Wednesday, October 1, 2008

China - Day 6

Today we went hiking in some mountains. I know that I wrote about all the walking we did in Taiwan, but really, that has been nothing compared to all the climbing and walking we have done here in China. I don't know how tall this mountain was, I think around 4,000 ft, but I think it is one of the tallest mountains in the Beijing area. You would be surprised what you can find near Beijing. Less than an hour of driving took us to these mountains that are just beautiful. You would never suspect that something so different from the big city could be found so close. It was also a Chinese national Holiday (not the work holiday which is still going on). This is the birthday of communism in China...so, I think it is comparable to the Fourth of July for the US. In any case, I don't know if anything special happened because we were away in the mountains all day.

The hike was really nice. after parking we started hiking up the mountain. On the way down we counted the number of steps up, and it was 1,427 steps to the top of the mountain, give or take a few. So, it was a really good hike. They kind that makes your legs shake after getting to the top. Just a little ways up is a burial ground for monks. It was an old burial ground, I don't think it is used any more. But there were some really cool pagodas there.

All the way up the mountain there are steps of some sort. So, this was not hard core mountain climbing, but it was still a good amount of exercise. I'm not sure there is much to tell about climbing up the mountain. It was just a lot of steps...There was a little middle point, halfway or so to the top. There was a bell you could ring if you wanted. It was also a pretty good place for pictures. All I can say is that is took a while to get up, and going down was pretty much the best part of the climb (well, not really, but it was a lot easier going down than going up).

After all that, we went on to dinner. We had dinner at what looked to be a nice place to eat. Once we got inside, it did not look so amazing, but since we were with other people (or hosts and another family they know) and we were not picking the restaurant, we ate there. We had lots and lots of what might be called pot stickers (although that is wrong, because pot stickers are fried in a pan, and these were just boiled). The Chinese is zhou zeh, I don't know if that rominization is correct, it sounds like jow zeh. Anyway, so I was with the "kids" table. I think we ate around 7 or 8 plates of them, with about 10 on each plate. So, I think we did pretty well on them! As I found out later, that "dingy" place is actually supposed to be one of the best places in Beijing for zhou zeh. They were really good I'll have to admit.

After dinner we all came home. Everyone was so tired from the day, and I don't really know how i am still up writing this. But suffice to say, nothing happened after dinner. I have no idea what is happening tomorrow, but it should be good whatever it is.
-Aaron


The Mountain
From China Day 6


Pagodas. These were really cool to look at.
From China Day 6



From China Day 6


I guess some tourist decided to jump of this little cliff, so the government had to put up a sign...
From China Day 6


A mountain scape
From China Day 6


The view from the top, looking down on the pagodas. It was a bit hazy, so nothing was really clear in the distance.
From China Day 6


I don't know, I just thought these little elephants were kinda cool.
From China Day 6

3 comments:

~LEMONDROPS said...

I've seen pictures of those pagodas before. It's so cool that you get to experience all this with your family.
So, Aaron, are you speaking any Mandarin at all?
OK. On to the next post. I'm almost all caught up. We were in Santa Rosa yesterday for a Pudewa writing workshop and saw people we met at your house - Kathryn and her mom.

~LEMONDROPS said...

I forgot to mention something that this post made me think of.

We had friends that traveled this last summer through Europe and they took pictures of all the signs that depicted stick figures doing something. When they got home they posted them all and it was hilarious. It was quite a collection of pictures of odd signs.

Aaron said...

ummm, I'm sort of not speaking any at all... I can say easy things. Thank you, your welcome, pardon me, I don't want that, I don't have that....exclamations of joy and dislike....I let my parents or friends do all the talking though.
Oh, that's cool that you saw the Lindlows.
We have a few signs in our pictures...I think I'm going to have to do a better job at getting the funny ones though.