Xiling Adventure Cont'd. (Friday, January 30th)

On Friday, we all woke up at 7 am, got dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast. Jared and Kevin got ready before us and had coupons for a free breakfast so they went downstairs before us girls did. When we got to the dining area, Kevin and Jared were just leaving. We asked them how the breakfast was and they said it wasn't great. We still had to eat something, so we decided to give it a try. It really wasn't very good. The breakfast (which was cold already) consisted of hard boiled eggs, red beet or regular baozi, roasted peanuts, cabbage, some other nasty stuff that I don't know the name of, and rice porridge or something like that. I only ate the peanuts and the three baozi I had. After breakfast, we returned to our room, finished getting ready and packing up all of our stuff, and checked out of the hotel. We walked to the tram that lead to the peak of the mountain and bought tickets. We waited in line and then rode the tram up for about 30-45 minutes.

On the tram


Emma and I awaiting the cold






From the top once we arrived


Emma and I thought the ride would never end. We weren't expecting to go as far up as we did. Supposedly, we went up 3000 feet in total. We even passed through the clouds, which was really cold. Once we arrived to the top, it was so unbelievably sunny and breathtaking. The clouds, sun and mountains engulfed us. I can barely describe in words the beauty of this mountain. It was stunning.
When we got off the tram, we walked up to where the trails were. However, it took us a while to climb the stairs because we were taking pictures and out of breath due to the lack of oxygen.
Kevin, Jared and Gloria arrived to the trail/restaurant/overlook/resting area before we did and had already bought some food and were eating.

The way up to the resting area


Tianjing Gate

"On the Sun and Moon Ground, you may linger on to the fundamental changes of the world"


"In the Yin and Yang Demarcation, you can feast your eyes with the primitive mirages"



The resting area (I'm not exactly sure what these buildings are for. I don't think anyone could stay in them.)




Emma, Gloria, Kevin and Jared eating and relaxing before the hike

Videos: Overlook of the area



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=966TY-CHSMw

One of the overlooks

Views







Trying to act Chinese. All Chinese pose like this.


Posing the "western" way :)


It was really bright


After the photo shoot, we began our hike.

The hiking trails

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzpCVq7I4d4



Jared, Gloria and Kevin went down this scary side trail.



So I went to check it out, too.



These are some of the steep and unsteady stairs

So I turned back around and used the safer trails (seen below)


An oddly shaped tree




"Fireproofing in Forest is Everyone's Duty"- I love Chinese signs that have been translated into English







People getting carried because they got too tired to walk back on their own.


A cute chipmunk




Clouds






This sign says that Bison come to these mountains in search for food.

The little red building in the distnace was my starting point.







I had gone pretty far by this point. I was sitting down to rest and took a picture of myself.





The trail kept going to the other side of the mountain, but I decided I didn't want to go that far.





Once I returned to the starting point, I got something to eat (a sausage and potatoes on a stick) and rested for a while.


Once the guys returned from their hike around the whole mountain, we had a group picture.


On our way back down




We weren't sure whether or not the people in line were happy or mad. I thought they were mad because they were being cut off by VIPs and Emma thought they were happy because the line was moving... Either way I was happy to be leaving. My feet were so cold because my socks had been soaked through with water.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8smooW8O0Q



Once we got off the mountain and out of the park (Gloria, Jared and Kevin hiked back down and beat us, so they grabbed a bite to eat), we checked to see if there were any buses that went back to Chengdu. Of course, all the buses had already left for the day, so we had to take a van back. Jared asked some of the drivers how much it was to take their van and the cheapest we found was 60 kuai per person. We decided to go with them and we all got in the van when they tried to put more people in with us. The van was already fill with the five of us and, from what I understood, they wanted to put another family in. We told them that they wouldn't fit and they tried to tell us that if the other family couldn't come with us, they'd make us each pay 70 kuai. We said no and then they asked if they could put in other people. I was getting so angry because I was tired, hungry, and ready to go home and the only thing standing in my way was the ride back to Chengdu. I lost my cool and started arguing with one of the drivers or whatever he was saying that they couldn't put more people in. Gloria and Jared told me to calm down, I turned around in my seat and kept my mouth shut for the rest of the drive. They finally put 2 or 3 people in with us and we started our way back. When we got into Chengdu about one or two hours later, the driver dropped us off and we had to find a taxi to drive us back home. We found another van that would take us to our apartments for 40 kuai altogether. We finally got home around 10 pm and I ate some dinner and went to bed.