Sandstorms

Last week was a bit of a letdown, I got a cold. I did recover and was able to see my teacher friend on Saturday. Still coughing because of the sand floating in the air.

Friday night, Alfonso was out quite late. The next morning, he reported that as he was coming back (about 4am) there was a sandstorm. Things did look relatively clear by the time we were up though, and walking around I could see the aftermath. It was still quite windy in the afternoon and there was still a bit of sand flying around. I had an early-ish night Saturday, Alfonso went out again.



I'd kept in touch with the Henan girls I met at the Olympic park, and they wanted to show us Xiangshan (Fragrant Mountain) on Sunday. We met them at Shangdi subway station (one stop from Wudaokou) for lunch. This was clearly getting towards the outskirts of Beijing already. We went to a Hui restaurant (Hui is the main Muslim ethnic group in China), which served similar food to the Muslim restaurant on our campus, but a bit cheaper and much better tasting. Then we had to take two buses - transferring in a place which looked like the towns you see out in the sticks (complete with everyone staring at us, a bit like Qiqihaer) - before reaching the foot of the mountain.


The road to the mountain, small restaurants and shops on either side.

You have to pay to enter the park which contains the mountain, which appears to be the tallest in a small range. Immediately inside is a residence of a Qing emperor, or something like that (these things are all over China, and are all pretty much the same). But we were there to climb the mountain, and climb we did.


The best views are towards the other mountains, not towards the city. The pollution is quite clearly visible.

There are paths all over the mountain, so it is really a matter of climbing stairs. But, there are a lot of stairs. We all had some difficulty getting to the top, except Alfonso, who exercises half an hour each morning to stay in peak physical condition.


The sign says: "Dangerous!No coming close!"

It took us about an hour and a half to get to the peak, where we rested for a while. There is a traditional-looking building selling souvenirs and corn, and a rock to tell you where you are. There are also nice views at the peak, but not as nice as along the Great Wall (which is quite a bit further from the city).


Me, Tian Tian, Alfonso, and Ding Yu, 557m above sea level, according to the rock.

Our Chinese friends seemed to know the place, or at least, could gather more meaning out of the signs than we could. They decided we should go a different way down, to see different views of the mountain (and beautiful Beijing). More stairs.


It was steeper than it looks in this photo.

It seemed like we descended a lot faster, despite a long break on a bench halfway. However, it was getting dark once we got off the mountain proper. On our way out of the park, we were stopped by a monk, who told me I was a tiger or an environmentalist (or maybe both?) in my past life. He was a cool guy and let us have a photo.



We got back to the subway station (civilisation) by about 8, which was too late for the girls. Their dormitory requires they be back by 10, and they were still a distance away from it. They also have classes 6 days a week, so really appreciated the chance to get out and see the sights. Alfonso and I headed back to Wudaokou and ate some Chinese food before going back to our dormitory.