Gareth and I decided to go on a hike yesterday. The weather was beautiful -- around 80 degrees with a nice constant breeze to keep things cool. We had hiked this same route before, but decided to go farther than the time before. Get ready for a lot of pictures today.
Awesome clouds, awesome shadows. This place is beautiful.
Awesome clouds, awesome shadows. This place is beautiful.
Unlike the last time we went hiking, this hike has no stairs. It takes about 20 minutes to walk through an adjacent part of Dazhai until we actually reach the dirt path that leads you up the mountain. Since we've seen a few cars and motorcycles on the path, I suppose it could be called a road, but it certainly wouldn't be considered one in the US.
Gareth "trying" to hitchhike his way back down the mountain. The road is really bumpy and not quite suitable for this kind of car, but whatever. We're in China!
The first time we took this hike we paid very little attention to the direction we were traveling. This time, however, we paid more attention. We looked at specific clouds, noting that our school was to the right of the big puffy one, and reorienting whenever we made a turn. Our efforts paid off, and we were able to locate our school for much of the time.
Hopefully you can figure out which one our school is.
Gareth brought his monocular with him for whatever reason, but it ended up coming in handy. We called River, one of the Chinese fellows in our group, and asked him to go out to the basketball court. When looking through the monocle, we could actually see him! As you might imagine, he had no idea where we were though. Even though we stand out while wandering around Dazhai, apparently we blend in to a huge hill pretty well.
Red arrow: me scoring a basket (as rare as a slender loris being captured on film). Yellow arrow: where Gareth and I hiked to (just where the treeline stops). Thanks to Vice Principal Shi for the awesome shot.
I don't remember the things that Gareth and I talked about all that well, but I can guess that we talked a lot about how crazy it is that these people do the same thing every day and don't understand how big the world is, how awesome his Teva's are (they really are sweet for hiking), and how we really like eating the rare piece of pork meat but not the 90% of the pieces that are pure fat.
This is a Chinese driveway. I guess they have to be really careful when pulling in their SUVs after a snowstorm since they don't have those red reflective thingies sticking out of the ground (this was a joke -- well, the second part was).
As Gareth and I were walking down the path, we started to see lots of children. Both of us recognized many of our students and they were incredibly surprised to see us in their mountain. They were on their way back home for the long weekend. These students live at least a 1 hour walk away from school. One of my students lives a 3 hour walk from school. The groups of kids we saw were all quite large (5-10 students), and even though a 1.5 hour walk to school sounds miserable, I bet it's actually kind of fun.
Country roads, take me home...
Here's a picture of Gareth on the same path. I think it's a pretty cool picture. It felt like we were in a narrow pathway, but the scenery in the background shows that we were really part of something bigger.
Unreal.
Finally, a picture of some neat details from a roof. The roof was at eye-level which made taking pictures incredibly convenient. Pretty old-school Chinese if you ask me.
This looks like it could have been taken in the 1980s (maybe except for the power lines, which seem to ruin every beautiful picture I can frame in my mind).
Next hike, Gareth and I plan on getting to the top of a mountain. My goal is to be able to see the bottom half of the huge clouds that dominate our sky. Until then...
Gareth "trying" to hitchhike his way back down the mountain. The road is really bumpy and not quite suitable for this kind of car, but whatever. We're in China!The first time we took this hike we paid very little attention to the direction we were traveling. This time, however, we paid more attention. We looked at specific clouds, noting that our school was to the right of the big puffy one, and reorienting whenever we made a turn. Our efforts paid off, and we were able to locate our school for much of the time.
Hopefully you can figure out which one our school is.Gareth brought his monocular with him for whatever reason, but it ended up coming in handy. We called River, one of the Chinese fellows in our group, and asked him to go out to the basketball court. When looking through the monocle, we could actually see him! As you might imagine, he had no idea where we were though. Even though we stand out while wandering around Dazhai, apparently we blend in to a huge hill pretty well.
Red arrow: me scoring a basket (as rare as a slender loris being captured on film). Yellow arrow: where Gareth and I hiked to (just where the treeline stops). Thanks to Vice Principal Shi for the awesome shot.I don't remember the things that Gareth and I talked about all that well, but I can guess that we talked a lot about how crazy it is that these people do the same thing every day and don't understand how big the world is, how awesome his Teva's are (they really are sweet for hiking), and how we really like eating the rare piece of pork meat but not the 90% of the pieces that are pure fat.
This is a Chinese driveway. I guess they have to be really careful when pulling in their SUVs after a snowstorm since they don't have those red reflective thingies sticking out of the ground (this was a joke -- well, the second part was).As Gareth and I were walking down the path, we started to see lots of children. Both of us recognized many of our students and they were incredibly surprised to see us in their mountain. They were on their way back home for the long weekend. These students live at least a 1 hour walk away from school. One of my students lives a 3 hour walk from school. The groups of kids we saw were all quite large (5-10 students), and even though a 1.5 hour walk to school sounds miserable, I bet it's actually kind of fun.
Country roads, take me home...Here's a picture of Gareth on the same path. I think it's a pretty cool picture. It felt like we were in a narrow pathway, but the scenery in the background shows that we were really part of something bigger.
Unreal.Finally, a picture of some neat details from a roof. The roof was at eye-level which made taking pictures incredibly convenient. Pretty old-school Chinese if you ask me.
This looks like it could have been taken in the 1980s (maybe except for the power lines, which seem to ruin every beautiful picture I can frame in my mind).Next hike, Gareth and I plan on getting to the top of a mountain. My goal is to be able to see the bottom half of the huge clouds that dominate our sky. Until then...
great post, and sounds like a really good way to spend the day. do they have any rock walls for you guys to climb?....