Xiang Shan Trip (Fragrant Mountain Park)

Yesterday evening I was invited through a friend of a friend to go "to a mountain somewhere outside of beijing with some people she's never met before." Although the offer sounded dubious, I set my alarm and decided to drag myself out of bed. Even if it turned out to not be a worthwhile trip, I could meet some more people, something I have been really wanting to do.

I met the group in the MacDonald's near our dorm at nine in the morning (there is a McD's in the lobby of the dorm for wealthy students...the number 3 dorm...it's a bit weird, but whatever). I grabbed some hashbrowns and a coffee which altogether cost 11.50 rmb, about 1.80 Canadian I think...I have no idea whether that's the same as in Canada or not. Because there were 7 of us, we took two cabs to the West Gate of Qinghua University, where we were meeting the other people going with us. Once they arrived there were 10 of us altogether. There were two people from Korea, one from Belgium, one from Scotland, one from Holland, one from Israel, one from London, two Canadians (including me), and one Chinese person. So it was a pretty international group. The other Canadian, and the people from Holland and Belgium are of Chinese or mixed ancestry and have come here to learn the language.

We took a public bus from Qinghua to the mountain called Xiang Shan (literally, Fragrant Mountain). Once we got there, it was a relatively long hike up, but there were stairs all the way up, so it wasn't really rough terrain or anything, just a bit tiring on the legs. It was very crowded there, since right now it's a national holiday celebrating the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It's called Guoqing jie in Mandarin. So everyone in country (practically) is on vacation and on the move. Thus, all touristy places are packed. Strangely though, I didn't see any other obvious non-Chinese tourists. Consequently we got a few stares and a few people asked to take pictures with me and the Israeli girl since we were the most obvious foreign people in the group. I always find it a bit weird that people want a picture with a funny looking foreigner, but whatever, it's kind of amusing too.

After getting the the top of the mountain, we found that it was too hazy to really see too much, but we rested and chatted there for a while. I met and chatted with a guy who recently graduated from university and is working in Beijing. 

Edward, the guy in our group who is from England, sat and sketched for a while and the rest of us just relaxed and chatted. I called both my parents and Scott using my cell phone, which was nice to be able to do.

After a while we headed back down and managed to get separated. It took about half an hour of cell phone tag to reconnect, but we finally did. We ate and then lined up to get on the bus home. As is usual here, some people lined up, but many others just cheated and swarmed the bus. So when it was time to get on I had to make full use of my elbows to pull myself on. It requires fighting through a sea of arms and legs. 

I'm home now and tired, but definitely glad I went because I met so many new people. Tomorrow I will probably go with Zoe to  a place 2-3 hours outside of Bejing called Chuandixia, a village with old propaganda slogans all over. So that means another early morning, but hopefully some interesting stories and pictures!

In the meantime, here are some pictures from today. They're rather out of order, but I'm too lazy to fix that right now.

The first three are of everyone as we entered the park at the base of the mountain. I am here with Myra, from Belgium and JiChun from Korea:

This is Harmony from Canada, Yiwen from Holland, and Xiuyong from China (Jiangsu province):
From left to right are Xiuyong, Yiwen, JiChun, Edward (from England), Zhiyi (from Korea), Ilyn (from Israel) and Al (from Scotland):
This was a trash can poorly disguised as a tree trunk:
All the guys who came along on the trip:
Me midway to the top of the mountain and rather hot and sweaty:
There is a bird hiding way in the background, sitting on a tree branch:
First building we saw at the top...it was hot, as you can see from the shirtless guy:
Another view of the same building:
A girl sketching on the mountaintop:
Sketch of the same building by Edward from our group:
Pagoda:

I loved watching these two kids play fighting and the reactions of their delighted and doting family members, including their grandparents:

The girl from Israel:
The friends I went with resting on the mountaintop:


The hazy view from the top:
A dad and kid:
It was busy on the top of the mountain!

Harmony and me. Harmony used to compete in high level figure skating in Canada. Now she is studying kinesiology.