Zhangjiajie, Part 4: Climb Every Mountain!

Saturday, March 20th, 2009
7:42am
In bed, Changsha Sheraton Hotel, Changsha, Hunan Province, China

UUUUUuuuuuuugh. Cannot get out of bed. Legs sore! Heheheh... super sleepy. Mreeeegh.

Yesterday, got up at 7:00am and joined the Japanese tourists in the restaurant for breakfast. A meal voucher was included in the cost of my room, but MAN, they served me SO MUCH, and I ATE IT ALL!!!

Simone's Marathon Breakfast

• Three glasses of warm soy milk
• Three pieces of toast with jam and butter
• A bowl of rice mush
• A large bowl of noodle soup
• An ear of corn
• A rice bun

I emptied my room, checked out, and was off to the park, with a REALLY full stomach. I needed the energy though, because I was determined to walk to HuangShi Village, which is at the highest point of Zangjiajie National Forest Park. The villiage is at the end of seven kilometers of stairs, and it took me about an hour and a half to get there.
It was a crazy walk! Unfortunately, it was super cloudy, so the amazing views I was hoping to see were out of the question, but it was fun to walk past the occasional food vendors, and the tourists were hilarious! Everyone was super friendly. I walked past tons of tourist groups and friends and families, and everyone said "Hallo! Hallo!!" Again, many wanted me to pose for pictures with them, and one couple even bought me a fresh cucumber to munch on, which was v. delicious.
All the attention I got was surreal. I mean, how does one adjust to being stared at everywhere she goes? I guess I have an idea of what it's like to be a celebrity now. I'll admit that it's super flattering to be asked to pose for pictures and to be noticed by people, but it's super tiring, too. My heart goes out to you, famous people! I'm kind of excited about going back to America, where I'll be invisible again. Hehee.
I'm afraid that HuangShi villiage was rather anti-climactic. It was so misty up there, you could wave your hand in front of you and see the clouds swirl around your hands. It was super dreamy and cool, but we might as well have been standing in a parking lot, because nobody could see a thing.
Nevertheless, I decided to walk the loop trail around the peak, and since it was pretty much empty, I sang all the way around! It was fun.
By this point, my boots had really started to chafe, so I was ready to end the hike. I took a gondola off the peak, and walked back to the hotel. The manager told me that it would cost me around 150 yuan to take a taxi back into Zangjiajie City, but that it would only cost me 10 yuan to go by bus, so obviously I opted for that! I'm glad I did. The bus snaked through residentail areas and smaller villages, so I got a really good idea of what the surrounding area was like. There were lots of farms and chickens, and broken-down looking houses with people squatting around the front. Part of me wanted to get out and hang out- to see more of what rural life in China was like- but I was also really tired and ready to catch a bus back to Changsha.
Timing was perfect. My bus arrived at the Zangjiajie bus station at 2:25, and I got a 2:30 bus back to Changsha. The bus ride was mostly uneventful, aside from the fact that something large hit the windshiled, putting a basketball-sized indentation in the center of the glass and extending cracks all the way to the rim.
Oh, but MAN, I was glad to get off that bus. Everyone kept lighting up cigarettes! I DESPISE BReATHING SECOND HAND SMOKE!!! Honestly, I'm a cheery, positive, compassionate girl, but if someone lights up next to me and either makes me breathe his exhaust or gets my clothes stinky, I become a hateful, violent individual. I sure was in a sorry state for most of that ride- I tied a wadded up shirt around my face to get over the awful stink, but that only made it hard to breathe, so not only was I pissed, I was deprived of oxygen and pissed. Bad combo.
The taxi cab ride was pretty interesting! At the Changsha bus station, I showed the hotel's card to several drivers on the street, and they all turned me down. I decided then to approached the group of parked drivers, and I found one who would be willing to take me. When he led me over to his car, I found that the back seat was occupied by two limp teenagers, bodies entwined like those of Romeo and Juliet, with the girl reclining on the boy's lap and the boy's arm laconically hanging from the window, a cigarette hanging between two fingers. I got into the front, wondering how normal it was to have extra riders like this, but ultimately I was glad they were there! Five minutes into the ride, the girl woke up, and spoke with me a bit, and at the ened of the ride, she even gave me a picture of her and another with her posing with her boyfriend. They were too cute!
As soon as I made it to the Sheraton lobby, I met Steve and Nathan, who were chatting over drinks in the lounge. I showered and joined them, where we were soon met by a bunch of other business associates, including Lynn, who is getting a masters in medical English and is just about the coolest girl ever. We all went for dinner together, and it was lovely to chat with everyone.
I went for a walk alone after dinner and found a park on the roof of a Carrefour. It was super cool! All the couples and kids and youth in the area gravitated there, so it made for excellent people watching. By then it was rather late, though, so I headed back to the hotel and basically passed out in my comfy Sheraton bed until Steve turned on CNN at 6:45 this morning for reasons I cannot yet comprehend.
Ah well, I suppose I should try out my legs to see if they work and pull on my suit. I'm off to the conference today! Hopefully I'll get to hang out with Lynn. Good times!