Predisposed to waterfalls and springs: Hefei & Huangshan's surrounding scenery

It's the little things that are most nostalgic.

Like how my grandparents' smiles slowly peak as they watch me gorge myself each meal.... Or how before my grandmother says anything, she'll preface it with "wo gen ni jiang..." ("let me tell you..."). Or how the exact intonations of oh's or ah's or uh's and ai-yah's precisely indicate disparate meanings. Or how even though my grandparents couldn't ask for more money from their daughters who've all made so well for themselves in America/Canada, they still would rather take the public bus than a taxi, or take the remaining napkins from a restaurant than buy a fresh pack from the store, or keep every little plastic bag they get and reuse them all over and over again. Just so many little things that I'd forgotten all rush back memories-- it's quite wonderful a feeling.

On with the recapturing.

After finally arriving on Sunday night in Hefei, we rested almost all day on Monday attempting to overcome the jetlag. I had my hair cut and straight permed at this quite upscale hair salon just outside my grandparents' house. It took literally 3 or 4 hours! At first I wasn't sure about the length/thinness, but now I've come to realize how convenient it is for the summer heat. And I look really Chinese now. :) On Tuesday we went more into the center of the city to a photography studio. They make these amazing glamour shots for ridiculously cheap prices (but then again, every price in China is that), but this process also wasted an entire day. Being pampered with make up and hair-do's and dresses for hours is exhausting! In the end, I've come to realize multiple things:
1. I am way too tan for Chinese culture. In China, pale white skin is fashionable-- if you have dark skin, you're a farmer and low class. If you have white skin, you are presumably rich and sit inside all day. In America, if you are dark, you are presumably rich and spend your day at the beach/lake house outside. So every time I see someone, they always say "ni shai hei le!" ("You've tanned yourself black!") Oh well, I guess I'm not so beautiful here.
2. I should have found a Chinese boyfriend (or at least lied the multiple times I was asked). The interrogation goes: Do you have a boyfriend in America? Is he Chinese? ... Oh... Why don't you find a Chinese man?!
3. I can't smile with two rows of teeth. I don't really understand this but apparently I can't show emotion, haha. Every time the photographer ask me to smile, he'd immediately tell me, "no, too big!" Even my grandparents didn't like my senior pictures because my smile was "too big." Sigh.
4. I don't know any manners. When asked if I was hungry for lunch during the day, I promptly answered yes (the truth). But I realized my mistake when they laughed and labeled my American-ness. In China when you're with people that's not your immediate family, you're supposed to be this different level of "polite"-- "keqi." So if someone asks if you are thirsty, even if you've been crawling in the Sahara for weeks, you must say, "Oh, no, I'm fine, don't worry about it." Your host is supposed to then pressure you, "Don't be so polite! Take this water!" And so the customary exchange goes for everything. So me saying I was hungry was a terrible no-no (but I was forgiven for being American).

Anyway, Wednesday my mom and I left in the early morning on a bus to Huangshan, which is in the southern part of Anhui Province (of which Hefei is capital). Here is a map of Anhui:
The bus ride was a mere 3.5 hours, which my mom said when she had visited the mountains when she was in college in the early 80s, the trip used to take the entire day (8 hours I think). Now, "the Americans" have given a lot of money to build this huge highway that is basically only used to get to this location-- there are hardly any cars on the road except I'm sure those traveling to see Huangshan. My grandparents used to always tell me when I was young that I would have to one day climb the range, but I always imagined a small park or something-- it turns out Huangshan is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

On Wednesday afternoon then we visited 3 of the smaller parks around the base of the mountain. First was "Longfongyuan" or "Phoenix Springs." The park consisted of small springs of the purest water:

I love the sound of running water. I suppose I'm inherently predisposed to loving waters and falls because I'm named after Sichuan (my Chinese name is Chuan, 川) which is a famous river circuit and gorge in China.

Here is a rock that looks like a pig. :)

The water looked so cool and refreshing and delicious-- I wanted to jump in, but signs forbade us as those waters are downstream the drinking waters for the villages around Huangshan.

Below is the setting around the base of the mountain as we drove to our next destination- small villages where all the farmers live who work on Huangshan cha-- the place is famous for its tea cultivation! In fact, we sat in a tea house and tried multiple samples of their tea (delicious). Who knew there were so many varieties?

Next we arrived at "Shemenxia" or "Stone Gate Gorge."
Traditional pagoda entrance.
A stone path led by luscious bamboos.
One of the springs, the character carved there is "yuan" which carries a Buddhist insinuation of fate, or reincarnated destiny to encounter someone or something. (Lost in translation, perhaps.)
Everywhere Huangshan area is most famous for oddly-shaped stones which have been naturally carved by forces of wind, water, weather, etc. This rock above is a dog... which I below mounted.
Climbing the dog stone.
The top of the mountain is here. I wish I knew how tall it was because at the top, I climbed down the side of the rock with those yellow characters carved into it. The hike was a little bit hard to manage-- our tour guide persistently attempted to dissuade my desire to hike the mountain, insisting we hadn't the time.... So I just ran really fast up the stairs until she couldn't say no anymore. :P Once at the top, the labor was worth it for the views- cascading mountain sides endless to sight, verdant with pine trees, woven with plush clouds... in a word, beautiful.
See all those locks.... I caved into the peer pressure:

Everywhere on top of the mountain people bought locks to engrave with your name and the date that you visited. Most were couples who linked their locks together-- you were forbidden to keep the key for eternity's sake, so the man who sold this warned me I'd better be sure that I'm locking away my name to Chris forever.... (But I'll go back with a chainsaw if I have to! Ha, I kid.) I linked mine to my mother's name then linked Chris's below mine; supposedly if you are married you intertwine the locks, and if not, they are linked in succession with the chased one above and the chaser below. (Guess who's on top....) And then tossed the keys off the side of the mountain! (I've decided Chris is coming back to engrave the day when he sees the mountains- the date is now blank.)

So the most exciting part of the trip was me climbing down that first picture of that rock cliff face that had the engravings on it which reads "she men tian xia xiou," translating roughly to "stone gate, beauty unmatched on earth" or "stone gate, heavenly unmatched beauty" or something.... (Again, lost in translation?) Anyhow, the tour guide, the man managing the locks/repelling system, as well as the three college girls my age who hiked up slowly enough to catch the end of my roping, were all really shocked that I, a girl, would dare to do this. (All Chinese girls are delicate and dainty.... sweatily clamoring up the mountain in itself was an indication of my American upbringing.) So I climbed down 2 of the 5 characters, which was enough to give me a taste of the danger of relying on a "safety belt" that could hardly be called a harness [it was just a band across my stomach which the service man had to hold onto so I wouldn't free fall the hundreds of feet (maybe even thousands, I'm not so good at measuring distance with mere eyesight)] and that was probably as old as I am. I did, however, let go of the rope to let both my hands free (which the man claimed no one else had ever dared to do).... Either I'm just bold, or I'm brash and stupid. But I survived. :)
Next we went to Nine Dragon Waterfalls (Jiulongxia).
Entrance with a little pond and water-spouting dragon and goldfishies and whatever else aesthetically pleasing in a garden.
The base of the falls.
On the way up every mountain, there are workers haggling to service you with these bamboo rickshaw for just 50 Yuan (not even 9 dollars). Quite amusing I found-- almost always carrying those fragile Chinese girls who couldn't endure the entire hike (though admittedly it was a little rough).
"Nine-Dragon Falls" is so called because there are nine tiers of waterfalls. The picture above is the first, second, and third tiers. (The one above that is another tier, I think the fourth or fifth?) Can you spot me on the left side of the second tier in the picture below? I'm a white speck! I feel like it really gives you the sense of how enormous and stunning these waterfalls were.

For your laughs again, this is a translated sign beside a waterfall/spring area. (I should just try to find a bad translation for every post, huh. It wouldn't be so difficult.)"Warning: Rain the hour:Prevent the swollen mountain stream occurrence, and please not the water to inside play the water, and keep off the water side, and carefully slip and fall down."
:D Harhar.

I'll begin another entry to describe the Thursday and Friday's events in the actual Huangshan range. We're off to Guilin tonight for four days, after which I'll be flying to Shenzhen to see my biological dad (whom I also haven't seen for 7 years) and my half-sister Lele (in English best as Joy) who is now an incredible age of 11, and then off to Hong Kong for a few days before Thailand! Hopefully I will have time now to finish a post about Huangshan. Otherwise, you can see all my pictures so far at my Picasa web album here. :) Enjoy!

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." - Robert Louis Stevenson

[We'll see if I can keep up with this-- it seems like every minute of my travels from years past should have been captured with a thousand words each, but never could I have found the time to record them all. And now as a matured wanderer of the world, I suppose a log of my thoughts might be good for posterity's sake.]

I've been in China now about a week- more than a week gone from the States. The differences that seven years absent of a return have made to the nation I once called home are more than palpable.

I departed Atlanta Hartsfield at 11:33 AM last Friday the 20th for Minneapolis, where I met my dearest mother for yet another transfer flight to yet another transfer destination- Tokyo Narita International Airport. (The flight was exactly 12 hours, but it was the first time in the past few years where an international flight I've flown had no individual TVs-- torture, I tell you! But I digress.... We Americans are more than just spoiled.) Here we were hassled by a two hour's wait which turned into two hours of trying to procure the right boarding pass for our Air China flight to Shanghai Pudong Airport. (But to be honest, I would have been pleased to be 'inconvenienced' by an overnight stay in Tokyo- she's on my list of to-go's for sure.) Oh, I encountered my first bidet for which I was apparently too bashful to try-- maybe I'll grow the guts on my flight back from Bangkok.

Our penultimate destination held us at almost 11 PM China time, where the negligence of the airport staff misled us to the domestic sector of the airport while our baggage floated toward the international claims. The security guards crowded the entire plane's passengers into one room (first lesson- no personal space in China) where every man and woman was shouting in Chinese about not being able to catch the last bus at 11 to their prospective homes (second lesson- no inside voices in China). Once at the baggage claim, my mom finds that her suitcase is missing (stuck in Tokyo) because we switched flight carriers (Northwest to Air China). My backpack was lucky enough to find its way-- but after losing my bags for two days in Tanzania last summer, I've learned to pack at least a day's worth of necessities in my day pack.

Anyhow, Shanghai-- we made the last bus at 11:05 PM to the stop near our hotel where as soon as our feet touched the ground, we had trailing us workers from small hotels haggling to get our service, regardless of how many times we explained we already booked a hotel. "Your hotel doesn't have windows.... The beds aren't comfortable.... I'll make our hotel a hundred dollars cheaper just for you!" Lugging our stuffs we struggled in the dark streets (no taxes to pay for that wonderful luxury called street lamps) to find our hotel, which turned out to be quite nice for the $40 we were paying (and there was a window with even a river's view- those hagglers know how to lie alright).

The time change is a drag-- we slept for only a few hours and woke up at 6 AM with absolutely no desire to keep dozing. Our morning was really our night (China is 12 hours ahead), and as we wandered in search of a supper, all the smells of customary Chinese breakfast enticed my nostrils-- soy milk soup, fried breadstick things, steamed buns and dumplings, everything!!! Basically my heart is still pounding every time I walk past a street vendor with some delicious treat that I haven't had the conscience to miss the past several years... and now I'm always hungry! And for everything. The most rare fruit (lychee, different berries, watermelon- ok not so rare but I once had to go to the hospital for eating too much watermelon in China-- believe it), or meats (turtle, frog, duck tongue, eel), or whatever other flavor (mung -sp?- bean soup, zhong zi- sticky rice wrapped in leaves basically, tofu bean curf sauce thing, bok choy, and oh, my God, the ice cream popsicles that are like 10 cents each) I can find that isn't found in the States-- I devour. Half the things I can't even name in English! But... I digress-- we ate that morning for less than 3 American dollars a giant breakfast that left me unbuttoning my pants. Next we shopped on Nanjing Road for the afternoon, but prices there were still too expensive for our Chinese tastes. I mean, a $5 (30 Yuan) shirt is too expensive! Haha. We left on a bullet train to Hefei (capital of Anhui Province) in the afternoon which cost a mere $20 for the whole ride. (Another development is this train- it used to take 9 hours from Shanghai to Hefei, but now it's only 4, and with stops too!)

I found this sign funny:
The sign reads "Soft Waiting Lounge" and "Rigidity Waiting Lounge." What they meant was one side was the first class and the other was the coach class. You'd think for a busy train station in the largest city in China they'd hire better translators....

Another observation about China: there are people EVERYWHERE. It is kind of insane, especially in the big cities like Shanghai and Hefei. But 1.2 billion people isn't a joke. I didn't realize the population in Hefei (which is my hometown that I grew up in and always assumed to be a small town just by the nature of my childhood) was nearing 1.5 million people! One of our family friends who happens to be the head of the city government's accounting department said even that number is inaccurate as a new census including the metro area near Hefei is about 3 million! This is my impression of the city (taken in Hefei):
People walking, bicycling, motorbicycling, driving, bussing... everwhere. Driving is also ridiculous here-- well for one, obviously Chinese people can't drive because they're too short to see over the dashboard (joke). But seriously, no one maintains the lane-- if there are 2 lanes, 3 cars will drive across them. The dashed lines are more suggestions than rules. One thing that I found in common with Tanzania is how honking is ubiquitous and not rude or a sign of agitation. Instead, if you'd like to pass another car, you don't use your blinkers, you use your horn... which consequently leaves the city echoing with buzzing car toots. (You're startled the first few days, but your ears will drown them out as simple background ambience soon enough.)

There is also construction everywhere. Sets and sets of buildings on the horizon appear as if some monstrous baby (see Spirited Away, haha) was placing Lego pieces neatly on our roads. The China of yesterday is being slowly replaced by a new face. You see the crumbled dirt roads and alleys of Shanghai in one second, and ten yards away is an air-conditioned high rise with stores like FCUK and some French boutiques.
Top: back streets near our hotel. Bottom: chic Nanjing Road mall.

Well, my mom and I anchored in our seats on the train, and before I passed out, I noticed the men sitting next to us drinking warm Tsingtao beer (for some reason people hate cold drinks in China- always hot tea, warm water, and tepid cola) to accompany their packaged tofu, eggs, and meat-on-a-stick kebab things. Quite made me feel at home somehow. We arrived in Hefei on Sunday night where I was reunited with my grandparents (whom I call my Waigong, Waipuo)!! I thought I would burst into tears of happiness, honest. They were my parents for 8 years of my life, and I owe more than who I am today to them.... I love them so much!

Well, I'm really quite worn out from recapturing just the first two days of my trip. (Blast my silly verbosity!) So far China has been more than graceful to me, a dove that has flown away from her mother as they would say here. I'll try to write more tomorrow about my experience in Hefei and also more importantly, our trip to Huangshan Mountain which was absolutely gorgeous beyond words and pictures! Miss and love everyone back home.