It has been a really long day! Herself, her mom, Becca, (wedding nazi) and the bride-to-be went to the big city to go to the fabric market for some wedding stuff, etc, so Ahneka generously offered to take us to some mountain (don't know the name, couldn't spell it if I did) that the Chinese reckon is the center of the world. I don't know how that works, exactly, but one thing I've learned is that they aren't the most logical people in the world. I know that they claim that the little town we are in (300,000 to 400,000) is the "birthplace" of China, where some ol' boy or another started the Chinese culture; changed it from a tribal culture to something of a dynasty or empire. You can still see the original city wall around the middle part of the city; they cut through it to make roads go through it. You can see the strata of layers of pounded earth. They told me it was already here at the same time as when Moses was a kid. Maybe that has something to do with the whole center of the earth thing.
Anyway we got on the bus to go to this mountain, I had Elvis, his 2 oldest kids, Heather Madgwick and Ahnika with me. Standing room only except for the kids; save one seat, the lady that takes the money on the bus gesticulated that I should take it; far be it for me to give the impression that Americans are soft, none for me, thank you! So as we creep through the town, I didn't know that we were looking for more fares; I thought we were pretty full, but we just kept stopping for anybody with their hand waving. We even had several people stop and put stuff on the bus, but not get on themselves. One guy dropped off a computer and monitor, another dropped off a big spool of speaker wire. The guy receiving it stops the bus and asks for it and just pays the 1 qui for the delivery! Pretty good method, I thought. But man! Just jam-packed! I literally had some woman with breath that smelled like the back side of a week dead skunk breathing right in my face only 6" away. I can get enough of that real quick, it's almost funny that we would still stop for more fares even though they couldn't hardly get the door shut because we had most of a little old lady sticking out the door. There always seemed room for one more! After a while there were some that decided to pass and keep walking until the next bus came. But we rode the bus like that for about an hour, maybe hour and a half. I was pressed close enough to the window and I got to see some interesting countryside, if you can call it that. Talk about your urban sprawl! No where is there a patch of wheat larger than about 10 acres. And they farm everything! I saw wheat planted in areas 10' x 8'. I took lots of pictures that I won't bore you with, but talk about dilapidated old buildings; in the "suburbs" or little villages they are pretty poor, I guess. I did see a few larger vehicles in this land of microcars, microvans, and microtrucks. I saw several 22 wheeled tractor/trailer rigs, just with an extra dually axle, but not as wide as trucks in the US. If you could only see how they load up these little 3 wheeled vehicles with construction materials, trash, etc. Its hilarious how high and wide they can pile stuff onto them. You also see a lot of woman running around on scooters with their kid riding standing up in front of the mama. Not in the states!
One interesting thing is that you hardly ever see a tree larger around than about 6" at most! Jonathan said that in the '80's China became almost completely deforested, due to over-cutting of timber, mostly to burn for steel production. So then they had a big push to replant them, so nearly all (actually all, near as I can tell) trees are planted in neat little rows everywhere with white paint on them for the bottom 4 feet, I guess to keep the bugs off. We went down one street that had an older university on it that the street was lined with trees about 14" around and Jonathan was commenting about how beautiful the street was because of these big trees. I can't wait for him to come to the States someday!
So when we got to the mountain, we started up it (because it was there, of course) There were a lot of stairs! On the way back down, I counted 2,051 stairs that we climbed up and back down, and that doesn't even count any inclined elevations, of which there were a lot. When we got to the top, there was a cool temple/monument at the top; really quite large. How they got all that quarried cut stone and concrete material up there I don't even want to know. Roughly guessing, I would guess we climbed around 1500' of elevation today. On step number 474 on the way back down, we got stopped by some Chinese kids that were on their way up. The one kid told me "I saw you on the Number One Bus the other day! I am bible student! I go to church outside of SIAS!" Imagine riding a bus in a town the size of wichita, seeing someone that looks like me, then remembering me three days later. Thats how rare us gringos are here in China.
Anyway we got on the bus to go to this mountain, I had Elvis, his 2 oldest kids, Heather Madgwick and Ahnika with me. Standing room only except for the kids; save one seat, the lady that takes the money on the bus gesticulated that I should take it; far be it for me to give the impression that Americans are soft, none for me, thank you! So as we creep through the town, I didn't know that we were looking for more fares; I thought we were pretty full, but we just kept stopping for anybody with their hand waving. We even had several people stop and put stuff on the bus, but not get on themselves. One guy dropped off a computer and monitor, another dropped off a big spool of speaker wire. The guy receiving it stops the bus and asks for it and just pays the 1 qui for the delivery! Pretty good method, I thought. But man! Just jam-packed! I literally had some woman with breath that smelled like the back side of a week dead skunk breathing right in my face only 6" away. I can get enough of that real quick, it's almost funny that we would still stop for more fares even though they couldn't hardly get the door shut because we had most of a little old lady sticking out the door. There always seemed room for one more! After a while there were some that decided to pass and keep walking until the next bus came. But we rode the bus like that for about an hour, maybe hour and a half. I was pressed close enough to the window and I got to see some interesting countryside, if you can call it that. Talk about your urban sprawl! No where is there a patch of wheat larger than about 10 acres. And they farm everything! I saw wheat planted in areas 10' x 8'. I took lots of pictures that I won't bore you with, but talk about dilapidated old buildings; in the "suburbs" or little villages they are pretty poor, I guess. I did see a few larger vehicles in this land of microcars, microvans, and microtrucks. I saw several 22 wheeled tractor/trailer rigs, just with an extra dually axle, but not as wide as trucks in the US. If you could only see how they load up these little 3 wheeled vehicles with construction materials, trash, etc. Its hilarious how high and wide they can pile stuff onto them. You also see a lot of woman running around on scooters with their kid riding standing up in front of the mama. Not in the states!
One interesting thing is that you hardly ever see a tree larger around than about 6" at most! Jonathan said that in the '80's China became almost completely deforested, due to over-cutting of timber, mostly to burn for steel production. So then they had a big push to replant them, so nearly all (actually all, near as I can tell) trees are planted in neat little rows everywhere with white paint on them for the bottom 4 feet, I guess to keep the bugs off. We went down one street that had an older university on it that the street was lined with trees about 14" around and Jonathan was commenting about how beautiful the street was because of these big trees. I can't wait for him to come to the States someday!
So when we got to the mountain, we started up it (because it was there, of course) There were a lot of stairs! On the way back down, I counted 2,051 stairs that we climbed up and back down, and that doesn't even count any inclined elevations, of which there were a lot. When we got to the top, there was a cool temple/monument at the top; really quite large. How they got all that quarried cut stone and concrete material up there I don't even want to know. Roughly guessing, I would guess we climbed around 1500' of elevation today. On step number 474 on the way back down, we got stopped by some Chinese kids that were on their way up. The one kid told me "I saw you on the Number One Bus the other day! I am bible student! I go to church outside of SIAS!" Imagine riding a bus in a town the size of wichita, seeing someone that looks like me, then remembering me three days later. Thats how rare us gringos are here in China.
The bus ride back wasn't nearly as packed as the ride up, and we were some of the first to get on the bus so we managed to get seats. We had the rare privilege of stopping in one of these little villages and we picked up a real "character". He must have been a culturally uncharacteristically funny guy, especially for an old guy. I get the idea that "funny" isn't real high on the list of important stuff, in the Chinese culture, but I'm pretty sure this guy had it. He instantly started pointing at us and talking very animatedly, and pretty soon he had the whole bus laughing. At first, it was irritating, but then I got thinking that I might be laughing too, if only I could understand him. But after 20 or 30 minutes if it, though, I had enough if it, and I just started staring at him with my best "mean-mug", and pretty soon he finally shut up.
Man, am I wiped out! I've had enough for today... The girls are still doing girly stuff; making clothes, paper cranes, paper balloons, potting plants?, and whatever else people do before weddings...
Man, am I wiped out! I've had enough for today... The girls are still doing girly stuff; making clothes, paper cranes, paper balloons, potting plants?, and whatever else people do before weddings...
Becca at the fabric market
Its like JoAnn's times 100; at 100th the cost!!!
Little farms
At the base of the 2050 steps up to the summit.
Almost there!
Temple on the mountain.
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