Mother Nature, Wo Ai Ni

If I could get paid for it, think I could blog solely about hiking, biking and trekking across China (and the rest of the world if you let me). There is something about breathing fresh air, sun shining on your skin and the serene silence of nature that gives me a high like I can’t describe. Today was one of those days. Our friend, Chen, asked me to go on a hike with her to see the spring trees (peaches and pears) in blossom. I couldn’t turn down the offer. As we headed towards a mountain park near our home that we often bike to, Jiu Feng Shan, I saw a sight like nothing I’ve seen at a mountain park before. Cars parked for 100’s of meters along the entrance and literally swarms of locals filing into the park. I guess we weren’t the only ones who thought we’d get out on this beautiful, sunny and clear day to see the blossoms!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Chinese, but I wasn’t so excited about being elbow to elbow with a couple hundred of them as we hiked the paths “taking in the nature”. So I was thrilled when Chen suggested we head deeper into the mountains to another hiking path she knew. As we rode a bit further into the mountains, she showed me the small village where she was born, which was unfortunately being torn down (the whole thing) to make room for new development. Chen was born and raised in Beilun and has a lot of pride in local culture and sharing it with Erich and I often.

As we pulled onto a random street and parked the car, we walked through a little village and came to the entrance of another park with hardly anyone else there. So we hiked, or rather climbed, stair after stone stair, coming to an opening where people barbeque and pick tea. There was hill after hill of “cha shu” (tea trees), which aren’t quite ready for picking, but Chen assured that they would be soon. She grew up near these fields and would go to fields similar to this as a child to pick tea after school and during her free time in the spring and summer. As she told me more, she led me scrambling up the hill that had no path, only small tree after tree (more like bushes really) planted on a steep hill. At one point, we got stuck finding our way back down and had to slide a little ways between tea trees to another landing. Eventually we made it back to the trail and came to a fork. The few others we saw there went to the left, so we naturally opted to go left and see what no one else was.

Up we went, and then some more, and when we thought we had reached a peak, we went up more from there. It was a good steep climb made even better by the fact that we saw almost NO ONE the entire way up! Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but let me refer you back to paragraph #1 and the swarms of people entering the other park. Let me also remind you that we live in China. There is no such thing as being alone with 1.3 billion other people living in this country. So this made the journey upward even more enjoyable. Just me, Chen and the great outdoors. There weren’t any peach or pear blossoms on this hike at this park, but honestly, it didn’t matter. The peacefulness of it all was better than any flower on any tree.

After about 2 hours of working the ol’ legs and several false alarms of getting to the top, wo men dao le (we arrived)! I had to help Chen overcome her fear of heights to stand on the rocky peak and enjoy the view, but we could see for miles and miles. We walked along the peak for a bit, passing a few other people finally, and then found a path back down. Along the way, we came to a point where we could see the peak of the other mountain park (the one with all of the people). I should have taken a photo, but it looked like sprinkles on top of an ice cream cone. TONS of little dots of all colors scattered about the peak, poking out of the trees. Boy, was I glad to not be one of them.

We scrambled back down, discussing everything from the cost of tuition in universities across the world to how to walk down a steep incline so you don’t slip and fall to Chen’s proposed curriculum to make me learn Chinese characters faster. Before we knew it, we were back at the car, heading out of the park. Just another hike really, but on such a perfect day with just the right person.