November 25, 2004
Thursday morning I left the apartment and met Grace, Nancy & Jurgen at the school for a tour of the city. Some tour! The only time I saw parts of the city was on a bus to Mount Yuelu which is across the bridge on the west part of the city. This city is huge mind you and we passed the major downtown shopping area. The streets are so wide there the traffic actually stays on it’s own side of the road – although oblivious to the lanes going in the same direction. There were even traffic lights at major intersections. It looks like downtown Toronto with Chinese signs. There is also an area called “Walking Street” that is closed off to traffic for a couple of blocks. I can walk to there from here – someday when it’s not so cold. We even passed a Walmart Supercentre!

The west side of the city is where a lot of the unversities are located. We got off the bus, walked past a statue of Chairman Mao (Jurgen in pic) and headed toward a touristy area and started walking uphill ……..this was the beginning of a 2 hour hike up and around and up and around Yuelu Mountain.top we had a glass of green tea in a restaurant and headed down. Nancy suggested we take the cable cars down………..I said “What? Why didn’t we take them up and walk down?” (That would have made more sense to me.) But unfortunately they were shut down for the winter so we had no choice but to walk down another 2 hours. You would think that wouldn’t be bad but I had used so many muscles on the way up I was hurting – then used the rest of my good muscles coming down. Needless to say I was hurting all over when it was finished! We passed a monastery and saw the monks “hanging out” near the entrance. I did not take any pictures. At one point my camera bag had slipped off my shoulder and was laying in the road behind us. Thank goodness I realized right away and ran back for it. So I was keeping tight wraps on it. About half way down there was a sign and picture of a slide to the bottom. One made of metal where you sit on a mat. They asked me if I wanted to go on it. I said Yes! We walked down about 50 steps to that area and of course it was closed too. So they decided rather than walk up the 50 steps again we would walk down a small path beside the slide…………..bad idea! It was hilly and steep and sometimes slippery with leaves. Thank goodness I had worn my running shoes. I was so happy it was winter here – all the small animals and snakes that would probably inhabit the area were hibernating! We made it to the bottom to encounter an 8 foot concrete wall with no way out except to jump down onto a roadway. Nancy and Grace (being short) were devastated. Jurgen who is 6 ft. tall just jumped no problem. I thought it over and decided not to jump and possibly break a leg. So I turned on my stomach and shimmied down. Whew! I made it. After a little coaxing and help from Jurgen we got Nancy and Grace down.

We were all starving and the girls took us to a fancy Chinese restaurant for hot pot and cchamomille tea. When they asked what I would like to drink I said a beer would be wonderful! And I was celebrating the fact that I had made it to the top and back down – safely! Jurgen and I split a big bottle. It was very cold and tasted great. Let me explain hot pot hot pot. In the middle of the table there is a hole with a burner underneath. They put a large metal bowl in the hole. In the centre of the big bowl is another bowl. The outside ring contained a dark oil with hot spices and a few “things” floating in it. The centre bowl had a non-spicy oil with veggies floating. They brought plates of raw meat (beef & lamb), noodles, bird eggs, fish balls and romaine lettuce. You used your chopsticks to put food in the oil and cook it. I would call it Chinese Fondue! It was very good! I ate everything except the lamb. They couldn’t tell me what kind of bird the eggs came from but they tasted just like chicken eggs but were the size of those smal chocolate eggs you get wrapped in coloured foil and in a mesh net at Easter.
When I arrived home I laid on the couch for 2 hours and rested! I felt like I had been doing extreme sports all day! Kim is from Calgary and says that compared to the Rockies, Mount Yuelu is a “hill”. I don’t think so! It’s a freakin’ mountain! Thank goodness I had the next day off too………