04/07/2010 Climbing the mountains

In Beijing, there are amazing many people. And all with umbrellas, to protect their selves of the sun. It was really hot. This in addition with the 15 million air-conditions and 10 million cars, it really heathen the city up. So, I was really happy to escape on the second day, to the Chinese mountains.
1h with the subway and than 2h with the bus and you reach a beautiful hiking area. To cross the bridge and enter the park, you have to buy a ticket.
But this seems to be not enough for the Chinese business people, so they blocked the bridge with a motor scooter and demand additional money to let the people cross. Here I learned that there is a free hotline number, where people can report these illegal activities. And here, I also learned that these numbers do not help you much, because they need a lot of background information before they act. But, we were lucky and a police car came and made the way free for us.

So we started our hiking journey with sunshine and new Korean friends, which we met in the bus.

Those Koreans, there were really fun. Always chatting, always making pictures and the best: in the middle of the mountains, they took their cookers out and start cooking noodles. :-)

We enjoyed every second, even, the mountain was high, and sometimes, the bamboo stairs seems to be endless. But we also get great benefits. I have never seen such beautiful butterflies. And some of them just came and sit down on our shoes.

Back down, we have had some food and refreshed ourselves in the nearby river.

Than we start waiting for the bus… 1h…2h.. than a bus arrived. It was sooo full, the people were pressed inside and the bus driver was not opening the door, because they would have fallen out. Here, I have only a picture from the second, not that filled bus… but for Germans, still too full. So, some when, I stopped a small van and he drove us for some money back to the city.

I was really tired, and the next day, I have to get up early, but I was also hungry, so I went to a street “full of clubs and bars”. The near street turned out to be half hour walking distance, and the “clubs and bars” where some souvenir shops and tourist cafes. Well, Chinese people, are not really so in outgoing. But the street was fun and I spent longer than planned by watching all the things and enjoying the colder temperatures. A great day!