It is hard to see in this picture, but those are trees a few hundred meters past my feet. The Wulingyuan Scenic Area would be stunning on a clear day. Unfortunately it was dumping rain for the entire first day and the low clouds obscured most of the views. It was still fun hiking around and trying to catch a glimpse of the scenery.
The hike through Badachu Park is steep, uneven and in July, very sweaty. This couple hiked all the way up at the same time we did and did a good job keeping up with us. I am always amazed to see women hiking in heels like this. Before this hike I assumed the Vibrams that I wear for hikes like this were the opposite of high heels both in fashion and functionality. I was wrong, it’s only the opposite in fashion.
How does something like this form naturally? This rock is called sledgehammer rock in Chengde China. It is part of the city’s skyline and can be seen from most of the parks. It is said that if this rock ever falls, so will the virility of all the men in Chengde. It is also said that half of the women are trying to knock it down while the other half are trying to prop it up.
Our guide told us that you will “get whatever you want if you touch the rock”. I wished for two things, air conditioning and to not fall off the rock. Both of them came true although the air conditioning took a few hours.
Some random people for scale.
Here is a different view that makes you wonder why it is called sledgehammer.
From the top of Fragrant Hills, you can see the summer palace and downtown Beijing. There are very few days that the pollution is light enough to see this from Fragrant Hills and we were very lucky to hit it just right. The vignetting from my lens is amplified by the HDR processing. Normally I don’t like that but it works for this picture.
We went to Fragrant Hills for a hike and somehow picked one of the best days I have seen in Beijing in the last 2 years. It was clear, warm and almost no wind. We hiked up to the top and then decided to take the chair lift down. It was a great choice, the view from the was amazing.
After a quick-lunch, we got back on the bus for quick 1 hour drive to our next destination, a hike through the terraced fields. When I read the itinerary for the trip, this was one of the events I was very excited about. I had visions of farmers working hard, water buffalo and lots of green. Could it live up to my dreams?
Along the way we picked up the “local” guide to help us find our way. He was dressed in a nice sport jacket, slacks and a clean white shirt. This was a sharp contrast to my shorts and t-shirt. I guess to a local the weather was not quite hot yet. I do appreciate that he took his job seriously and dressed up for the occasion. The local guide had a walking stick in one hand and a white cloth bag over his shoulder. I wondered if he had some props to help explain things or perhaps some tools so we could help plant some rice? Why didn’t he have a backpack and why didn’t we get the tools from him now? So many questions for an illiterate tourist.
We soon reached the point where the road turned into something much too small even for our amazing bus driver. Glad to get out of the bouncing bus we got our extra water and eagerly set out for our 2 hour hike. The scenery was amazing the air was fresh and no rain. Perfect!
The trail was very well maintained and we occasionally saw a few locals walking with casual purpose and always offering a warm smile as we pass.
I stopped to take a short break and as I stood there, a butterfly decided that I smelled like a flower and actually landed on my shoe. I was not fast enough to get a picture and cursed under my breath for a moment. Amazingly it came back and waited long enough for me to take some pictures and call Brenda over to look. Perhaps this should be an ad for Vibram shoes or I should consider a career as a foot model. “Feet so sweet, they attract butterflies”. Nobody would believe it.
The trail continued to wind around and we found ourselves in yet another small village.
Non native guide and other misc people on the trip…
The village had only a few houses and turned out not to be our destination. We pushed on and as the trail got much smaller. Then we ran into this nice fellow going the opposite direction. Somehow the large Americans and water buffalo squeezed by. Again he was very happy to see the funny looking foreigners with the stupid grins.
Brenda standing next to a gorgeous foot model! We look a bit refreshed here because we were allowed a 10 min “smoke” break. Both our local guide and the translator lit up and chatted away while I stood there sweating and grinning. Smoking seemed out of place out here but a lot more people smoke in China than anywhere else I have been.
More local farmers getting their fields ready for…well, I don’t know what, planting I guess. By this time the local guide and our translator were too far ahead to ask questions so we just watched in awe. How often does this man need to do this? Does he bring food up here for his buffalo? Is it his buffalo or is it a time share buffalo for the whole village? Do they eat it when it dies? Once again, too many questions for the illiterate tourist.
I do know that I felt lazy after watching this guy walking in knee deep mud back and forth across the field. I greatly appreciate good hard work and miss my childhood days of splitting and stacking firewood or digging ditches. Of course not enough to quit my day job. Maybe next time I can help out for a day. I would truly enjoy that.
The trail went on, I’m pretty sure the foot model was slowing down the party by taking so many pictures. I think this lady was headed home with some veggies for dinner.
You can see our local guide there with the bag of mystery. Evidently he gave his walking stick to one of the people who needed it more than him.
We arrived at our destination village and wandered around a little bit. It was very similar to the other villages but of course was still beautiful to us and we could not get enough.
We didn’t spend much time in this last village because we spent too much time resting on the hike. It was almost 6pm and the smells of some cooking drifted from some places. With little fanfare, we found the bus and got back on our way to a downtown hotel. After sweating so much a nice shower and soft bed sounded good. To our surprise, the bus took less than 5 minutes to get to the point where we had been dropped off. I guess we took the long road.
The local guide didn’t get back on the bus with us but I did ask our translator what was in the sack he was carrying the whole time. It was nothing like tools or local wisdom, he just stopped by the store for some stuff to save time. Perhaps in life I should look at a plain cloth sack with wonderment more often.
Dinner that night was good but uneventful. Our hotel room was large but again had ridiculously dirty and stained carpets. (What gives with this carpet thing in China?) We quickly found that our room was just above the KTV (karaoke) lounge. Brenda was quick to pull out the emergency earplugs she had been carrying around for the last few years and claimed preparedness victory! The earplugs did help a bit but it didn’t really matter, we were both quite tired from the hike. The heat, humidity and drinking seems to take it out of you.
Balancing Travel and Work 