Next in my saga of travels was a trip to Hunan. Just a few days after we got back from Hangzhou with ECNU we had our CIEE trip. The trip was divided into two halves. First we went to Zhang Jia Jie (张家界) which is one of China's most famous parks, and in my opinion deservedly so. For the second half of the trip we went to visit Feng Huang (凤凰) which is a combination of traditional minority culture and tourist central. All in all it was a great trip
We flew to Hunan since any alternate transportation was just going to take more time than we had to spare. The flight was fine... Except for the food... Each person was given a little snack box which upon initial inspection seemed perfectly fine, until I realized that the pack of cookies was flavored like onions and that the chips were actually apple slices... It only went downhill from there.
So, to begin: Zhang Jia Jie. If you have ever seen any of the recent famous Chinese movies (mostly the historical/fantasy ones) such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon there is invariably a shot where they are dashing through mountains that are kind of stony crags shooting up through the mists with trees growing out of the sides of them, that is Zhang Jia Jie. And for once, it looked exactly like it did in the movies. It really was that beautiful.
We went just before the start of true summer so we got no mist, but the effect was still absolutely stunning. Especially after living in Shanghai for eight months suddenly being somewhere naturally beautiful was a striking change.
We stayed in a hostel just outside the park and took a local bus over in the morning. One of the things that I love the most about China is the people watching, and the bus there provided a lot of good people watching. To start with there was a woman whose job was to collect bus fair. She was carrying a Louis Vuitton purse . Only in China. Our next stop was to pick up a police officer for the town. He brought his own chair, just in case the bus seats were full, and plopped it down in the middle of the bus isle. Because it is a small town the buses work a bit differently. There are no stops per say. The buses follow the same street routs every day and if you want to get on you wave as the bus passes and it stops. If you want to get off you yell at the bus driver. When we needed to get the bus the woman in charge of our hostel called up the bus driver’s cell phone and told him to be sure to hold it at the end of our street.
There was another really interesting thing that happened when we were in Hunan that made me think a lot about the foundations of our society. In Hunan they don’t trust coins. I don’t know if it was because they thought they could be faked or what, but they would only accept payment in bills. So even though we had a significant amount of money in coins it was valueless because no one would accept then. It made me think a lot about our monetary system, and that it only works because we have all decided that it should. After enough economics and history courses I intellectually knew that without people’s trust in it money is valueless, but it is different to read about money becoming valueless in a collapsing government and suddenly finding your own money worthless.
Another really interesting thing was the entrance to the park itself. The entry tickets to Zhang Jia Jie were some of the most advanced entry tickets I have ever encountered in my life. Every ticket was for two days. I got you ticket which was a credit card like item. I then proceeded to the front gate where they swiped my card. They then scanned my fingerprint so that I could not sell the second day of my card or anything. The next day when we reentered the park they scanned our thumb prints to validate our identity. It was actually a little bit creepy.
We were incredibly lucky in our timing to visit the park. We went the weekend before Labor Day (May 1st in China) which, not surprisingly, is a big deal in China. Everybody gets a three day weekend and the entire country picks up and goes traveling. So, wince were there right before Labor Day, anyone who had thought about going to Zhang Jia Jie put it off for a week. That meant there was essentially no one there, which was awesome since it can get incredibly crowded apparently (there were 14.4 million visitors in 2005). The weather was also awesome. It was right before true summer hit (it is 95 out right now) so it was still in the 70s with a lovely breeze.
That being said, Zhang Jia Jie is a national park full of mountains… I have done my best to stay in shape since I got to Shanghai. I belong to a gym, I take spin classes or run a few times a week. I can certainly out exercise most of the Chinese women at the gym.
Zhang Jia Jie comes with two experiences for you to pick from. First there is the Chinese version of the park: you enter the park, a bus picks you up and carries you to the base of the tallest peaks. Then you purchase your ticket for the cable car which carries you to the top where if it suits you, you can take a mild hike around the top of the mountain, or just snap your photo and return down. That is the method my host mom apparently followed when she went last year. Except her group decided it was so nice that they walked down the mountain. She claims to have been unable to walk for a week afterwards (my host father and Jing Jing demonstrated for me what her walk looked like, I almost cried I was laughing so hard). There was also the option of being carried around in a sedan chair for those who wanted the nature walk minus the walk...
So that was the Chinese way… And then there was our way which consisted of the philosophy “If you didn’t hike for four hours and climb stairs from below sea level to twelve hundred plus feet then the view isn’t worth it” Yep, that “in shape” that comes from working out a few times a week at the gym, LIES LIES LIES!!! My plight was not helped by the fact that I am five inches shorter than anyone else in the program. They all thought it was perfectly comfy to take the steps two at a time. My legs did not agree.
The issue was not actually hiking. I think that I would have done better on an actual hike. However, in case any Chinese person should ever decide to actually attempt the walk up we can’t have them hiking, thus we must use STAIRS! I am not a big fan of stairs. Even in the height of my being in shape I got more tired climbing stairs than doing anything else, toss me a 10k or a distance swim any day, so taking a winding rout of straight stairs up to the top of Tian Zi Shan (天子山) or heavenly mountain just plain hurt. Though I can’t argue with the fact that it was absolutely gorgeous, and now that I can walk again without inordinate pain, I probably agree that it was worth it.
At the top of Tian Zi Shan we ran into two girls who were students at the local university. There were incredibly sweet and gave us a short history of the area and tour guided us around for while in exchange for w few pictures.
At the top of the pagoda at the top of Tian Zi Shan there is a room. In that room is a man doing calligraphy. the walls are completely covered in scrolls and unbound sheets of calligraphy. We stood and watched him for an inordinately long time, but could not figure out if we could purchase a scroll if we wanted to, forget how much a scroll cost, or weather we could get one custom made.
We finished the hike out that day along a river which was awesome. Nate and I ditched our shoes and waded across which felt sosososososo good.
That night we went for traditional food of the area. For whatever reason it is customary in that region to sit on very small chairs at very low tables. It was pretty funny. I felt a little like I was babysitting and participating in a tea party at a child sized play set. If I felt that way I can't even imagin how six foot two made of legs Nate managed it.
Another thing that Zhang Jia Jie did well was signage. I don't know who they got to write and or translate their signs, but they were completely hilarious, some of them the actualy meaning was beyond my comprehension and some of them were just funny.
Sorry I can't get this one rotated...
Megan, Lillian, and I ran out to get breakfast the next morning. We were going to settle for some noodles which were not what we were particularly in the mood for when we met a really nice local woman. She walked us down to the bao zi place that all the locals thought was the best and shich did in fact have very good breakfast. One of the things I like the most about getting out of Shanghai is the people are frankly curious and more than happy to stand and talk with you and show you around their hometown.
The next day was also spent in the park. We started out the day with a slightly more tame hike along the side of a river that cut through the mountains. Then, much to Nate's chagrin, we decided to take the cable car up to the top of the second highest peak, but don't worry, we did walk down!
On the way up we didn't want to walk next to the road with all the busses on it so we took a side trail. Unfortunately that side trail did not actually connect back with the cable car entry so we had to do some off roading. We essentially just climbed off the path and scrambled back down the path of least resistance.
A fun side quirk of Zhang Jia Jie are the monkeys. They live along the sides of the trails in the lower part of the mountains and despite the copious number of signs requesting that you do not feed the monkeys, they were clearly frequently fed as they showed absolutly no fear. On that note, on the way backdonw Lillian made a friend. We were walking by a group of mokeys and suddenly behind me I hear Lillian start to freak out. We all turned around and there was a monkey attatched to her backpack trying to get a pack of brightly colored tissues out of the mesh water bottle holder. Lillian was just standing there flapping her arms around. And what did we do? Good friends that we are? We all went for our cameras.
That day we ended up on a different side of the park so we had to take a bus back. The one bus turned into two busses. We were in the middle of a highway in the middle of no where and our bus driver informed us that this was the place to stop, and if we waved the next bus/glorified van would stop and pick us up. So we dutifully stood by the side of the road waving like lunatics at the next van that came by. A very confused young man informed us that he was going in the other direction, at which point we saw another van come by which we sprinted after until it stopped, which was in fact our "bus." Seating was a very carpe dium sort of affair. I ended up sittig on the median thing between the drivers seat and passenger seat facing backwards. This particular medium was covered with fake grass, which I have to say is not the worlds most comfortable sitting material.
We did eventually make it back to the hostel though, so I guess it was a success. After another outside dinner sitting at tiny tables we called it a night.
The next day we headed off to Feng Huang, which I will write about another day, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Talking about climbing the mountains make me think about going to the gym in China so for this blog you get a special additional feature: anecdotes from the gym in China.
MoB, Mind over Body, is an endless source of hilarity to me, as is my existence to the Chinese gym members. First let’s talk about Chinese gym goers. In the States if I am in a workout class when it gets really hard I tend to draw inspiration from the people around me “well if he/she/it can really evil sit up number 247 well then so can I” I’m pretty sure that’s what most people do and it kind of keeps the whole class going. In your standard Pilates class in Shanghai as soon as it gets hard the Chinese collapse back on their yoga mats and throw their hands back as if to say “no, it is too much, my strength has been overcome, I can do no more. Sigh.” This invariably results in me, flushed to the color of a tomato and dying, struggling along only to look around at thirty people around me lying down and chilling. Then I get the eye contact moment with the teacher who looks at me and decided that “hey, there is one person who can finish my exercise class. Lets do twenty more sets while I go over and torture her personally!” That being said, I cannot touch the Chinese for flexibility. I was sitting on my mat before class the other day sadly attempting to coax myself into something resembling flexibility when another woman walks in. She plops down next to me IN THE SPLITS and then PUTS HER FORHEAD ON THE FLOOR!!!!!!!! WITHOUT STREATCHING!!!!!!!!! WHY?
The other thing that I do at the gym a lot is take spin classes. The spin classes in the states are definitely harder and 15 minutes longer, but they have nothing on the Chinese spin classes for sheer ridiculousness. The spinning room in MoB is lit with blue lights. The walls are studded with color changing LEDs and behind the teacher (whose bike is on a stage) is a giant lit up MoB sign that also changes rainbow colors. There are street lane lines painted on the floor to complete the feeling that we are riding outdoors on road bikes… And then there is the music. The music they use is just more awesomely ridiculous that American spin teachers could ever conceive of. Oh, and the music is not in Chinese. Some of my favorite pieces include “You Are My Voodoo Child,” “We Will Rock You: The Techno Remix” and “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” yes, that song does exist at a tempo fast enough to spin at, it even includes sprints.
One of the best thing by far though, are the classes that the Chinese take (I’m too afraid). The number one rule for any of these classes is: If you plan to attend class you must not forget your costume! I love walking into the gym right before belly dancing class starts. What could possibly be funnier than a group of Chinese women wandering around the gym wearing full belly dancing outfits complete with jingly scarves. Oh wait, they might be beaten by what I like to refer to as “cowboy dancing class” which involves the women in skirts and vests and the men in suits and cowboy hats.
I have also been the source of more than my fair share of amusement to the rest of the gym goers. A perfect example happened about a month ago. I had finished working myself out and wanted to do some core work, but all the studios were occupied with classes. So Lillian and I grabbed yoga mats and dragged them into the spinning room. We didn’t bother turning on the lights on since there was enough coming through the windows. I guess that a few of the gym employees were giving some prospective members a tour of the gym facilities. Anyway Lillian and I were in the midst of various exercises, when the doors open and the lights come on and there are a group of Chinese people staring in trying to figure out what in the world we were doing in the dark in the spinning room with yoga mats. I think the tour got an added few lines of commentary to the effect of “and our gym comes with the occasional gratuitous foreigners, there is no accounting for them…” The rest of the group then walked out and the last gym employee sort of looked back and flipped the lights back off.
