Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)

Last week we took a trip to HuangShan or, in English, Yellow Mountain. We went with the Johnson's and Stephen, the student I have been tutoring this year. We knew we needed help to manage the trip, language, lodging, and just to keep us from getting lost on the mountain so we took Stephen with us. He did a wonderful job and we had a great time with him. Here we are at the entrance to Yellow Mountain.

HuangShan is a large national park noted for its huge granite outcroppings. The park is one of the top 10 sights in China. Artists and poets have long drawn inspiration from the area. I think it used to be a quiet place where they could work and contemplate in peace. Not so, today. Crowds of tourists are everywhere--but this is China and people are expected.

There are three main ways up into the mountains--hike up the difficult east steps, hike up the more difficult west steps, or go the easy way by taking a cable car. We chose the third option because we wanted to save some strength for hiking up at the top.

Here we are with our backpacks, ready to hike. As you can see the trail is steps, but well maintained steps. Lest you get the impression that we were actually backpacking--as in camping--let me dispel that notion. We backpacked from one hotel to another. There are no camping facilities on the mountain. People either stay in the valley or in one of 3 or 4 hotels scattered throughout the hiking area on top. That is my kind of backpacking!!!

Here we are at the "welcoming pine." It is located near the hotel where we spent the first night. We had checked in and were on our way to the top of the mountain you can see behind us. It is called Celestial Peak or Heavenly Capital Peak--depending on which map you use.

A close-up of the top of Celestial Peak.

Before we could start our ascent, we had to go down to the foot of the valley between where we were and the base of the peak.

Starting the climb. There was very little "trail," just steps, and more steps, and more steps--1321, not counting the 580 steps we had come down and would have to climb back up. Jim loved it since he will run the Great Wall Marathon this Sat. and it has 4,000 steps. This was great practice for him and he is now confident that he can do the marathon. Anyway, up we went.

And up some more. This looks a little scarier than it really was. Most of the steps were carved right out of the granite, as were hand rails in many places. The ropes were very helpful and we were grateful for them.

We finally got to a flat place instead of steps. This is called "fishback ridge." You can see why--the drop off on both sides was daunting. I took a deep breath, told myself I could do it and went across. Jim took videos of my efforts.

But eventually we made it to the top. The view was spectacular--a 360 degree vista that was, literally, breathtaking. Here we are at the top. You can't see much of the valley--too smoggy--but here we were above the air pollution and the sky was a beautiful blue. The locks on the chains are the typical "love locks" with no key and the names of the couple engraved on the lock. It is there forever and a symbol of their eternal devotion to each other.

The next day we got up and watched the sunrise. Then we hiked from one hotel to another. This was not as strenuous (thank goodness) but still a climb up and down hundreds, if not thousands, of steps. It took us about 4 hours. The trail was crowded with people but once in a while we found ourselves in a quiet area. It was fun to see what we would run across as we hiked. Here is a typical Chinese bridge. Walking up over it was supposed to bring long life.

This area is called "Stairway to Heaven." You can see many people on it. We actually bypassed this steep cllimb because Walt Johnson has bad knees. We took a less steep, but longer, route. Either way we still had to climb to the top.

Some people chose not to climb themselves. As we watched them in the sedan chairs, I was glad to be walking. The chairs were bouncy and the men carrying them moved very fast. They must have tremendous leg muscles!

There are no roads to the top of the mountain so everything has to be carried in. All the supplies come up the cable cars and then are hauled to the various hotels, eating places, etc. Here are vegetables and boxes of water for dinner. We saw people carrying linens as well as food, pumps, metal, and then trash on its way down.

The most unique sight, however, was the men carrying this bathtub full of paint cans and other construction things. Yes, this is a bathtub!!! I guess all the construction materials and furnishings for the various hotels and restaurants were actually hauled up the mountain in this way!!!

Chinese have a great talent for descriptive names. The small rock balanced in the background is called, "flying over rock." That's because it looks like it was flying over and just dropped down and landed.

Here is a close-up of "flying over" rock.

Some of the breathtaking scenery. The pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the area. The air pollution gets in the way and the immenseness of the place is lost in just a small picture.

Everywhere we looked, it was spectacularly beautiful.

But at last we came to the end of our three days at HuangShan. It is one of the most memorable times we have had here in China and we were so grateful that we were able to have warm, sunny weather for our trip. Many of the pictures you see of this area show the peaks above the "cloud sea" but we were happy to complete our journey in the sunshine.

Signs of the times--Chinese style

After a couple of months I realized that signs in China are delightful. Often they are literal translations from Chinese into English. Since the Chinese language and English are not expressed the same at all, it makes for some interesting signs. So I decided to take pictures of signs. Here are some signs from my collection. They are in no special order. I hope you find them as intriguing as I do.

Do you wonder what a toilet with a decorated gateway looks like?







Keep off the grass











Interesting thought












This was on a narrow hillside path up to the Three Gorges Dam viewpoint. It took me a minute to figure out the sign means to be especially careful because the path can become slippery during thunderstorms. It may even mean that no one is allowed to climb in the rain. You decide.

Don't cllimb over the chain and walk on the rocks.

Another way of saying, "Keep off the grass."

These chairs were in the waiting room for the Star Ferry in Hong Kong. Don't know if they are ever used because it is hard to find a old, weak, sick, disable, and pregnant person.

Doesn't this sound better than, "Pick up your trash."

Ran across this poster advertising the Red Orchid Restaurant. How do you verify food?

Another "Keep off the Grass" sign.

And still another one. I love the expressions. They are much more colorful and descriptive than signs we see in the West.

How do you "dress" a fire to keep it from being naked?

I love it!!!!

Keep off the grass again.

No explanation needed here.

Sometimes spelling gets a little creative.

I saved my favorites for last. This was also at the ferry and was warning people that when the tide was out, the ramp would slope down to the ferry boat. I don't think the water would be slopping over the ramp but it makes a great image in my mind.








Finally, a sign on one of our tour buses. It took me a minute to figure it out. Can you guess what it means?

When the bus is moving, please don't walk around.

Yangtze River Cruise

Last week we went on a cruise through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. We flew to Chongqing to begin our trip on the river. Chongqing is technically the largest city in China, but it covers a large area so includes the surrounding countryside. Nevertheless, there are over 30 million people who live in Chongqing. During WWII it was where the Americans had their presence with Gen. Stillwell in charge. It was also the wartime capital of China. This picture is of the government building, "The Great Hall".

We visited the Three Gorges Museum which showed how the gorges used to look before the dam was built, and told about the building of the dam. This area used to be a treacherous passage with rapids, rocks, and other difficulties. The cargo boats had to be pulled through some of the rapids by hand, meaning men attached ropes to the boats and literally pulled them through parts of the area.

This is a statue of the men who pulled the boats through the rapids. It was literally back-breaking work.

This is an actual rock that shows the rope burns where the ropes were pulled so much that the rock was worn away. It reminded me of the wagon wheel ruts that the pioneers in the US left as they traveled west--a lasting monument to the difficulties and hard work faced by courageous people in both countries.

The first day we stopped at the "ghost city" of Fengdu. Fortunately, it had been built on the top of a hill and will remain uncovered by the water behind the dam. It is supposed to be an area where spirits go after people die. There they can still see the world while they wait to be judged. It is an ancient area, first Daoist and then Buddhist. The stories about it had interesting parallels to beliefs of Judaism and Christianity.

We saw several interesting sites there including this demonstration. This man was able to spin the stone around the groove where his feet are and then heft it onto the point and balance it. Doesn't look too hard until you realize that the stone weighs over 400 pounds!

This man is cleaning the roof tiles on one of the buildings at Fengdu. He used a bamboo pole to push the leaves and dirt (that had accumulated in the tile grooves) off the edge of the roof. An interesting way to keep a roof clean.

At the top of the mountain at Fengdu there was a nice pagoda. Pagodas in China are like cathedrals in Europe. They are everywhere, each location is proud of its pagoda, and soon they all begin to look alike to travelers.

On the way down a group of students stopped Jim and wanted to take his picture. This happens often because we are so tall. This girl was especially interested in having her picture taken so while her friends took her picture with Jim, so did I.

This is one of the bridges that is being built across the lake made by the Three Gorges Dam. When there was only a river, the people were able to cross in small boats, but now with a huge lake, that is not so easy and the government has invested a considerable fortune in building bridges from one side to the other.

A few facts about the Three Gorges Dam Project:
It cost over $75 billion dollars. That includes not only the dam, but moving over 1.5 milliion people whose homes would be flooded, building them new houses and giving them a new livelihood, constructing these bridges and roads, and preserving historical sites and artifacts that would have been lost in the flooding. Even then many historical sites have been covered forever. The young people do not mind, but some of the older peasants have had difficulty making the change. One story told about people who now had nice two story apartments in the "new" towns, but who only used one floor because that was what they were used to. The second floor stood empty. Another story we heard was that the farmers had worked for centuries to build up the soil on their farms. When told they would have to move to the top of the mountains to farm, they literally carried the soil up the hills in baskets and put it on their new land. What a monumental task!

At one point we moved from our large boat to a smaller boat and went up the "lessser" gorges. Then we transferred to an even smaller sampan-like boat and went up the mini-gorges. This is our boatman with Jim. The hat and coat on Jim's back are woven from palm fronds and are used by the local people to keep the rain off. As you can see, it wouldn't do much for Jim. The "wings" you see are actually the shoulders, but he couldn't even get them on his large body. They fit the boatman nicely, however. While we were on the small boats we could see monkeys running around on the hillsides. I tried to get a picture, but as you can see, the weather was rainy, and no details turned out in the pictures.








This is one of the better pictures showing what the area looks like. The water will eventually get to be 175 meters above sea level. It has been as high as 172 meters last Dec. and now is about 161 meters. The water fills in the winter and they let it out for summer, just opposite what we do in the western US where we want it full in the summer and empty in the winter. Here the rainy season is in the summer, so they lower the water in the spring to make room for the summer rains to fill it again. I wish we could have seen the area before it was covered with water and again now. It would have been fun to have the comparison.



The dam will generate electric power, but not enough to serve everyone--only about 7-10% of China's power. There are also nuclear power plants, with more planned in the future. However, most of the power, for now, comes from coal. There were many coal mines in this area. The coal is mined and stored on the hillside in these large bins. When a barge pulls up to the bank to get a load of coal, the bins are opened and the coal shoots down the hill and onto the barge. Interesting!

Because of the rain it was hard to get very good pictures. However, I did manage to get this photo of the Goddess Peak. The Goddess is the tiny little projection to the right of the high peaks. I'm sure there is a story behind the goddess, (there is a story for everything in China), but I can't remember any details.

In the evening on the boat, we were treated to several shows given by the crew. One evening it was Chinese historical costumes, the other evening was a talent show. The next couple of pictures are from the costume show. One of the nice things about the show was that our waiter and the girl who cleaned our room were in it. It was not "professional" like on large cruise ships, but it was very nice and refreshing not to have to worry about whether the material was risque or not.

A close-up of the shoes on the model in the above picture. I don't know how she kept her balance and moved as fast and graceful as she did. Must take some practice!

When we reached the dam, we went through the locks to put us downstream on the river. The locks are huge and can accommodate several boats. These boats were in the locks with us. It was a little like a boat jigsaw puzzle. Our big boat went in first and then they put smaller boats in around us and behind us until there were many different sized boats that were able to fill the lock. It took us over four hours to pass through the five locks.

Here is a picture of the locks from a hill overlooking the dam. They are massive!

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest, all cement dam in the world. Interestingly enough, it is not the highest, nor the biggest, nor does it have the largest lake, but it makes its claim based on the amount of cement used. Because of the way the spillway works, spraying out in the center of the dam, it reminded me of Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.

This picture is about the best I could do. It is taken on a hill overlooking the area of the dam. The rain had stopped and the mist was lifting, but it was still hard to see to the other side.

After we left the dam, we went by bus to Wuhan and then flew home. The holiday for our trip was "Grave Sweeping Holiday." It is similar to our Memorial Day in that it is a day to honor the dead. People put sticks with banners on them by the graves, burn paper money and remember their ancestors. As we were driving I tried to get a picture of the graves we saw along the way. This is the best I could do.

When we left the Three Gorges Area, the river valley opened up into a flat plain covered with farms, and fish ponds. I snapped this picture out of the bus window. The fields were green with new crops or yellow with the blossoming rape seed, used to make canola oil. It was a beautiful end to our trip.