After my late night arrival, we all awoke tired and slow from our respective journeys. We ate street noodles for breakfast and I had a deep-fried banana. We made moves towards a nature park at the edge of town. It turned out to be a beautiful park that saw few foreign visitors. There were many different trails to take leading to temples, mountain tops and a small lake.
Our first stop was a quiet Buddhist temple where pilgrims circled and chanted in one of the many rooms. The eerie but enchanting background music followed me as I wandered the various gardens and arches. I took a photo of the swastikas adorning the eaves and wondered if we can ever disassociate the horrific Nazi symbolism from a positive and peaceful Southeast Asian symbol.
Very auspicious.
The park was filled with poorly translated maps and signs, my favorite displayed below.
I love this sign for several reasons, one of which is the hilarious bluntness and sarcasm rarely found in China. It also has relatively little correlation with the Chinese announcement above it. So I assume they either got a foreigner (a sassy one) to translate or somehow stumbled upon this statement and decided it would be a good fit for their sign. However it happened, I approve. It really gets the point across, doesn't it?
As with all Chinese parks, when you go off the main paved road, or in many cases, staircase, you find yourself alone in nature. We hiked up a steep hill after reading a sign chiding us not to "frighten the monkeys," though I stay the hell away from monkeys because they frighten me. I sincerely hoped not to meet any monkeys and my wish was granted for the first twenty minutes.
On our way down from the top of the hill, upon which we were probably radiated medium-rare by several enormous cell towers, we ran into a troop of monkeys. They were minding their own business, but because I was with six young men, of course one of them was going to act like a five-year-old and go monkey chasing. Sorry, did I say "one"? I meant "three or four" or "practically all". I stayed back and took a photo instead.
The monkeys generally stayed away, though we were pursued by a few young males (hmm...) on our hasty retreat down the steps. As we approached the main path, we saw many more monkeys down on the stairs before us and scattered across the road. Chinese tourists were milling around taking photos and feeding them. The Chinese looked up, curious to see a pack of foreigners (aka hairless monkeys) descending the hill. They took some photos but sadly didn't feed us.
After that we went down to the lake and took a rowboat out onto the water. We saw a man painting on the water's edge and paddled over to him. It turns out he was cooking tofu on a little grill for tourists on the lake. We weren't hungry, but he hopped onto one boat and began feeding us tofu squares dipped in mala spices. They were pretty good, especially with the tongue-numbing mala. We paddled off after attempting to pay the man money but giving him a lighter instead. We observed some people diving into the icy lake and swimming laps. I'd had a beer at this point and was feeling a little silly, but beer or no, swimming seemed like a dumb idea in the winter weather. I laughed and attempted to paddle to the dock but on account of the beer, this was difficult. Our race into the marina led to a great knocking of boats and rolling of eyes from the boat owners. I had fun though, and all with just one beer!
From here, we hopped on a train to Zhenyuan, an "ancient town" east of Guiyang. According to Lonely Planet, it was only a couple of hours away by train. So when there were only standing room tickets (on account of the holiday) we thought we could hack it for two hours. Unfortunately, it was more than four hours on the train. With no seats. And hundreds of people who also had no seats. And their luggage. It was a nightmare.
I wedged myself into a corner next to a large Chinese family, half-sitting and half-leaning on my backpack against the doorjamb. There were at least four women, three men, and four babies in the group, constantly changing seats and eating snacks. Eventually, the grandpa took some pity on me and offered me one of the rotating free seats in their row. I tried to be out-of-the-way and moved when necessary but I had a seat for over half of the trip. I got offered a chicken foot and hung out with the babies, who were constantly being force-fed bits of food. There was no moment that their aunties were not pushing fruit, noodles or cookies into their tiny mouths. Even when the kid pushed it away, saying "bu yao," the mommies just kept stuffing it in. It was hilarious but I also pitied them. We didn't really talk much; unusually, they had no interest in asking me questions even though they realized I spoke Chinese. It was nice. A quiet and seated journey.
Meanwhile, my travel companions hung out in the smoking space between cars or in other awkward spaces for standing room passengers. I think they envied my strategic maneuvering which you really must employ without a ticketed seat. I saw one Chinese man camped out in the sink by the bathroom. No hand-washing during this journey!
The trip was worth it though. Zhenyuan was beautiful and uncrowded. We struggled to find hotels for such a large group of foreigners because most of the hotels were not authorized for foreigners. Normally, they just under-the-table give you rooms, but not here. Either the government has been cracking down on foreigner permits or these hotels didn't want to risk it for a few kuai. We decided to split into groups of three and four for better luck. It worked like a charm and I ended up in a beautiful room overlooking the river. It was about $8 per person for a room with a view, heat and hot water.
I don't have any of my own photos from Zhenyuan, but I'll try to get some from friends.
The red lanterns lit up all over town created a charming and picturesque atmosphere. There were few other tourists and in general it was very quiet, other than when we located cheap fireworks to set off. We ate excellent Guizhou food every night, consisting of fish over fried noodles seasoned with mala. I haven't had such consistently good Chinese food ever!
The next day we went hiking up the ridge and over the hills around town. Once we found the trail up it was just thousands of stairs. We thought it was going to be a free trip to the pagodas on the hill until we reached a checkpoint halfway up where a man and wife were selling tickets (student discount!) to the "park" we were entering. Whatever. It was kind of expensive but we were already on our way--clever, clever--so we paid and went up some more stairs.
The weather was kind of nasty and cold but the scenery was pretty and tranquil. I would love to return in the summer or fall for some better weather. Again, I don't have photos of this but I'll try to get some up later...I'm lame, didn't have any batteries. I swear it was lovely.
At the top we found an old wall and a pagoda overlooking the town. We saw maybe three other people hiking around. Perfect.
We came down, a bit damp and tired, so we had a power nap back at our respective hotels. Then we set out to climb up to a conical tower we espied on a different hill. There was obviously a staircase up to it that I'd seen from across town, but I couldn't guess where the bottom was. We ended up walking up a mysterious logging road that ended in a construction site at the railway tracks. As soon as we walked up, the workers started yelling in Chinese and rushing around. It was all very crazy but I think they were just surprised. We asked if we could get up the mountain and they indicated towards the track and said we could either go straight up the hill or THROUGH THE TUNNEL. The all-caps emphasizes that it was possibly the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. A train tunnel? They informed us that we should hurry because the train was coming soon. Luckily someone spotted the staircase around the side so we went up that way. The construction guys laughed and pointed, then began rushing around again as the vibration on the tracks grew louder. We climbed higher and higher while the train rumbled below us. Thank God we didn't take the stupid tunnel.
Oh, and the reason they were laughing at us? Because the staircase seemed to be the toilet for the construction site. Lovely.
We finally hit the path leading up to a beautiful cemetery and terraced farmland. After some photo ops we made for the weird chimney thing atop one of the hills. It was an interesting scramble but I'm still not sure exactly what this thing was. There was no view or visible purpose for it, thought there were spotlights directed on it that lit up around dusk. Everything in Zhenyuan was lit up by spotlights and colored lanterns. You'd think it would be cheesy, but it actually was quite pretty. Romantic, even.
From panaramio.com. Aren't it purty?
The next morning we hopped on a train back to Kaili, a starting point for trips to minority villages in eastern Guizhou. Luckily, this was was a slow, country train with few passengers, so we all got seats. Two hours for a dollar, good deal.
The last part of my Guizhou adventure to be posted soon!
ellen
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