Last Sunday we got on a train at 7:00 AM with some friends and began the journey to Panshan Mountain. Early in the morning the train wasn't so hot but it was crowded. I told Linda that we and several thousand other people were going to Panshan Mountain for a little peace and quiet.
On the ride our friend, Monkey, pictured with (Jim's)sunglasses on, made tuna sandwiches. On the way up we spent as much time as we could looking out the window. It is pretty flat, though, not a lot going on. Farms, villages, farms, villages, etc. Along the way there were several places that looked like there were tombstones sticking up right by the railroad tracks. Monkey's mother verified that they were in fact tombstones.
Once we arrived at Tianxin (sp?) the small town where the train stopped, there was a mad rush for the exits. It was very crowded and hard to keep each other in site since Linda and I had quite a bit of luggage. I really didn't know where we were going so I tried to keep up
. Once outside I found out that there was a taxi waiting for us to take us to our resort - about 20 minutes from the train station.
We had lunch and then took a nap - naps are very important to the Chinese people. we had a little room overlooking a village in the valley below our resort. After napping we went on a hike into town with a slight detour up into some hilly areas. We saw the remains of a wall that was built in the Ming dynasty (the one before the Qing dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty before the republic was established in 1911). I am always amazed at the Chinese penchant for walls. They tend to surround everything with a wall. I originally thought it had something to do with more recent developments but it seems to be a part of their history as well.
We then walked into the village and I thought we were just wandering around but we went to visit some friends of Monkey's mother. We got to see the inside of a couple of places that people actually live in. They're pretty primitive and pretty cool all at the same time. I'm sure I would hate to live in one all the time, but if you were staying at a cabin in the woods for a week it would be a great place to stay. This is a picture of the area in front of the room we stayed in. The red lanterns light at night.
The next morning I got up at 5:30 and went back to the place we had hiked the previous afternoon. I had a nice time for almost two hours hiking around by myself and taking some pictures. After breakfast we started up the mountain via the main road to the top. We walked about 30 minutes and then took a path to try to find the pagoda pictured to the right. We finally found the top part of it and took several pictures and looked around. It is in very poor repair
but I think that adds to its charm. It is not used any more for anything other than a hiking destination. It's just the kind of thing I really like to find. From the top we could not find a way to the bottom part of it so we hiked out to the little gravel road we had taken to the trail and found another route to the bottom part of the pagoda. It really is there in the middle of forest and mountain with no discernible way to it. This was my favorite part of the trip.
I couldn't resist putting in a picture of a morning glory I saw on my walk Monday morning.
Our resort host told us that this part of the mountain looks like 2 people sleeping. You can see it in this picture if you look at it right.
. Once outside I found out that there was a taxi waiting for us to take us to our resort - about 20 minutes from the train station.
We had lunch and then took a nap - naps are very important to the Chinese people. we had a little room overlooking a village in the valley below our resort. After napping we went on a hike into town with a slight detour up into some hilly areas. We saw the remains of a wall that was built in the Ming dynasty (the one before the Qing dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty before the republic was established in 1911). I am always amazed at the Chinese penchant for walls. They tend to surround everything with a wall. I originally thought it had something to do with more recent developments but it seems to be a part of their history as well.
We then walked into the village and I thought we were just wandering around but we went to visit some friends of Monkey's mother. We got to see the inside of a couple of places that people actually live in. They're pretty primitive and pretty cool all at the same time. I'm sure I would hate to live in one all the time, but if you were staying at a cabin in the woods for a week it would be a great place to stay. This is a picture of the area in front of the room we stayed in. The red lanterns light at night.
The next morning I got up at 5:30 and went back to the place we had hiked the previous afternoon. I had a nice time for almost two hours hiking around by myself and taking some pictures. After breakfast we started up the mountain via the main road to the top. We walked about 30 minutes and then took a path to try to find the pagoda pictured to the right. We finally found the top part of it and took several pictures and looked around. It is in very poor repair
but I think that adds to its charm. It is not used any more for anything other than a hiking destination. It's just the kind of thing I really like to find. From the top we could not find a way to the bottom part of it so we hiked out to the little gravel road we had taken to the trail and found another route to the bottom part of the pagoda. It really is there in the middle of forest and mountain with no discernible way to it. This was my favorite part of the trip. We also discovered sumac growing in parts of the mountain so I hope and plan to go back in the fall for a photo day. That time I hope to get to the top of the mountain and get more pictures of food and people. We'll see if we can pull this off.
It was very hot walking so after the trip to the pagoda we didn't walk that much longer and we didn't find anything else of great interest. We headed back to the resort about 12:00, had lunch and got ready to go back (ah, after one more short nap).
We waited for the taxi driver until 20 minutes before
We waited for the taxi driver until 20 minutes before
our train left. Do you remember how
long it took for us to get to the 
resort from the train station? Yeah
20 minutes. So when the driver showed up we were a little excited and worried that we would miss our train. If we missed our train we would have to stand up all the way to Tianjin on the late train (2 1/2 hours). The taxi driver was appartently pretty worried as well. That's the fastest I have traveled in a car since we arrived in China. We made it with at least 2 minutes to spare. Monkey and I wound up running down the tracks because our seat was in the car that was the 2nd from the end. Inside the train it was really hot. The first hour of the ride back I could not stop sweating - yes I was ripe when we got home. Most of the windows on the train would not open so there was not a lot of air movement inside the car we were in. Once in a while when we stopped there was a little breeze for a little while. We were so glad to get back to Tianjin and get off the train. Once again Monkey's father picked us up and took us back to our place. What a great trip.
resort from the train station? Yeah
20 minutes. So when the driver showed up we were a little excited and worried that we would miss our train. If we missed our train we would have to stand up all the way to Tianjin on the late train (2 1/2 hours). The taxi driver was appartently pretty worried as well. That's the fastest I have traveled in a car since we arrived in China. We made it with at least 2 minutes to spare. Monkey and I wound up running down the tracks because our seat was in the car that was the 2nd from the end. Inside the train it was really hot. The first hour of the ride back I could not stop sweating - yes I was ripe when we got home. Most of the windows on the train would not open so there was not a lot of air movement inside the car we were in. Once in a while when we stopped there was a little breeze for a little while. We were so glad to get back to Tianjin and get off the train. Once again Monkey's father picked us up and took us back to our place. What a great trip.
I couldn't resist putting in a picture of a morning glory I saw on my walk Monday morning.
Our resort host told us that this part of the mountain looks like 2 people sleeping. You can see it in this picture if you look at it right.
Today is Friday, June 13th. In addition to being Friday the 13th it is also one of my brothers birthday. Happy Birthday, brother. Next Friday is another brothers birthday. Wow, how lucky can a guy get?
But today I want to post a few pictures from our trip to Panshan Mountain last weekend.
I will add a few things. We took the journey to PanShan with Monkey and her mom Li Men. Monkey speaks very good English and her mom speaks almost none. She seemed very happy to have Monkey translate for her and we used body language, gestures, and facial expressions and seemed to communicate quite well. The trip there and back on the old train took 2 1/2 hours. Monkey made us tuna fish sandwiches for breakfast. She brought a loaf of white bread, a small bag of thousand island dressing, a can of tuna, a head of iceburg lettuce and a set of plastic silverware. She also had disposable gloves. She made sandwiches and passed them to each of us. James ate 1, her mom 2, and Monkey 3. She had not eaten them before and really liked them. She brought games, a piece of paper to play tick tack toe on. She ended up winning just about all of the games. We arrived in a throng of people but the pre-arranged taxi driver found us right away (not sure how he recognized us :) ). We were taken to the "cottages". It was a type of resort for the mountain climbers to stay at. It was on the side of the mountain about half way up. there were 2 levels divided by about 30 steep steps each. We ate on the top level and our room was on the lower. We definitely got our exercise which we needed because they fed us at least 6 course meals. We had 4 of them included with our room for 70 yuan a night per person which is about $10. We barely got there and were served a huge lunch. There were scrambled eggs from free range chickens, a fried carp, really good corn meal cakes filled with fresh herbs from the area ( not greasy), chinese bread, soup, several vegetable dishes and less meat than we are used to. They use cornmeal instead of rice for the carb. We had cornmeal soup, too, which was very bland. The soup was always very bland and served at the end of the meal. There was also fresh fruit, apricots from trees on their land and mulberries which we helped picked. Also lots of fresh watermelon. I regret not getting pics of the table laden with food. We ate outside overlooking the town below in the valley. After a nap we did some hiking and went into the village and met some friends of Monkey's mom's. We were invited into 2 different homes and had melon and tea. We left the village with a bag of corn meal and a bag of apricots and tomatoes. Up the hill to the resort we went and washed our hands and dinner was served again outside on a big round table under a covered area overooking the town. We had the herbs in tempura style, more cornmeal cakes and soup, fried herbs with oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and peanuts; stew with beef, green beans, potatoes and peppers; eggplant with a creamy tan sauce with lots of garlic; chicken with veggies, wild mushrooms with peppers and chicken. After that we took a walk up to the gate to the park and to bed about 10:00 pm. The room we stayed in was nice but the bathroom was a combo chinese style toilet with a shower head and sink all contained in a very small space. It was clean but interesting to shower in especially with only a hand towel each. We were clean, though, and slept very well with the clean cool night air flowing across us from 2 open windows. I take that back, James did not sleep well because of noise from other visitors playing cards. James describes the 2nd day which also included a huge lunch and a short nap before we took off for home. It was a rejuvinating trip with friends, fresh air and local food. Wonderful!
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