Damingshan
The only crowd was at the summit where we found everyone congregated, bare-bellied men smoking, military trainees rapelling, groups of women eating corn-on-the-cob and everyone
littering. Most of the crowd took the cable car back down the mountain but we descended for two hours on a quiet trail that followed a clear stream through pine forests and boulders. It reminded me of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains except that the signs were in Chinese and the trails weren't designed by OSHA.
The tour stayed the night at what must have been a one star hotel in Changhua - I loved everything about it except for the hard beds. The fungus-coated shower curtain and the stained carpet was no problem. It added to the character of the place. G-man watched Chinese cartoons while the rest of us went next door for a relaxing foot massage.
On Sunday morning the others started off with a Chinese breakfast of greasy fried bread and
soymilk, dried fish, etc. I ate the PB&J sandwich I had brought along for just such an occasion. There's a lot of Chinese foods I like but breakfast is not among them. Then it was off to Shuangxi Village where we boarded bamboo rafts and a trip down a river with water buffalo watching us from the banks. Before we got on the raft we noticed vendors selling waterguns but we thought nothing of it. Unknown to us, water fights are apparently what the Chinese float down rivers for. Every raft that passed us shot us with waterguns - until we remembered we had collapsable umbrellas in our packs. This was, I thought to myself, a good demonstration that deing defenseless and relying on other's goodwill, is not a strategy. Only we and a raft of bewildered Japanese tourists were foolish enough to hit the water unarmed.
This weekend we took an overnight Chinese tour bus trip to Damingshan. Damingshan (Big Bright Mountain) is a jagged mountain region near the Zhejiang - Anhui border about 200 km from Shanghai. It was such a relief to get out of Shanghai and into some wild areas with clean air and little traffic. We traveled with three friends from Canada and 
Malaysia and about 25 Chinese and a tour guide that spoke no English. 
We met a the Shanghai Tourist Bus Center on Saturday morning at 8 am and rode for almost five hours on a comfortable bus past Hangzhou and westward on the Hanghui Tollroad to Damingshan. After a simple lunch of rice, tomato and scrambled egg, tofu, and various meat dishes I ignored (the chicken head was hard to ignore) we arrived at the park and transfered to minibuses that took us up hairpin curves to a cable car. Near the summit we were deposited at the mouth of a tunnel system that allowed us to walk through the mountains to the best vistas. In one such tunnel we walked for twenty minutes at a fast pace through the mountain. Inside the mountain the tunnel system branched into a maze of tunnels marked with glowing directional signage. Each tunnel culminated at a sheer cliff with a different vista of the surrounding mountains.
Malaysia and about 25 Chinese and a tour guide that spoke no English. 
We met a the Shanghai Tourist Bus Center on Saturday morning at 8 am and rode for almost five hours on a comfortable bus past Hangzhou and westward on the Hanghui Tollroad to Damingshan. After a simple lunch of rice, tomato and scrambled egg, tofu, and various meat dishes I ignored (the chicken head was hard to ignore) we arrived at the park and transfered to minibuses that took us up hairpin curves to a cable car. Near the summit we were deposited at the mouth of a tunnel system that allowed us to walk through the mountains to the best vistas. In one such tunnel we walked for twenty minutes at a fast pace through the mountain. Inside the mountain the tunnel system branched into a maze of tunnels marked with glowing directional signage. Each tunnel culminated at a sheer cliff with a different vista of the surrounding mountains.
The only crowd was at the summit where we found everyone congregated, bare-bellied men smoking, military trainees rapelling, groups of women eating corn-on-the-cob and everyone
littering. Most of the crowd took the cable car back down the mountain but we descended for two hours on a quiet trail that followed a clear stream through pine forests and boulders. It reminded me of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains except that the signs were in Chinese and the trails weren't designed by OSHA.The tour stayed the night at what must have been a one star hotel in Changhua - I loved everything about it except for the hard beds. The fungus-coated shower curtain and the stained carpet was no problem. It added to the character of the place. G-man watched Chinese cartoons while the rest of us went next door for a relaxing foot massage.
On Sunday morning the others started off with a Chinese breakfast of greasy fried bread and
soymilk, dried fish, etc. I ate the PB&J sandwich I had brought along for just such an occasion. There's a lot of Chinese foods I like but breakfast is not among them. Then it was off to Shuangxi Village where we boarded bamboo rafts and a trip down a river with water buffalo watching us from the banks. Before we got on the raft we noticed vendors selling waterguns but we thought nothing of it. Unknown to us, water fights are apparently what the Chinese float down rivers for. Every raft that passed us shot us with waterguns - until we remembered we had collapsable umbrellas in our packs. This was, I thought to myself, a good demonstration that deing defenseless and relying on other's goodwill, is not a strategy. Only we and a raft of bewildered Japanese tourists were foolish enough to hit the water unarmed.On the way back into the city the tour bus stopped at a building for a rest and some "free tea".
When we got inside we discovered that after the free tea we, and about 30 other busloads of tourists had to exit through a large maze (literally) of over 50 food and trinket vendors. With some effort, I pushed my way through and out the exit where I watched everyone else emerge like robots with bags of worthless junk under their arms. Despite this last stop the tour to Damingshan was the best US$50 (per person - and included all meals and hotel) I've spent in a long time.
When we got inside we discovered that after the free tea we, and about 30 other busloads of tourists had to exit through a large maze (literally) of over 50 food and trinket vendors. With some effort, I pushed my way through and out the exit where I watched everyone else emerge like robots with bags of worthless junk under their arms. Despite this last stop the tour to Damingshan was the best US$50 (per person - and included all meals and hotel) I've spent in a long time.
posted by Kevcham at 7:41 AM
1 Comments:
I liked the breakfast we had when on our tour because it was a buffet and when we were around Beijing it was great. The further south we went, the less there was that I liked. The Chinese seem to eat the same things for breakfast that they eat at any other meal. The only thing I didn't like was their orange juice, it tasted like Tang.
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