

Clubbing in China

At 4:30, we met back in the lobby to go to dinner. As we drove along, we couldn’t help but realize we were driving out of town. Eventually, we turned on a dirt road and parked in a gravel paved parking lot with a really sketchy looking building off in the distance.

“It looks like a nuclear waste facility,” I said.

“No,” Emma said. “Is a beer factory. That is where we have dinner.”

We walked across the parking lot to a tent outside the “beer factory.” Loud music was playing and when we pulled back the side of the tent we realize…it was a club sponsored by the beer factory.

I read a lot about how traditional clubbing culture in China differs from Europe and America. In Europe and America, the primary set up of a club involves a bar, a lounge area to sit, and the main attraction is the dance floor. Generally the dress code is fairly formal—pants and a button up for guys, cocktail dresses for girls—and the dancing is certainly the primary focus of the evening.

Chinese club culture is a bit different. Generally the dance code is incredibly formal—suits for guys and skirts and jackets for girls—although you can get in wearing anything. The room is set up with tables, with a small stage in one corner to serve as the dance floor. The primary event of clubbing is actually eating in China, with the stage being used sporadically for groups to go up and dance or sing.

Clubbing in China is certainly a more formal event, but that’s not to say it is any less of a party! The bass was so loud you could felt like you were physically shaking. I have never been experienced that kind of vibration before. The treble was also a little bit off and the music sounded a bit pitchy.

When we very first walked in, a man with a camera grabbed my shoulder and asked if he could take a picture with me. I smiled and nodded and we posed for a selfie. He then asked if I would take one with his friends. I agreed and he pulled me over to a table where one of his friends pulled out a chair for me.

“Where you are from?” one of them asked me.

“America,” I said. He looked confused so I said it in Chinese. “Meiguo.”

They all understood. One guy pointed to the USA World Cup jersey he was wearing and came over so that I could touch it. Soon they started putting food on a plate in front of me and brought me a mug of beer. I started wondering if we were actually taking a photo or if I had been kidnapped.

Eventually the camera guy came back and snapped the photo. I thanked them and stood up to go find my group.

There was a lot of food on the table. I can’t even remember all of the things we ate tonight. Some of it was great, and some of it was not. There were these chips that tasted like movie theater popcorn butter. There were some slimey noodles made from rice that had a really spicy seasoning on them. Roasted peanuts were served as one entrée (and you have no idea what hand-eye coordination means until you’ve eaten peanuts with chopsticks.) The best dish however was a white fish. Even though it had a zillion bones in each bite, the flavor was amazing! I don’t know what it was, but it definitely ranks in the top 10 of foods I’ve eaten in China.

And I have to admit. The beer was not that bad. In fairness, it was super lite and could probably pass as soda in some parts of the world. I drank a glass of it (the first beer I’ve ever finished) but then switched to Coke which was way more refreshing.

Clubbing in China is also an activity for all ages. Two women who were probably who were probably in their 50’s or so started dancing in one of the aisles. A small crowd started forming with people cheering them on. Alex went over to join them, and being a foreigner, he created quite a scene.



But the entire time we were there, we were creating a scene. Even while we were eating a small mob formed around our table. I would be mid-bite when someone would grab my head and turn it to I was facing their camera to take a selfie. Everyone wanted to “cheer’s” their beers with us and Alex was challenged to more than one chugging contest.

People also went up on the dance floor to dance and sing. One woman had a very high falsetto, but her control over her range sounded like a Chinese version of Kristen Chenoweth (the Broadway actress from Wicked.)  Other people were more or less talented, but the dancing was what was really entertaining to watch.

“Do you know what kind of riot we would create if we all went up there?” I said.

“Oh we have to do it!” British Charlotte said.

“Your idea,” Ericka said. “You lead.”

So…I did. Dancing has never really been my thing, but the energy of this room was just contagious. Leading the parade of foreigners, five or six of us went up on stage and started dancing. Sure enough, there was screaming and cheering and people flocking to get up on stage with us. As the bright lights and flashing neon signs whirled all around us, we got pulled in various directions and various photos. Somebody offered a guitar to me and asked if I knew how to play. I told them I didn’t but he continued asking the others in my group to see if any of them wanted to lead a song.

After a bit I went back to take a seat at the table and watch the spectacle. People continued to come up to us and ask us to be in their photos. It was literally like having a paparazzi follow us through the room.

“You are very cool,” one guy told me as his buddy took a shot of us. “I want to be like you someday.”

We left about 8:30 to head back to the hotel. We each came up with various words to describe the evening. Our list consisted of fun, creepy, flattering, entertaining, intrusive, funny, and so on. I have to say all of it was accurate. It was a lot of fun, and it does make you feel like a movie star…but there is something so weird about it too.

We stopped at KFC on the way back to the hotel. I got an Oreo sundae that tasted amazing! Back at the hotel, we all piled into one room to watch 21 Jumpstreet. We all stayed awake for the whole thing, but by the end, we were all a little catatonic. Wandering off to our respective rooms, we bid each other good night and headed to bed.

A Three Island Tour

Oddly enough, we actually had breakfast at another hotel’s buffet. Meeting at the lobby at 8:20, we walked across the street to get food. I’m not 100% sure that the breakfast we ate wasn’t the leftovers from the buffet dinner the night before. None of the trays were full, and none of them were warm either. Initially I took a few boatz rolls, but the vegetables inside were nasty. The fried noodles wound up being the safest bet, but they were also cold—but oddly filling.

We took our bus to catch a ferry around the islands. It was raining really, really hard and difficult to see out the windows of the bus. When we got to the pier, our guide went to get tickets for the boat. I’m not exactly sure when she showed up. Everyone swore she was on the bus with us last night, and Sabrina’s emails had said that Emma would join us along with a private guide, but I don’t remember seeing her.

We needed our passports to get on the boat. Once on the lower deck was free, but the upper deck cost 30RMB per person for a private room. We went up to look at the rooms and found one that was large and spacious with big comfy couches and a panoramic window looking out. We decided it we liked it and Emma negotiated a lower rate for us (20RMB/person…about $2.50USD.)

As the boat pulled away from the dock, the rain subsided enough for us to go out and take pictures on the deck. We worked our way around the sides taking in the scenery before ending up on the bow of the boat.

“I want to go ask the captain to take a photo with me,” Alex said.

“Just say, ‘Keyi hezhao ma?’” I said.

Emma looked at me with surprise. “How do you know to say this?”

“I’ve been taking pronunciation lessons at work,” I said. “They’ve taught me a few phrases.”

“Oh,” she said.

“Was it not right?” I asked. “Were my tones wrong? I have trouble with the second tone.”

“No, is right,” she said. “I think you have the best pronunciation of any intern I’ve worked with.”

I smiled. I still don’t feel like I know much vocabulary, but it’s nice to know that I’m saying I can say correctly.

The islands didn’t exactly look like a paradise with the rain, but the mist was kind of cool. As the peaks jumped out of the water and rose up to the clouds, it kind of looked like we were approaching Neverland or some mystical island. Maybe I would have been more impressed if I hadn’t seen the mist covered peaks of Huangshan the week before. Honestly, Huangshan was cooler and prettier than this.

Some of the islands had narrow little rivers that ran through jungle-like forest. The water was practically turquois and these views were pretty cool. That is until the rain picked up again and we rushed back to our private room to dry off.

During the course of our tour, we stopped on three islands. The first was nothing special. Once again—just like Huangshan—there was a trail up through the jungle that was made of stone steps. It wasn’t nearly as steep as Huangshan nor was the scenery as pretty. There were some cherry blossoms with red ribbons tied to them. Jin Yi explained that the ribbons are wishes that people tie to the tree. That was cool, but the fake cherry blossoms kind of ruined the effect.

The view from the top was nice, and I’m sure if the sun had been out and we’d had a blue sky it would have been awesome. You could make out all the little islands that dotted the lake, but you couldn’t see any of them clearly.

As we were hiking along, my skin started to itch. Elaina told me she thought it was probably from the humidity and the rain. When we got back to the boat I looked down to see that my legs were covered in bug bites. I had 14 on my left leg and 12 on my right.

Well, I thought. I’m definitely going to have malaria. I haven’t taken any of the malaria meds because they really upset my stomach. With all of the odd food I’ve eaten, I feel like I want to give my digestive tract a fighting chance. I have been using bug spray but apparently I forgot it today.

And the statistics on Malaria in China are…interesting.

Statistically speaking, the disease has been practically irradiated. According to the CDC, the occurrence rate of malaria in China is approximately 0.7%. Not to clarify, if 0.7% of the population does have malaria, that is approximately 7,000,000 people. Statistically speaking…I feel really stupid for not taking those pills.

The second island was just a pit stop for lunch. They did explain to us that this island was famous for it’s “lady boy” act (I didn’t understand the Chinese name for it, but they explained that “lady boy” was the literal translation.) The “lady boys” –which is a cultural phenomenon out of Thailand is—a group that many young boys join (some willingly although most not) where they are thought to act like girls. When they reach a certain age, they are sent to Europe to have gender re-assignment surgery, and then they return they work in various troupes putting on different shows.

We did not go to a “lady boy” show but we did go get lunch at a buffet that was equally as disappointing as the one we ate at for breakfast. Luckily, there was rice which is very filling. The most notable feature of this restaurant however was the large patches of black mold growing on the ceiling.

“Emma,” Charlotte asked, “is there anything to drink?”

“Yes,” she said. “Over there they have soup.”

We all looked each other and stifled a giggle.

Back on the boat, we spread out in our private room and each slowly dozed off. Even though the boat was moving along at a pretty good clip, the weather was bad enough to turn up some good waves. The slow rocking of the ship was relaxing and I got a great little 20 minute power nap in before we made it to the last island.

This island was actually really cool. When it was a mountain, a famous philosopher and teacher had lived here. When he left, the residents built a temple in his honor. It was very ornate and decorative with a huge archway entrance, wood carvings depicting the teacher’s life, and giant gold statue in a back room (which I thought looked something like the Lincoln Memorial in DC.)

Hiking down the island, there was a little market selling moon cakes. We tried free samples and Swiss Charlotte and I decided to buy a box of them. They are like pastries with a very thick jelly filling. It’s not like the jelly you put on a PB&J, but more like mushed up dried fruit. It was really sweet and really good.

We went back to the main island and docked. After walking briefly through a street market—which sold all the usual knickknacks—we got back on our bus and took it to the hotel for a “rest.”

At first I felt a little frustrated with all the resting that was happening. It is the nice thing about traveling alone: when you want to keep going, you can keep going. Back in the hotel room, I took a shower and decided to use the time to start researching a trip to Hong Kong. But within a few minutes of laying in my bed, I fell fast asleep…and thoroughly enjoyed my “rest.”

Week in Review

It was once again, a really busy week. I am really enjoying my internship. The work itself has taught me a lot of hard skills that I really think I can use after I graduate. The pronunciation lessons have been awesome and I have learned way more Chinese than I expected to. And Lunch with my co-workers continues to be a highlight. We share some of the funniest stories, laugh almost the entire lunch hour—usually at my expense as I taste something new and unusual—and talk about growing up in the US and China. They’ve taken really good care of me. Yu Cui has brought me breakfast on several occasions, and even bought my lunch a few times. Vivi notices the strap on my bag was breaking, so she brought in a sewing kit and fixed it up to look brand new. I’m really going to miss them when I go home.

As I was walking home for work today, I realized, this is starting to feel like home. I really enjoy the hustle and the bustle on the streets. There’s something very relaxing about walking to and from work in a crowd. Everyone is in the same situation of trying to get from here to there, and usually everyone is really friendly. Traffic still doesn’t make sense to me, but it doesn’t seem as chaotic as it once did—it’s kind of entertaining actually. I’ve even found a number of dishes I like to eat. Beyond chocolate—which isn’t so great here—there really aren’t many foods I miss from the US (actually I would love some strawberries too…chocolate and strawberries would be perfect.)

And walking into the lobby only confirmed for me that I am starting to turn the corner. There was a large group of American high schoolers checking in at the front desk. They were so loud and really quite rude. They acted as if they owned the place, spreading out and rambunctiously blocking the flow of traffic. Their body language just looked kind of sloppy. I even have to admit—I know this will sound a bit weird but—their white faces looked so out of place.

I’m really starting to adapt, I thought.

This weekend, the recruiter I worked with was organizing a trip for all of the interns in Shanghai to go to Qiandao Hu (English: “Thousand Island Lake”.) The lake is a manmade feature. In 1959, the government flooded the Wu Shi valley, leaving the city of Shi Cheng under about 40 meters (~120 feet) of water. The peaks of the valley became “islands” each with different exotic plants and old temples. It’s become a tourist staple for both locals and internationals alike.

Packing my bag, I met the other interns in the lobby. There were 10 of us going—both Swiss Charlotte and British Charlotte, Ericka and Akeena, Elana from Bulgaria, Jin Yi from Signapore, Peiyang from Shanghai, Alex a new intern from Texas, Emma who was one of Sabrina’s colleagues at the recruiting office, and me.  

Supposedly our fee for the trip included a private bus. All of us were (foolishly) expecting that that meant a bus would pick us up and that we would be the only group on it. The vehicle that pulled up in front of the hotel resembled more of a…15 passenger van, with an aisle down the middle. Suffice to say the five hour bus ride was a little bit cramped.

I sat towards the front with a row to myself. British Charlotte sat in front of me and we chatted for the first hour or two of the drive.

“When is your internship over?” she asked in her very thick northern UK accent.

“July 11^th,” I said. “Yours?”

“July 7^th,” she said.

“That’s next week!” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m off to Thailand and Laos for a month or so. I tried to go to Vietnam but I don’t have the right visa. I don’t really have the right vaccinations to go to Thailand but hopefully I will be okay.”

“Thailand will be amazing!” I said. “I would love to go to Thailand but there are a lot of advisories out for American’s not to go.”

“Really?” she said. “Because of what’s going on in Bangkok?”

“I think so,” I said.

“That’s silly,” she said.

“But I am go to Japan next week,” I said.

“Oh that’s exciting,” she said. “You’re going alone?”

“Sort of,” I said. “I have a professor who is from there and I’m going to go stay with her for a couple of days and renew my visa so that I can travel around China when my internship ends. But I actually really like traveling alone.”

“I love traveling alone,” she said. “I like meeting strangers and they always turn out to be the most fascinating people. And it’s nice being on your own schedule so you can do as much or as little as you want.”

I have to admit, I loved listening to her accent. The way she said “schedule” was just so…awesome!

We shared a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips and talked about all of the odd flavors Lay’s makes to customize their brands around the world. I still think the most bizarre American taste is “Chicken and Waffles” although that pales in comparison to the “Pepsi” flavor you can find in Shanghai. Charlotte said the best flavor in the UK is “Baked Beans on Toast” which she said is also the best UK breakfast.

As the bus drove on into the night and everyone seemed to be dozing, she asked me, “If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?”

I thought about it for a second. “I want to go to Brazil,” I said. “I want to see Rio and the Redeemer Statue, and I think hiking in the Amazon would be cool.”

“I really want to go to Brazil!” she said. “See all the beaches and the clubs.”

“I do want to go back to Europe. I feel like everyday I’m away I want to go back to Europe more and more.”

“I tell my dad I’m really glad we live in Europe,” she said. “I can fly to Barcelona for the weekend for less than it costs to drive to London. It’s just so nice and relaxing; everyone loves going to Europe.”

“It’s funny,” I said. “I feel like American’s romanticize life in Europe, Asians seem to romanticize life in America…”

“And Europeans romanticize life in Southeast Asia,” she said. “Everyone wants to go to Thailand, and Malaysia.”

“If we just shifted the Northern Hemisphere one continent East, everyone would be happy,” I said.

She laughed. “Where in Europe do you want to go?”

“Someday when I’m married I want to go back to all the places I’ve been,” I said, but right now I really want to go to Croatia to see Dubrovnik, and I’d like to go to Turkey—even though it’s not completely Europe.”

“Oh it basically is,” she said.

“Beyond that,” I said. “I really want to go to Israel.”

“Oh me too!” she said. “I’m Christian so I really want to go.”

“Me too,” I said.

We kept going listing off various sites on all the continents—including Antarctica, which does have a three week Study Abroad program for Environmental Science credit. The course is run by a school in Argentina and set to the tune of $18,000 plus airfare.

The “bus” stopped at a McDonalds for dinner and we all piled out to get food. We took it to go and got back on the bus. Peiyang bought some of the infamous stinky tofu. If you have not heard of this concoction before, it is basically tofu that is seasoned very specially and considered a delicacy in China. The best way to describe the smell is that of very pungent diarrhea. It seriously induces the worst gag-reflux. Fortunately, Peiyang ate his dinner outside the bus before we continued on to the islands.

I slept the rest of the drive, which was another three hours. When we arrived it was after midnight. Emma got us all checked into the hotel and pair up in rooms. I was paired with Alex, but all of us were in six rooms next to each other on the 4^th floor.

The rooms themselves were very odd. They looked like standard hotel rooms with two twin sized beds. The bath room however, didn’t really have walls. There was a sink, toilet, and shower along one wall of the room, and a frosted glass panel obstructed the view in. If you were using the toilet or shower, you could very clearly see out into the room—although if you were in the room all you really say was a silhouette on the other side of the glass.

I was exhausted, as was pretty much everyone else. Alex went with a few people to buy some beers, but by the time they got back, I was already asleep.

Debrief: Huangshan

I have to say, climbing Huangshan has definitely been a highlight of my trip so far. I made it home last night around 11:00pm (although my sleep deprived brain did get me lost in the subway—still not sure where I was or how I got there, but I figured it out and got back okay.) John gave me today off so I slept until about 9:30. When I got up, I Skyped my parents a bit and now I am getting ready to go back to sleep. My calves are still sore—I’m sure I could take stairs if I had to—and my gluts and lower back hurt pretty bad, but I’m not nearly as broken as I felt yesterday when I got home!

But before I go back to sleep, I want to jot down a few “lessons learned” from this past weekend. I find that when you travel alone, you have so much time to think, your rate of epiphanies sky rockets. Every minute is an eye opening experience and it is important to capture that essence while it is still fresh. So here is what I learned from my weekend alone in the mountains.

·       Don’t fear being alone. Time alone is a gift. It helps us level out our stress, get in touch with who we are and how we feel about life. It allows us to be present in the moment and keeps us from being distracted or influenced by the opinions or perceptions of others. Sometimes being alone is exactly what you need to get your head on straight and discover your own power and potential.

·       Don’t fear meeting other people. I have to admit, I was nervous to try out my Chinese. I was sure I’d sound foolish, but in the end, I wound up meeting some awesome folks. From Elder and his family to Felix and his friends, it was worth the risk to look foolish and surround myself with great people.

·       I feel like I’ve made a very philosophical discovery about life too. As I’m starting to think more and more about my future and where my life will be a year from now (post-college) I feel like the future is a lot like staring off a mountain top into the mist. You really can’t see that far, and it’s hard to tell if what you can see is beautiful or frightening. But if you trust yourself and realize you are never truly alone, you have the ability to venture out into the mist and discover new adventures.

·       I think this is also what it means to be present in life. When you can’t see past the fog, it forces you to enjoy the beauty right in front of you.

·       I also learned that no energy is ever wasted. Even if you make a wrong turn or go the wrong way, you can always go back. You lose nothing by getting lost; in fact you get to see a different perspective that you might have otherwise missed out on.

·       Things seem to always happen when they are supposed to happen. While I’m typically not a person to believe in “destiny” or “fate” I have to admit that life has a funny way of working out. I still can’t get over the fact I knew nothing about Huangshan when I came to China. I really think that had I not gotten sick from the fruit I never would have read the article about the mountain. At the same time, had Luke not been unable to go, I never would have met Jacob, Pierre, Elder, or Felix—who all appeared at exactly the right moment, just when I needed some help—nor would I have had so much time to stop and enjoy the views on my own. I definitely thing somebody was looking out for me this weekend.

·       There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from the little Sherpa dudes. When they climb the mountains, they stop about every 5 minutes to rest. Sometimes they stop every 15 feet to rest. They take their time and take care of themselves along the way. There is no rush to doing their toilsome work; they’ll finish it when they finish it, but in the meantime they enjoy the hike and scenery around them.

·       On a personal note, I learned the sleep is the biggest influencer on my mood. I am way more adventuresome and tolerant when I am well rested than when I am trying to make decisions at the end of the day (I’m also a lot funnier and have much more charming personality.) That’s not to say I’m a morning person, but I realize I need to be aware of this trait and not make rash decisions when I am tired.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to climb mountains and I am looking forward to another adventure next weekend!

How to Stop a Bus in China

As soon as the bus pulled out of the bust stop I realized something. I had been dehydrated when I got off the mountain. To remedy that situation, I had been chugging water for the past two hours. Now, I am sitting on a bus (that does not have a toilet on it) for a bumpy six hour bus ride back to Shanghai.

Within about 20 minutes, I needed to pee. At first, I tried to ignore it. If I could just get to sleep it wouldn’t bother me, right? I just won’t think about it. But this strategy didn’t work…at all. Not only could I not get to sleep with a full bladder, but every turn and bump the bus made only reinforced the pressure in my lower abdomen.

I thought about the bus ride here. We stopped for lunch at a truck stop, surely we’ll stop for dinner somewhere. I can make it an hour…or two…or three…

I pulled my iPhone. At Yu Cui’s suggestion, I’d downloaded Plecko, which is the #1 Chinese dictionary app on the Apple store. Typing in “English” it spit out the Chinese characters for this word. Tapping the young kid sitting to my left—he looked young enough to know some English—I showed him my phone.

He read the characters and then shook his head. I smiled.

Turning to the lady on my right, I showed her my phone too. I wasn’t surprises when she smiled and shook her head. I smiled back and turned to face forward.

Well…that sucks! I thought.

I crossed my legs and squirmed. I tried listening to music, but I think that only made it worse. I tried distracting myself by thinking of things I had to do this upcoming week…but that definitely made it worse.

If I just knew when we were going to stop, I could gauge it and maybe calm myself a little.

I pulled out Plecko again and typed in “Dinner.”

The lady to my right seemed friendlier so I turned to her and showed her the screen. She looked at the characters, and then at me a little confused. She said something in Chinese—which I assumed was clarifying if I really meant “Dinner”—and I nodded. She smiled and nodded. I tapped my watch and said, “When?”

She held out her thumb and little finger—like the American “hang-loose sign—which I knew in Chinese it means six.

“Six?” I said.

She nodded.

“Thank you!” I said.

That was just about an hour away. I could probably do that.

All of a sudden, she started rummaging through her bag and handing me food. I smiled and laughed. Typing “toilet” into Plecko, I showed it to her again. She laughed and nodded, and held up the “six” hand gesture again.

I really thought I could make it. Just sixty little minutes….but I couldn’t do it. I needed to stop and I needed to stop soon. Reaching for Plecko, I typed in “bus driver.” Showing it to the woman again, she looked really confused and pointed to the front of the bus.

“Yes,” I nodded. I started pantomiming the words as I said, “Can I go talk to the bus driver?”

She looked confused, but pulled out her cell phone. She dialed a number and said something into it before handing it to me.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hello,” a young girl on the other line said. There was a lot of static as we drove through the mountains. “My mother wants to know what you want.”

“Yes,” I said, a little relieved. “I need to know if we can pull over so I can use a toilet.”

“What?” she said.

“I need to use a toilet,” I said. “I want to know if your mother can ask the bus driver to pull over.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t understand. Can I talk to my mother?”

I handed the phone over. Her mother said something, and they talked back and forth before handing me back the phone.

“My mother says the bus will stop at 6:00,” she said.

Well I figured that out from my one-word dictionary trick, I thought.

“Thank you,” I said and handed the phone back to her mother. They talked a little more before hanging out.

I felt embarrassed. I should have planned better and now I had no idea how to communicate “ I need to pee.” I had a feeling this was only going to get more embarrassing.  

But then something dawned on me. I don’t know how to communicate ‘I need to pee’ but peeing is the only reason you’d need a toilet. There are other uses for a toilet that can be communicated fairly effectively without any words. If this is going to get embarrassing, I might as well go all out.

Reaching down, I loosened my belt and winced. The woman next to me clearly noticed I was in pain. I shifted in my seat a bit and grunted a little as I touched my stomach as if I was in pain.

She already knows I need a toilet…I just need to create some urgency.

Grabbing my stomach with both hands, I leaned forward and groaned loudly.

“Ahhhh!” I moaned, and grimaced. ‘Uggg.”

Quickly, she unbuckled her seatbelt. Patting me on the shoulder, she smiled and said something before walking to the front of the bus.

I think it worked. I watched as she started talking to the driver and pointing at me. He looked up in the mirror and said something back. It looked like maybe they were arguing. Other people on the bus were looking back at me, so I kept up the act of squirming and holding my gut in both hands.

The man directly in front of me turned around and looked over the seat.

“Are you sick?” he asked in crystal clear English.

Well where the &@%# were you when I was on the phone with the daughter?

“Yes,” I moaned.

“I’ll make sure we stop,” he said standing up. “The next rest stop is in half a kilometer.” He went up to the front of the bus and started helping the woman talk to the bus driver. A few seconds later, we pulled off the highway.

The woman came back to her seat and smiled. I thanked her and the man. She reached in her bag and handed me a roll of toilet paper, which I accepted to keep up the act.

When we pulled into the parking lot, she pointed out her window at two buildings. I smiled and nodded. The man also turned around and pointed saying “that one.” As we parked, it turned out I was the only one who needed a bathroom, and several people got off with me.

I walked to the first building but it looked like a convenience store. I asked the woman behind the counter, “Toilet?”

She looked confused.

“W.C,” I said, spelling the letters with my fingers. She pointed at the other building.

I walked over there, and found the men’s room. Locking myself in a stall to keep up the act, I was finally able to relieve myself. As I stood in the stall, I smiled and started to giggle. I just stopped a Chinese bus, I thought to myself. And I figured it out all on my own, without speaking a word of Chinese.

Back on the bus, I again thanked the woman along with the man who helped. I returned her toilet paper and thanked her profusely in both English and Chinese. She smiled and nodded.

What an adventure! I thought. It’s always the little moments that make the best stories.

Long Way Down

When we got back to where I had made the “wrong” turn, the rain had stopped. I took off my rain jacket and again wedged it behind me. As we got back on the main trail down, it did resemble the trail up a lot more. But for being a trail down, there was still a lot of up. The German guy took a very European approach to the hike and would remind me and the two Asians to stop and enjoy the view every 5 minutes or so. I have to admit, the productivity driven American in me was coming out…I wanted to get down and I wanted to get down fast. I knew I had some flexibility, but I am also tired and becoming increasingly single minded.

I also was starting to feel a little ill-prepared for the weekend. I had definitely brought enough food with me for a day of hiking. That said, I had now done two days of hiking and my food and water had not lasted me. “I’d kill for a Snickers bar right now,” I joked. In reality, it was only a half-joke. I could tell I was really dehydrated and my blood sugar was plummeting. My vision was getting foggy and my legs felt really wobbly. My lips and mouth were super dry and I had a pounding headache in the back of my skull.

As I stepped aside to give my legs a rest, the German told me, “I think this is the last steep stretch if I remember.”

“Did you come up this way?” I said in disbelief. I mean it was the Western Route, but even the locals talked about how hard it was.

“Yes,” he said.

“I am impressed,” I admitted.

At the top, there was a little rest area. The little group I had joined had a loaf of bread some sausage and they were more than happy to share the last of it with me. I must have looked like a feral animal eating it. I could tell I was eating too fast and shoving it in my mouth, but I couldn’t really stop myself. It tasted good, and I was craving…calories.

As luck would have it (or perhaps it was irony…or maybe even a mirage) there was a man selling Snickers bars at the rest area. I bought one along with some knock off Oreo-like cookies. I scarfed down the Snickers in about 4 seconds flat and then moved onto the cookies. Again, I knew I was eating too fast, but my brain couldn’t stop my mouth. As I shoved the cookies in, I realized, I couldn’t swallow. My throat was too dry. I decided to save the cookies for later. The snickers guy was selling mango flavored energy drinks and I bought two to try and get my electrolytes back up. Unfortunately, within about 150 seconds, I had downed both of them as well.

As we continued on, the steep up trail turned into a steep trail down. It was congested so we weren’t really moving that fast. In reality, I think it was probably more crowded than any subway I’ve ever been on. As we hiked along, we shared more observations that we had about the cultures of China, Europe, and America. I wish I’d been a little more coherent to remember it, but I was fading pretty fast.

“I am ready to get home,” the German said. “I have only been gone for a week but I miss my daughter. It is hard for a kid to understand when their parent has to travel. She is only four after all.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “My mom travels for work. I remember one time she had to go to London to visit a client for a week and I was so scared. I didn’t want her to be that far away and I was sure something was going to happen to her.” I smiled. “I suppose it’s a bit ironic now considering how far away from home I’ve traveled in the past year.”

“Did she travel a lot when you were young?” he asked.

“About once a month,” I said. “I remember when she was gone, my dad I would stay up late and each curly fries with ketchup. We’d wait up for her to come back and when she got home, we had this little cheer we’d do. It was something like…’Mom’s home..yeah’…or something like that.” It made me smile. “I hadn’t thought about that in a long time.”

“It is always nice to come home to your family,” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “It is.” I realized in that moment of nostalgia we hadn’t been properly introduced. “I’m Zach,” I said, reaching out my hand.

“Felix,” he said.

As we reached the terminal for the cable car, I felt like Leonardo DiCapprio in the final scene of Inception. As we weaved through the cue, bought our tickets, and boarded the cable car, I felt as if I was out of my body watching myself go through these motions. My brain was fuzzy and the fact that the hike was over felt so surreal.

I remember that Felix was worried about the Cable Car falling. I remember we fiddled with the windows to try and get some fresh air inside. I remember Felix saying, “I was lucky to have met these two guys. We just bumped into each other on the hike.” I realized the same was true for me. This whole adventure had just sort of come together. The entire way—from Shanghai to here—I was alone when I needed an ah-ha moment, and I found people to hike with exactly when I needed someone to keep me on course. I think someone was looking out for me this weekend, and I feel pretty blessed to have had the adventure.

At the bottom, we got on a blue bus back to Tangkou. As we drove down the mountain, Felix said, “Oh I feel so alive! I’ve missed traveling like this. Meeting people, staying in hostels…it’s been five years since I did any of it…it really was the best time of my life.” I smiled, thinking that I’ll probably be saying the same thing to some 20-something kid a few years from now.

“In German,” he explained. “We have a saying ‘Nuen’ [that’s my best guess at the spelling.] I don’t think it translates to English exactly, but it means to ‘return your stress level to zero.’ I think hiking in the mountain is a perfect way to do this.”

“I agree,” I said. “Nature has a great way of reminding you what really matters in life.”

“I feel so alive,” he said. “And you.”

“Honestly?” I said. “I feel like death.” He laughed, but I wasn’t really joking. Besides my brain which was having to concentrate really hard to stay awake, my body was in physical agony. My calve muscles were throbbing. My knees felt like they’d been ripped apart. I was starving, and I couldn’t completely un-hunch my back from wearing my pack all day.

But even in my slap-happy state, my numb brain kept thinking…”Holy cow! I did it? I really did it? Yes, I did it! I really, really did it!”

Back in Tangkou we got on a little golden shuttle back to Tunxi. Felix was talking about joining me on the bus back to Shanghai (even though he had a flight booked for that evening.) He pulled up a map of Shanghai and I showed him where the bus depot was. He decided it was too far from his hotel for a taxi, so he would just take his flight.

At some point on the shuttle ride back, I dozed off. I got about a 30 minute power nap before we got back to Tunxi. When we did, the Asians we’d been hiking with wished us well and headed off to catch their bus home. We meanwhile dodged taxi drivers trying to pick us up and walked back to the hostel.

When we walked in, the young girl who had helped me before recognized me. “Hi,” I said. “I stayed here a few days ago. We were wondering if we could use the showers, and then I need a ticket back to Shanghai on the 4:20 bus.” The girl sold me the ticket and charged us 10RMB each to use the showers. Leading up upstairs, she took us to two stalls at the end of the main hall.

It never felt so good to be clean. I washed off and got dressed before meeting Felix downstairs in the dining area. I was still sore, but I felt more coherent. We ordered club sandwiches and I bought another water bottle.

“You told the girl you were here a few days ago,” Felix said, “but wasn’t it just yesterday.”

“Oh my God! You’re right!” I said. “It was just yesterday. It feels like I was up there for so much longer.”

He laughed, but agreed. There was something magical about climbing a mountain.

“This whole trip was so surreal,” I said. “I don’t know how I am every going to describe it to people back home.”

“Just show them lots of pictures,” he said.

The girl brought out our sandwiches and French fries. I really couldn’t swallow the sandwich—my throat was still raw—but the fries were mushy enough I could get them down pretty easy. I bought a second water bottle and downed it too, trying like crazy to re-hydrate.

As we were eating, Pierre came into the dining hall. He joined us and I filled him in on my adventures.

"You must be tired," Pierre said.

"My bus leaves at 4:20," I said. "With any luck, I'll be asleep by 4:30."

They laughed.

Eventually, the girl came over and told me it was time to go to the bus stop. Gathering my things, I said goodbye to my travel companions, and followed her out to the curb.

As waited, I asked, “How big is Tunxi?’

“Is a small village,” she said. “It only has 11 million people.”

Oh, I thought. It’s a small village the size of Los Angeles.

She told me that they were a new hostel and asked me to write a review for them on their website. I said that I would, especially since it is both the nicest and cheapest place I’ve ever stayed.

When the bus pulled up, I hoped on and waved goodbye. The bus back to Shanghai was very crowded, but I found a seat in the back and sat down to enjoy the long ride home.

Adventures on Huangshan

As soon as I started down the trail, everything looked different. The branches were lower across the trail and the air became humid and muggy. As I turned a corner, the granite trail disappeared and I was walking across a rock face with a castle-like, cobblestone wall to guard against the drop off.

The rain wasn’t bad enough to keep my rain jacket off, so I stepped off the trail and pulled it off. Wadding up and sticking it between my pack and my back, I kept hiking. It seemed odd to me that if this was the way down, there was no one else around…and also no one coming up. I wondered if I was lost, and decided to turn back.

As I did, I saw three teenage boys walking towards me. Showing them my map, I pointed to the Chinese characters next to “Fairy Bridge.”

“You want to go here?” the one boy asked.  I said. I did. “So do we,” he said. Awesome! I decided to follow them.

I nicknamed them (in my head) after the colors of the their jackets. They all were actually a lot older than they looked. Silver was 23, and the other two (Red and Blue) were my age. They were all university students studying in Shanghai for the summer, although I didn’t catch where they lived other than they are not from Shanghai.

We took a lot of pictures as we walked along. Red and Silver both spoke pretty good English, but Blue never really talked. At one point Red attempted to translate some Chinese characters that were painted on a rock for me. Silver interrupted him and corrected him to say that they meant, “the rock that is covered by clouds.”

“He did not mess up the translation because his English is bad,” Silver explained. “He messed it up because his Chinese sucks!”

This part of the hike was a lot more intense than the other portions had been. The trail totally disappeared and we were walking across open and exposed cliff faces. Some of them were curved and easily could have been very slippery if you weren’t paying attention. For the most part, the trail kept leading down, but there was a bit of bit of bouldering that kept it interesting. Segments of granite steps would come and go, but this was turning into more of an adventure by the minute. It seemed like we’d climbed a long way down but apparently there was more to go.

Turning a corner, we ran into a police officer who was guarding a post. Red something to him and then translated that we just had, “500 more meters to go!”

The stairs along the cliffs looked like something out of a castle. They guard rails were royal and intricate in design and stone archways hung over each turn. The stairs also seemed to look more and more grand as we descended.

Eventually, we were able to see the bridge. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, we walked through a cave and over to the outcropping the bridge stood on. It was only about 5 feet long, and arched unnaturally high for a bridge, but it was very pretty, as was the view off in the distance.

As we were taking photos, another group came down the Cliffside to the bridge. There were two Asian kids and a Caucasian man who looked to be about 30. I’ve noticed that white people make really lingering eye contact when we see one another here. In Shanghai, you see a couple white people every day, but even there they look really out of place.

This particular white guy looked a bit clumsy. He was carrying all of his gear in an over the shoulder satchel. His shoes were more dress shoes than hiking boots, and rather than wearing a pancho, he was attempting to carry an umbrella with one hand while lowering himself down the cliff.

And the rain was certainly picking up. I decided to put my camera away and get my rain jacket back on. Silver helped me pull it over my pack, while Red and I helped him wiggle into his. I pointed the way down the mountain and started walking.

Red stopped me and told me I was going the wrong way. I pulled out my map and pointed that we had to keep going to get to the cable car. The other two Asians came over and all of them started talking in Chinese. As they pointed at my map and gesticulated, I suddenly started to realize something…I had read the map wrong. The label for “Fairy Bridge” was between two dots; one was on the trial down, and one was 2km off the trail. I had assumed the label was for the one on the trail, but I could see now from their pointing…I was 2km off course.

“They are going to the cable car too,” Silver said. “You should go with them.”

I thanked them and we parted company. Red, Silver, and Blue headed off up one trail, while the Asians, the white guy, and I climbed back up the cliffs to get back to the main trail down.

I would have felt like an idiot for screwing up, but the storm was getting bad quickly, and I needed to focus on climbing back up. It wasn’t technical climbing by any means, but the rocks and boulders were slick with the pelting rain. Coupled with the mist that was rolling in and the blowing rain drops, the visibility was becoming awful. It was almost like a sideways monsoon, or something out of a disaster/end-of-the-world movie. It was a little scary, but I also found myself laughing at how awesome and unreal it was. There was never a moment when I thought I would die, but as the rocks got slipperier and the visibility got worse, broken bones didn’t seem out of the question.

Injuries seemed especially likely for the white guy, who was still attempting to use his flimsy umbrella in the gale force wind. It was practically bent apart already, but he continued to raise it above his head while balancing with just one hand. He kind of looked like a few of the Asian kids I’d seen on the hike up. When Elder had told them about me being an American, they would take this “Statue of Liberty” pose in their photos and ask me if I knew what they were.

Eventually, we were back up under the cover of the jungle like trees. It was still raining, pretty hard, but there was enough shelter from the wind to keep us out of the worst of it. As the white guy stowed his umbrella, he asked me in a heavy accent, “So where are you from?”

“The US,” I said. “And you?” His accent had given him away, but I asked to be polite.

“Germany,” he said.

“I could tell,” I said.

“Do I sound German?” He asked.

“You do,” I said. “Do you I sound American?”

“I suppose so,” he said. “Although you do not quite act American?”

As we walked along sharing stories, he really was pretty fascinating. He grew up outside of Dresden on the border with the Czech Republic. After High School, he took a few years off to travel and went around South East Asia and South America. He was fluent in Spanish after dating a girl for several months in Paraguay. When he returned to Germany, he went to school and got his degree in Electrical Engineering. Now, he works for a hydraulics company, building equipment for testing automobiles.

Currently—and this is the interesting part—he was in Shanghai on a business trip to install a hydraulic rig at a car factory. The rig had been shipped over a month ago, but when he arrived in Shanghai to install it, he found that it had not yet been cleared by the customs office. This was because the customs office had not received their handling fee yet.

“We do not have these customs fees in Germany?” He said.

I smirked, thinking back to my business ethics class. “I don’t think those kind of feels are very popular in the Western world.”

In the process of trying to get his company to authorize the payment, he has been stuck in China. He had made a few observations though from working with this Chinese company.

“Chinese people do not tell you when they don’t understand something,” he said. “I give them directions on how a piece of equipment works and they tell me ‘oh yes, oh yes, we can do it!’ but then I come back and it isn’t done. So I explain it two or three more times and they never ask questions, they just don’t do it.”

I thought back to what Helen had told me about the concept of “face.” I could totally see this fitting in!

“They also only know one way of doing things,” he continued. “Like this form that has to be signed to send with the payment. We had to mail it to an office, which takes 2 days, and then it takes 3 days to process, and 2 days to send it back to us. I asked if I could just take it there in a taxi and make an appointment to get it signed and they looked at me like I was crazy.”

It was actually really interesting talking to him. Even if these observations were just his opinion, they did reveal some of the difficulties that come when cultures try to do business together.

The Lost Laowei

Before I continue, let’s do a little Chinese lesson. In Chinese, the word for foreigner is “laowei” (pronounced “lou”—as in “louse”—and “why”…”lou-why”…”laowei.”) It is basically a slang word that originated during the 1800’s when China discovered it didn’t have a word to describe the merchants and settlers that were coming to China. The only word for outsiders meant “barbarian” so “laowei” was created to describe the foreigners.

It is somewhat derogatory—kind of like the “n-word” in English, but the intent is not quite as harsh. Rather or not it is offensive really depends on the context. For example, if someone says “you are a laowei” that is basically a true statement and not meant to be offensive. If someone says “I have laoweis” or “get out of my way laowei” that is more in-line with some of the racial slurs we are familiar with in the US.

I bring it up because as I was hiking towards Bright Top Peak—which is the highest point on Huangshan—people would point at me and call out, “laowei.” I felt like some sort of big foot making a rare appearance. People would stare at my blue eyes and pale skin as I walked around. ***As John told me when I got back to Shanghai, many of the people on the mountain are from further inland and smaller towns than Shanghai. Seeing me on the mountain might be the first time—outside of a movie screen—that many of them saw a white person***

The views climbing up to the peak were fascinating. Off to the right was a huge canyon that overlooked the North Sea. Again, the name sea comes from the fact that the mountain peaks in the distance look like waves cresting atop the ocean of clouds.

Walking along, some of the little Sherpa dudes were walking around listening to Chinese opera. It sounded truly beautiful, and since it was hard to pass them and their swinging loads on the stairs, I just followed along and enjoyed the music.

At one flat area, I saw a teenage couple walking along. They were dressed a lot more formally than I would have dressed to climb a mountain. The girl was wearing a white dress and the guy was in slacks and a sport coat. I could tell they were watching me as I approached. When I got closer, I smiled and asked in Chinese if we could take a photo together. They got very excited and responded in English that we could. We traded off cameras and poses as the guy took a picture of me with his girlfriend and then the girl took a picture of me with her boyfriend.

As we were smiling, he touched my face and said, “You are very handsome.”

In my head I thought, my face is covered in pimples and sweat and I haven’t shaved in about two days. I’m not sure who taught you English but I don’t think you understand the meaning of the word ‘handsome.’

“I want you to look more like him,” the girl told her boyfriend. It was all very flattering, kind of creepy, and really interesting.

At a little fork in the trail, after a really steep section of stairs, a bunch of people were sitting down to rest. The one guy reached in his bag and pulled out a long wooden pipe. It almost looked like one of those fancy pepper-grinders that restaurants use to spice up your salad—except for the fact it had a mouth piece and opening for drugs. He then pulled out a red tin filled with brown powder.

He’s smoking heroine! I realized.

That’s exactly what he was about to do, until a bunch of people start swarming around him and scolding him. Some of the guides that were leading groups very harshly scolded him and were threatening to radio the park rangers. He put his stash away, while I stared, slack-jawed on the side of the trail.

The map by the fork in the road showed that one route continued to Bright Top while the other way was a bit of longer loop that met up with the main trail in .3kilometers, and then continued to Bright Top. It was a little steeper but provided a better look down into the canyon, so I decided to take the long way. It was steep, and as I grunted out each breath, I started to whistle—in a very culturally sensitive way of course—the theme “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Disney’s Mulan.

This loop met up with the main trail just below Hanging Rock, which was the halfway point from my hotel to Bright Top. Crawling up a boulder and inching out onto the hanging rock (which was balanced on the edge of the cliff) the view was awesome. It was really windy and one boy was making fun of his girlfriend for being scared of going close to the edge. A few minutes later, they replaced by another couple in which the girl was making fun of the guy for the same reason.

I kept climbing and kept taking pictures with people. The pointing and giggling was so entertaining. I wasn’t sure if I felt like a celebrity or a mythical creature, but I was definitely noticed by everyone.

When I finally reached Bright Top I have to admit, it was kind of touristy, but it was also totally worth it! Standing at the summit, the entire 360* view was awesome! From the ocean of clouds on the North Sea, the stunning cliffs of the canyons, the mist surrounded all the different peaks, and the wild looking trees all made it look like a mountaintop paradise. There was a mob around the actual marker for the top, but I climbed up there and got a few good photos of the view.

My last stop before heading to the cable car was going to be the Fairy Bridge. I pulled out my map and headed down the trail. I felt so unbelievably lucky to be here, but I also knew I’d never be able to describe the beauty that I had seen to anyone back home. But sometimes, I think that is what makes it beautiful…the experience of actually being there and being unable to recreate it when you leave.

As I passed a hotel and followed the signs towards the Fairy Bridge, it started to rain. I stepped to the side of the trail and pulled my rain gear out of my bag. I got it on before realizing I needed to put it over my back in order to keep it dry. Pulling the jacket on, I put my pack on and then attempted to pull the jacket down over it. I got all twisted up and tangled and I’m sure I looked like a moron trying to contort my body into the jacket…but what can I say: the laowei are not known for being an intelligent species.

With the jacket on and my body sufficiently water proofed, I started down the trail to my last destination on the mountain.