Li Shan Mountain

I went for another hike last weekend. The season for getting outside is quickly coming to a close, so I am getting in as much as I can. The mountain is called Li Shan. It is directly behind the University that teach at. At the Post Office they sell a card for 70 yuan that gets you into a bunch of places for free. Including Li Shan and the Drum/bell tower (sorry mom that I didn't figure this out sooner). So instead of paying 40 yuan to hike the mountain, I got in for free with my new card.

The pictures above are from the base of Li Shan mountain. The mountain is about 2,000 meters from the base to the peak which is 6,561 feet of vertical ascent. It was somewhat warm at the base, but I was glad I brought my fleece when we reached the summit.

Here is a glimpse of some of the many steps that lead to the summit.

These pictures were taken in an old WWII airplane used by the Chinese to combat the Japanese invasion. The Japanese massacre in China is outshined by what the Nazi's did to the Jews, but there were millions of Chinese killed during WWII by the Japanese.

These are some of the cannons given to China by the U.S. to combat the Japanese. Of course one of the great contributions to the world in the past 100 years is a type of military equipment.

This view is about a 1/3 of the way up the mountain. the clouds were low this day, so these are the only pictures that you can see of the city during the hike.

This is a memorial erected to commerate the capture of Chaing Kai Cheik. The Nationalist Chinese leader who fought the Japanese while the communists led by Mao hid in the mountains. The Nationalist numbers were dwindled so low during the fighting of the Japanese, that the well rested communists were able to easily defeat the Nationalists and emerse the country into one of its darkest periods, the cultural revolution.

These pictures were taken from the crack where Chaing was caught. He got wind that he was going to be captured and he climbed the mountain and wedged himself far up a crack hiding from the communists. I dared to ventrue up the crack. It is steeper than it looks. The last half of the climb (you cant see it in the pictures because they were taken from the bottom of the crack) has no chains and is just as steep. It is a bit dangerous, but exciting. When I got to the top there is a guy who climbs up there and takes pictures of those brave enough to go all the way up. I purchased the picture at the base and will scan it soon to post here.



















The pictures below were taken about 2/3 of the way up the mountain at a Taoist temple. Some men had recently begun a new business and had purchased incense to help their new business have good fortune.

When I was walking around the temple, half way up a mountain, in Lintong China, I came across some Chinaman wearing a KU fleece. I had to get a picture. He just randomly purchased it online. Of course since I asked him to take a picture with me, he seized the opportunity to ask me to take a photo with him for his camera. You would be suprised how many times you get asked to take a picture with someone in the most random places. *Most random place - Supermarket*.

This is a monstary on the mountainside. This area is off limits to everyone but the monks.












NOODLES. Always Noodles in Shaanxi.

He took one of the incense back inside the monestary.

Fuzzy picture of the outside of the monestary

Puffing tough. Am I playing the Trumpet?

The pictures below were taken from the top of Li Mountain. The building is a fire tower. When ever there is war, the soldier lights the fire to tell everyone in the valley to prepare for war. The emperor had a concubine who he thought was the most beautiful. He could never make her smile no matter what he did. She told him that she would smile if he lit the fire for. Which he did.

Absinthe, Classrooms, and Chity Walls... of my

Well let me warn you that the quality may not be the highest below. These are photos and videos taken from my Chinese cell phone.

To start, I was invited by a graduate student auditing my class to go for a bike ride around the city walls. We rented a two seater bicycle and took off.

We enjoyed great views of the city. Unfortunately we started at 4:50 and the bikes had to be returned at 6:00. Generally it take 1 hour and 30 minutes to get around the wall. We made it back with 2 minutes to spare.

Below is a video from my classroom. I gave them an assignment to work on during class. While they were busy working I filmed this video. Not very exciting, but at least you can see what the classrooms look like.

For Halloween I had one tricker treater. Jacob from who is the son of Ben and Angela came down dressed as a penguin. Luckily I had some candy on hand.

Last week some friends and I decided to have a guys night out. My friend Ben on the fifth floor is married with two children. My friend Rory across the hall has a fiance that has been living with him for 2 years. And my chinese friend Rex is an eligible bachelor with less game than Nima. We decided to go out and have a guys night out on the town. We started having some Korean BBQ near the drum tower. 300 yuan tab between 4 people (thats a lot). Dinner was served with a number of beers. We left the resturant and headed to bar street and had a few drinks at a live music venue, but the music sucked so we bounced to Park Qin. I had been telling my homebody friends about this place for a while. We got there and ordered 12 shots for about 12 us dollars. Had a few cocktails and then ben saw the sign that stated the special on absinthe this evening.

(Warning there is some inappropriate language in the videos below)

We were already pretty loose at this point, so what the hell. We ended up taking 3 large shots of this ether and most of the night was a blur. By the Way - absinthe isn't illegal in china, se we were partaking in a completely legal action while drinking this devilish concoction.

You may notice my friend Rex's attempts to pick up on the bartender. Absolutely no game whatsoever. Makes Nima look like the Chuck Norris of Love.

Towards the end of the evening, Ben was playing with his wedding ring and dropped it. The entire bar spent 20 minutes looking for his wedding ring. We turned on the lights and people used lighters and flashlights to look for it. I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the Chinese bartenders when they found out they had to look for some guys, who had been drinking absinthe all night, wedding ring.

Hua Shan Mountain

Ever since I was living in the States, I have wanted to visit this amazing mountain. All the guide books said that if you are in Xi'an go see the Terra Cotta warriors and make time to go to Hua Shan. It took me two months, but I finally made it up there. The mountain is more just a series of steps than actual paths. This place is serious about calorie burning leg searing exercise. The end of the first day was met with serious exhaustion. We stayed at a hostel at the top of the east peak. If you look closely below you can see the shape of the mountain behind my beefcake picture in the drawing to the right. The peaks are said to be lotus shaped (flower)

There are five peaks at Hua Shan. The North peak is the most accesible, and far away from the other 4 peaks. The east peak is renowned for its amazing sunrises. The central peak was very special as Liu went to have her fortune read by an actual Taoist monk. After his reading he asked for an explanation of Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. Welcome to China. The South peak was the highest peak and had amazing views of mountain ranges for as far as the eye can see. The West peak had an extremely shear drop off the back side and an intersting walk to the peak. Most people do not do all five peaks in one trip. Since I wasn't sure if let alone when I would be back, we did em' all.

The pictures above were riding the Ganjola up the mountain to the North Peak. I went with a fellow English professor from my University Liu Yan Hua. She has wanted to go to the mountain for 10 years and has been "training" at local mountains for the past year, slowly building up the courage for the big mountain. One of the pictures above is at a resturant. If you haven't eaten traditional Chinese fare, they bring out a few entrees and everyone just picks at them with their chopsticks. No individual plates. It is a little weird for a western person at first with the whole germ thing, but after a while you get used to it.

The pictures above were taken from golden lock pass where people bring locks to attach to the chain. When you attach the lock you make a wish. Sometimes you wish for love, happiness, long life or a prosperous business. Once attached you throw the key off the mountain side as far as you can. I purchased and attached a lock for my family. I said all of their names and wished them to have a wonderful holiday and chucked the key off the mountain side.

The picture below with Liu was taken at the peak of the North peak. This caligraphy is from a very famous Chinese writer, Jin Yong who wrote in the genre of Wu Xia. Wu Xia is an ancient type writing using swords like pens and pens like swords. This was a very popular place becuase it was so close to the top of the Ganjola so we had to wait a while to get this picture taken.

When we went to the central peak we didn't take any pictures, but we did shoot a video. I tried to tell Liu that I was shooting a video, but I just don't think she was getting it. After this she went to see the fortune teller.

We took a shortcut to the east peak. Unfortunately it required that we take this completely vertical staircase to get to the top. The stairs were built for Chinese feet and not giant american feet, so some were only two inches wide. It doesn't look as dangerous on the pictures, but they were taken looking directly upwards. This was called "Cloud Ladder". Liu was afraid and turned around half way so I renamed it "Coward Ladder". I have to admit I was happy that she did, because I wasn't sure I would be able to make it to the top. We had to take the alternate way to East peak. The people below started yelling when I swung my leg off the ladder to the right and was hanging 20 feet above the ground on one foot using only two inches of stair. Liu kept telling me "You are so cool".



The walk from North Peak to East peak took about 4 hours of walking up stairs the entire time. This walk was exhausting. The pictures below were taken at the top of the east peak. The building on the right is the Chess pavillion. To get there you have to wear a climbing harness and it is considered the most dangerous climb on the mountain. The path to the pavillion looked like a M.C. Esher picture.

That evening we set off with some other backpackers staying at the hostel on east peak for a late night hike to the top of a near by peak. The stars were awesome, not to mention the first time I have seen any since arriving in Xi'an. Everyone was getting a kick out of the meteor shower going off in the heavens.

We dragged our butts out of bed at 5:15 A.M. to watch the sunrise over the east peak. According to everyone it is a must. It was cool, beautiful, amazing, but I think that my bed was much warmer and more comfortable.

After sunrise and a quick breakfast we headed to South Peak. The south peak was the highest and the backside of the mountain opened up to an amazing mountain range. We reached the peak before 10 a.m. so we were making awesome time the second day.

The tree below is the "welcoming" tree of the south peak. It is along the old path to the peak and welcomed people coming from the south northward. On the otherside of the peak is a 4,000 foot shear drop. The picture below on the right is inbetween south peak and west peak.

West peak also has a very shear drop on the backside of the mountain. The path above my finger is the road to the top. It is stairs carved out of a ridge line, it isn't a good idea to stray too far off the path as you won't land for a while if you start falling.

The pictures above and below are from West peak. I was getting my bouldering on. This is at the top of the peak from the previous pictures where there was a steep drop.

I decided to purchase a medal for completing all five summits in one weekend. USA #1. China #32.