- Finally caught my first bus in China. 1.5元for a 45 minute bus ride, that felt more like a cross between rollercoaster and pinball.
- Also caught the subway (ditie 地铁), which at 5元 is certainly a step-up from the buses, but not by much. Very sardine-ish.
- Moved into my new room. Bigger but not as nice as the Motel room. And I have ants now. My new room number is 2122, which when said in Chinese is like a tongue-twister. "Er yao er er" (pronounced like "Are Yaaw Are Are")
- Have been eating Korean food non-stop since trying the Korean grill. Even managed to eat Kim-chi (a very, VERY spicy side dish)
- Found a restaurant at uni that makes dumplings, to order! Just say what meat and vegies you want in them, and how many, and they're on your table in 10 minutes
- Had my first "small world" experience. I was eating in No. 2 Shitang and a guy came over to our table and said to me "You're from Geelong, aren't you?" I nearly spat out my food. To cut a long story short, he is from Geelong too, and recognised me from clubbing at Room 99 with Melaine. RANDOM!
OK, Xiang Shan! The translation is "Fragrant Hills", and that is true (well, only during Spring when the flowers are blooming). Luckily I had taken my antihistamines.
We waited 45 minutes at Uni for the bus that goes to Xiang Shan, until we gave up and caught a taxi (80元, very expensive). Later found out that bus line doesn't run anymore.
The lovely relaxing walk up Xiang Shan takes approximately an hour and a half, up 2300 stairs, and 1.5 km. Coming down only takes 30-40 minutes, and a few hip and knee replacements. My friends walked up, but I took the Australian way up - the chair lift! That being said, I feared for my life the entire time. Definitely was the longest 18 minutes of my life. It certainly was a good idea though, because from the base of the mountain, you can't really tell how high it is. Three times on the way up, the mountain plateaus out a bit, and so you're tricked into thinking you're nearly at the top, when really, you still have another kilometre to go.
Once at the top, you have a lovely view of Beijing, or of smog, as it was yesterday. I had a little time to burn while waiting for the adventurers to finish climbing the mountain, so I took a few shots and had a nice relaxing sit down while listening to some Beatles tunes. Also had my photo taken by a few random Chinese guys... What can I say, I'm famous.
When Mega, Chris (French) and Heratio (Chinese) arrived, we then proceeded to take a few stupid pictures (read: a LOT of stupid pictures). Mega is also quite the budding photographer, so we just sat down and pretended to be interested in things in the distance, and she snapped away. Here are a few photos of Xiang Shan:
A few pics of us acting normally:
And a few of of us being silly:
And here is the Village People:
We waited for sunset, only to have clouds come and ruin it for us. We then had to leave pretty promptly, because the area surrounding Xiang Shan is very well known for dangerous after dark, especially if you want to keep your organs intact. We made some friends on the way back down... a group of 40-ish old men, who talked with me about traveling around Australia (and I understood it all - yeah!) They then offered us a drive to the bus stop, and saved us a half hour walk. Then, a fabulous bus-ride home, some dinner, and sleep. Today, my legs feel like jelly. Very sore jelly. I can't imagine how the other guys feel.
CLICK HERE FOR ALL MY PHOTOS FROM XIANG SHAN (ABOUT 70 IN ALL)
