148) Dodging stones in China

Kai and Jingjing in the mists of the Huang Shan Mtns

The river view from my window in Shanghai was impenetrable murk. The air was alive - it has taste and smell and texture. It crawled down your throat. But some locals assured me that it "wasn't too bad..."
















The ICIS conference dinner had a dragon ceremony (?)/dance (it was not explained but was interesting).








But our intrepid adventurers knew something else was afoot. Of course the first trick was to catch a cab - on a rainy night in Shanghai -good luck!

Jingjing harangued the hotel bellman and was either gracious or pushy enough to get a cab somewhat out of turn. We crossed the river into another world (old Shanghai - no skyscrapers here, no flashy malls) to get us to the train station. Lots of street stalls covered in blue plastic tarps with bare light bulbs illuminating buckets of ??, scads of scooters, bicycles, PEOPLE in throngs.
We eventually arrived at the train station (where Jingjing reminded us not to ever look away from our bags). Now we were in a foreign land - the only 2 Caucasian faces in the place, all signs in Chinese - an easy place to get lost.





Kai spent his time reading up on what to do should one get lost. I focused on not letting Jingjing (a Shanghai native) out of my sight!













We had booked a sleeper section of the train - 12 hrs to Huang Shan. An interesting system of giving the conductor your ticket (which went into a binder) and receiving a card in return. Then reverse the process. We were admonished not to lose that card!

Squat toilets that simply exited onto the tracks...

It was about here that I realized that making this trip with significant kidney stone symptoms was not one of my smarter choices..... medical help was NOT nearby....









Kai watching the rainy countryside drift by where every bit of land was planted in vegetables...




















Our guide Ling met us at the train and whisked us off to the base of the mountain. Lunch first - pick your ingredients and the cooks make something. The dining rooms had no heat and it was about 33 F and raining outside - not the dining coats!

We rather underestimated the size of the dishes - Two more large dishes were delivered and we were not even close to finishing.




The cable car view was rather impeded but offered tantalizing glimpses of cliffs and wild looking trees..










The cable car gains about 800 meters in elevation and cuts off 7 km of trail. The trail we were taking was a 900 m elevati0n gain over 9 km to the hotel. Most of the path is cut into the rock- hundreds of steps, all stone walkways with concrete railing formed into tree-shapes (no metal due to summer lightning!)





















The lazy man's way to get to the hotel - and not at all expensive!













This tunnel ended at a jet-black lake with a single wizened tree over it. I couldn't help thinking of the entrance to the Mines of Moria...
















The shorter and "more interesting" path up a long set of *really* steep steps. This way was supposed to lead to marital happiness (the other way led to financial success). Then we found out that marital happiness included a mistress......huh?

























Dirk tossing a key....
The railing is festooned with engraved locks (a small booth selling locks - to be engraved on the spot, was right there). Couples and families attach the lock to the railing and then..... toss the key into the abyss (named the Grand Canyon) as a symbolic gesture of being together forever.

There were stories of people searching the canyon below






Mere glimpses through the clouds...










The hotel was pretty posh given that everything in its construction was carried up the mountain!

But the next morning dawned (in a manner of speaking - we did did not get up to hike to the dawn promontory point) to freezing drizzle. Quite beautiful on the trees, freezing Jingjing's hair... and coating every stone step with black ice.

Dicey....





Kai, our token Norwegian, also wanted to pose with the rime-ice as it reminded him of his youth walking barefoot, uphill (both ways) in the dark to school.

But he has less hair......










Personally I was amused by the pictures on the hand dryers in the bathroom. Did I mention kidney-stones! I was wondering why I left OZ.











One of the views available on a clearer day....


These pictures were along the structures housing the cable car down. We successfully navigated the ice encrusted wood bridge and more steps to crowed into a large cable car and swing out over the abyss .. large cliffs dropping away in the rain...





One of the exotically carved "ink stones" the town is famous for...













Lots of well built umbrellas festooning the zipping scooters









Ling dropped us at the airport and hustled us through the VIP line (no wait). Apparently that is how things get done here - it is who you are and who you know.

I tried to convince Jingjing that that orange sun was not quite natural - just common.

Off to Beijing!