Weekend shorties

Before you all (the 6 of you who read me) think that I'm a negativist complainy-pants bastard, let me go back on track with my travel tales. After all, it is the main reason of my presence here, and it is not like I am gonna let the deficient school administration ruin my stay.

Despite my light workload (20 hours of class a week), I keep myself quite busy with the gym, my
Chinese lessons and my participation in the students' extracurricular activities. Also, of course, I have some class prep and grading to do, but I usually try to finish by Friday so I can enjoy my week-end and to be able to travel. Gongyi is okay, but a change of scenery is always more than welcome. I am quite lucky here, as the attractions nearby are numerous, interesting and for the most part, inexpensive.

The only thing is, well, everytime I come back with my head full of stories for this blog, but by the time I find some place in my schedule to write it down, the following week-end is around the corner! To solve this, what I'm gonna do right now to recap the last few weeks is just a few short stories instead of long, detailed ones.

October 31st - November 2nd

On Friday night, some of my colleagues were supposed to do a presentation in the library to describe what is Halloween to the clueless Chinese students. The presentation was cancelled if I remember well, so we just had a last-minute Halloween party at Ryan and Julie's. Despite the short notice and my lack of resources, I still managed to assemble a badass samurai headgear with my motorbike helmet, pieces of cardboard and two half bananas covered with Doritos foil paper as horns.

In fact, everybody managed to create a nice costume with their limited stuff, it was cool. Some went outside for a while to hide in the bushes and scare the shit out of couples looking for a quiet spot to make out. The party was nice and relax, and with Jack's departure, the average alcohol consumption of the foreign staff had decreased by three gallons. Myself, however, let loose, and abused a bit of the Harbin beer and the 2.5 L bottle of "wine" I had bought in Luoyang the week before. The party then moved to a KTV (karaoke) place downtown, where we sang cheesy-ass tunes and drank Heineken (one of the three western beers available in Gongyi). My friends woke me up when it was time to go, and I guess booze improves my foreign language ability, because I talked to the taxi driver myself and he fully understood. That, or he knew that there is ONLY one place in Gongyi where laowai stay.

The next Sunday, I took part into what didn't seem much at first, but ended up being a load of fun. Brendan, Phill and I went for a hike behind the school, in these mountainous farm areas. It's really crazy, I mean, the reason why I came here is to see different sceneries, and here, a mere 10 minute walk from my appartment, I was in a small village carved in the clay hills. Well, actually, I've been there before, for the second Chinese wedding and also for my jogging three-four times a week (back then... when it was still warm in the morning and I wasn't a lazy bastard). Past the village, there are hills, hills and more hills. The farmers manage to flatten some areas and grow some crops in the dry clay, they are pretty damn skilled. We also witnessed Chinese engineering at its best, with the construction of a segment of the fast train track.

We walked for like 6 hours. After getting lost a few times, we finally made it back to the college, covered with dirt and the shins still bloody from all these dry thorn bushes.

November 7th - November 9th

On a cold November day, the whole crew (Ryan, Julie, Jess, Phill, Brendan and Félix) got together and headed to Hua mountain (华山), one of the five sacred mountains of China. Well, those for Daoism, because there is another group of 4 sacred mountains for Buddhism. Anyway... The overnight train ride was about 6-7 hours, as we took the slow train. Sometimes, the train stopped completely for half an hour, just so another train can pass us. It was damn long... but at least we had guaranteed seats (see the Kaifeng story). I bought a copious amount of beer to make the ride faster, as I thought that a light buzz would help me sleep... but instead, I had to go pee every damn 20 minutes, and then the headache would keep me awake and uncomfortable.

We finally got to destination. Hua Shan is actually located in Shǎnxī province, therefore it was the first time in 2 months that I was leaving Henan... My hopes were up for seeing something different, but of course as soon as I stepped out of the train station, it was just concrete, cold, and Chinese people yelling TAXI TAXI TAXI. We paid an outrageous amount to get to a hotel (it was 5 AM, we were fucking cold and tired) and slept until 10 the next day, just the short amount of shuteye we needed to not die for the hard climb that was about to come.

Hard climb, it was! Nothing to say much there, we just walked and walked. The scenery was incredible, I mean, breathfuckingtaking. I've been to the Canadian Rockies, and they ain't got shit on Hua mountain.

During most of the climb, the path is so steep that you don't have a choice to use the stairs carved directly in the rock. I don't know who are the people who carved them, but it must have taken centuries!

We got to 3/4 ish of the way to the top, about where the cable car ends and the lazy-ass tourists smother the place. We could have kept going for a bit, but we had to secure accomodation first, and as we go higher and higher, well, the prices are proportional with altitude. We went down a few hundred meters (it was heartbreaking to go down these steep stairs after sweating every ounce of fluid we got to ascend them) to a guesthouse half carved in the rock. The prices were quite expensive, but considering that everything that they offer has been brought on foot all the way up (I highly doubt they have an helicopter...) and also that there were no other choices, we took it. Jess also managed to bring the price down with her overwhelming bargaining skills, you should have seen the way this poor mountain woman was nervously eyeing towards us in hope that we tried to make Jess stop her pummeling attacks... Anyway... although my bed was hard as a crowbar left in the freezer, and just as cold, I still slept like a baby.

The next morning, Brendan, Phill and I continued our way to the top of the South Peak (or was it the West? damn I forgot). It took us maybe three hours, and once on top, looking at the horizon I felt so peaceful and in harmony with the nature... Until I saw the line that separated the bright blue sky from the grayish haze down below. It is not slightly fading, it is an actual distinct line that splits the sky in two. It is only after witnessing it from above and comparing it with real sky that I realized what kind of crap I've been breathing for weeks and my Chinese friends for years. To quote Phill "I wished I could have came to China in the 1800... before it was like that". Despite that aspect, and the fat Chinese man who threw his trash on the ground 5 m away from a trash bin, the scenery was unspoiled and majestic.

The way down was way more relax, of course, except for some very steep parts where you had to hold on for your life. Our brains were collapsing though, because of the increase in atmospheric pressure as we went down and down. We met with the rest of the crew (who were chilling in a park, chatting with two cool Romanian guys), had a huge meal and then... off to good old Gongyi. My calves felt like footballs full of acid for the next few days but it was worth it.

November 16th-November 18th

On Saturday, I went to the Snow Cave (forgot the Chinese name, anyway you don't care) with Brendan and two students named John and Lisa. It is about an hour away from the city, but still easily reachable with the inexpensive and effective bus system.

I don't have much to say about it, besides the fact that it is, well, a cave. We had to hike for a while in some nice trails, until we got to the entrance. Thanks to the aforementioned students, we got some extremely cheap student tickets that allow us to go to four different attractions around Gongyi.

So yeah, the cave... it is pretty damn big, about 1 km of length and in the largest part, the "ceiling" was something like 40 m above our heads. The most interesting features are the walls coated with some weird white geological formation, hence the name, Snow Cave. It looked like cauliflower a bit more that hard snow, but I guess Cauliflower Cave doesn't sound as poetic.

Some of my colleagues who have been there before told me it is not very worthy going as it is just a cave, but since I have never been to many caves in my life, I think it was totally worth it.

After that, we sat with a nice old lady who took part in the discovery of the cave in the 1960s with her husband. To say I didn't understand much of her speech would be a major understatement, however, as I always carry some Chinese people with me in case these situations happen, I got a translated version of her story.

Then, we hiked around a bit, went to some temples and dragon fountains, before heading back to Gongyi... Another cool attraction to scratch from my to-go list.

November 23th-November 25th

Luoyang here we come!

I've been to Luoyang a few weeks before, but just for a few hours. This time, we (Brendan, Julie and I) were off for the week-end.

Luoyang is just about an hour west of Gongyi. We got there at noon, had lunch then got a room in a NICE hostel. Luoyang is actually a tourist hotspot for a few reasons, such as its location on the way to Xi'an and the Terracotta warriors, the proximity of the Shaolin temple, and also the Longmen Grottoes (renamed the Mediummen Grottoes after I had been there... NO just kidding). The price was a bit high (80 yuan...) but this place is truly majestic. There are hundreds of Buddhas or other dudes carved in the rock, some being dozens of feet high. Even the small ones must have taken so much dilligent work to complete, it was quite amazing to see.

Some of the Buddhas had their faces smashed. We were wondering if this was done during the "cultural revolution", but if it was the case, I guess it would have been a bit more systematic. Anyway, it kinda sucked to see the damaged carvings, but it didn't take away much of the beauty of the place. Of course, there were tons of tourists, even a few laowais.

We got back in town, munched on street food. I had one of the most awesome snacks ever: it was like a pancake folded around an egg, some spices, lettuce, and a pile of crackers. It was weird and delicious. Brendan also got himself some stinky tofu, this kind of fermented abomination that smells like a mix of wet socks and sewer. Apparently it tastes really good but screw that, it's not for me!

We walked around a bit more and more, and then went to a bar with Bob Marley's face painted on the outside wall. It was just one of these small cornerstreet bars, there are so few of them in China. We just had some brews and then headed back to the hostel. I stayed up a bit, chatting with an Australian dude wandering in Asia. It is cool to interact with a different white person once in a while.

The following day, I wasn't feeling top shape... maybe it's the squid on a stick I had as a late snack, combined with the lack of sleep... Anyway, I carried on. We just walked around the old part of town and then went to Carrefour, a French owned supermarket. I bought tons of Western goodies unavailable in Gongyi, such as tabasco (four bottles!), Doritos and Corn flakes. I still didn't find curd cheese or Unibroue beer, but I don't give up.

What else?! I think I covered it all. I don't get why the students are so obsessed by Zhengzhou, Luoyang is definitley cooler.

... more to come!

And give me some news, it's an order!!! Donnez-moi des nouvelles maudit!