October 22, 2011 - Yellow Mountains & Xidi

 

We awoke the next morning for the sunrise.  We met Jackie at 5:45 am.  Sunrise was expected at 6:10 and everyone in the lodge was out to see it.  We wormed our way into a spot and began to shoot.  How lucky were we?  The sun came up and sat on top of a mountain as if it were in a bowl right in front of us!  Jeanne was there too.

From there we returned for breakfast and then back to hike more parts of the mountain.  We paced ourselves well.  Breath, step, breath, step.  That way we hiked until around noon.  Wow. Legs held up well!  Good prep for ski season!

We took the cable car down the mountain and headed to a super place for lunch.  You walk in, look in the cabinets and choose your lunch.  The chef then goes away and prepares it. The mushroom soup was the best we ever had!  Cheri is eating eggplant like she may never have it again!  Yummy!

We struck off across the Chinese rural landscape.  Yeah !  Just what we had been wanting to see!  People living life just the way they had for centuries. Plowing with oxen, hoeing with spades, a d biking everywhere with everything!

That afternoon we visited XIDI and ancient city.  Sadly we've found that there really is no ancient anything here in China.  When Chairman Mao had the cultural revolution in 1949, his men destroyed nearly everything that was ancient and a link to anything but communism.  Very sad indeed.  They have done their best to re-create what it did look like, but still, just reproductions.

Then we went to an ancient street which is nothing more than vendors selling junk.  Nothing we would bring home to anyone!  After dinner it was off to the hotel.  Spectacular place.  A golf resort.  Only trouble was they didn't have a bar!  Remarkable that a golf resort didn't serve alcohol!  Oh well. Time to download images.

A good sleep.