Saturday, September 23, 2006
Hiking Da Hei Shan
What a glorious day it has been. Leslie, Evan, Becky and I met Tony at the hotel this morning to go on a hike to Big, Black Mountain which we can see from the 12th floor of the hotel and several other places in the city. The mountain has been calling for several weekends and this weekend the stars aligned auspiciously and we were off.
Tony is a delightful young man who walked up to us in the Trust Mart supermarket and introduced himself. He has just graduated from university. He aspires to being an English translator and also teaching. He called Becky and Evan several times to get together and do things after school. Now, Tony is tutoring Evan in Mandarin and others may sign on with him too. He is very personable and interesting.
We took the number 5 bus to the end of the route and walked the rest of the way out of the city and down a country road. The road began to climb and soon we were at the beginning of a stone, stepped path that climbed and climbed and climbed. At the top of the steps is a series of buildings and entrances built in traditional Chinese fashion with intricate and elaborate roofs and rooflines and beautifully painted walls and gargoyles. The buildings were one after the other on up the hillside. At the very top was a Buddist temple built into a stone cave. Incredible and incredibly spiritual. I had carried stones up the mountain for Mary and Susanna and placed them on an altar. It became very clear to me that the day and the hike were dedicated to remembering these beautiful souls. They carried me on and up and on and up.
The hike got arduous and the vistas got to be more and more spectacular. And the hiking party grew. We started out as 5 hikers, picked up a Chinese gentleman who does the hike every Saturday and we were 6. Then we came across a mother and her son and a friend who were curious about us and so joined us and we were 9. Then we came across 8 students who joined us and we were 17! The Chinese are very friendly and very curious about Americans.
We had a simple fruit, bread and peanutbutter picnic high up on a cliff in a huge pagoda. After lunch we parted company from the students and the mother/son/friend trio and the 6 of us climbed down many many steps, stopping at yet another Buddist temple. The rest of the hike was down more steps that meandered through a steep ravine and forests of spectaular trees. Once down, we walked a long road back into the edge of town and strolled through neighborhoods of tall apartment buildings to the number 4 bus. There we parted company from the gentleman who had joined us on the road into the mountainside to hike and jumped onto the bus which dropped up us off one block from the hotel! Tired, sun dappled, calm and full of peace.
Tonight the school staff is going out to dinner to welcome Bill and Blanca who have just arrived from Peru via the southwest states. Bill is the science and math teacher for the middle school as well as the computer teacher. Blanca will be organizing the library. I told you that a lot of life revolves around eatings. We must introduce Bill and Blanca to life in Kai Fa Chu in a proper fashion.
Tony is a delightful young man who walked up to us in the Trust Mart supermarket and introduced himself. He has just graduated from university. He aspires to being an English translator and also teaching. He called Becky and Evan several times to get together and do things after school. Now, Tony is tutoring Evan in Mandarin and others may sign on with him too. He is very personable and interesting.
We took the number 5 bus to the end of the route and walked the rest of the way out of the city and down a country road. The road began to climb and soon we were at the beginning of a stone, stepped path that climbed and climbed and climbed. At the top of the steps is a series of buildings and entrances built in traditional Chinese fashion with intricate and elaborate roofs and rooflines and beautifully painted walls and gargoyles. The buildings were one after the other on up the hillside. At the very top was a Buddist temple built into a stone cave. Incredible and incredibly spiritual. I had carried stones up the mountain for Mary and Susanna and placed them on an altar. It became very clear to me that the day and the hike were dedicated to remembering these beautiful souls. They carried me on and up and on and up.
The hike got arduous and the vistas got to be more and more spectacular. And the hiking party grew. We started out as 5 hikers, picked up a Chinese gentleman who does the hike every Saturday and we were 6. Then we came across a mother and her son and a friend who were curious about us and so joined us and we were 9. Then we came across 8 students who joined us and we were 17! The Chinese are very friendly and very curious about Americans.
We had a simple fruit, bread and peanutbutter picnic high up on a cliff in a huge pagoda. After lunch we parted company from the students and the mother/son/friend trio and the 6 of us climbed down many many steps, stopping at yet another Buddist temple. The rest of the hike was down more steps that meandered through a steep ravine and forests of spectaular trees. Once down, we walked a long road back into the edge of town and strolled through neighborhoods of tall apartment buildings to the number 4 bus. There we parted company from the gentleman who had joined us on the road into the mountainside to hike and jumped onto the bus which dropped up us off one block from the hotel! Tired, sun dappled, calm and full of peace.
Tonight the school staff is going out to dinner to welcome Bill and Blanca who have just arrived from Peru via the southwest states. Bill is the science and math teacher for the middle school as well as the computer teacher. Blanca will be organizing the library. I told you that a lot of life revolves around eatings. We must introduce Bill and Blanca to life in Kai Fa Chu in a proper fashion.
# posted by Sidney @ 5:52 PM 
