爬山的时候… (When I was hiking mountains…)

I’m back!!!! What an adventure:)

On Saturday we hiked Huashan, or flower mountain, which is a spiritual mountain outside of Xi’an. The hike took us about 7 hours but it was worth it when we got to the top. We spent the night in a teahouse on the western peak. How 地道 (authentic)!

The best part was coming back down the mountain by gondola the next morning. The views were spectacular.

 

The next day we took every transportation known to man and saw three different cities before the day was done! Between Huashan, Xi’an, and Kunming we managed to take a gondola, a bus, a taxi, the high speed rail, the subway, another taxi, an airplane, a van, and a sleeper train. Whoo! It was fun.

We arrived at our hostel in Lijing where we took a day to rest, enjoy the view and do our laundry. We watched the sunset from the roof. It was spectacular!

Next we took a day trip to 玉龙雪山 (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), where we took a gondola partway up and hiked the peak. At 4680 meters we actually needed oxygen!

At the base of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain are these beautiful glacial lakes. We spent the better part of two hours adventuring around them and taking selfies, of course;)

Our last mountain was Tiger Leaping Gorge. And it was Tiger Leaping Gorgeous! We hiked along the side of a mountain for a day, following the river. We spent the night at an awesome hostel at the halfway point then came back down the other side the next day.

 

Today I’m back at CET headquarters in Beijing. Classes begin! Hopefully I’m ready to get back in the groove lol!