OUR FIRST DAY OFF SINCE LEAVING!!! We would finally get to see something other than our hotel, the same roads and the 120 center! For this day we were going to take a tour of the newest hospital in Sichuan province and then hike up Mt. Qingcheng. Supposedly Mt. Qingcheng is very famous, and is said to be quite a hike. Ha! For what, sissies?? We would see!
The hospital was real nice, definitely the nicest and cleanest one we had seen. They took us into x-ray and MRI rooms and the equipment was nicer and newer than anything I have seen back home. This hospital was constructed after the earthquake in 2008 and had been open over a year. Things change fast in China! This was in Dujiangyan, and was northwest of Chengdu. This area was hit real hard by the quake, but you would not know it from all the new buildings and growth. We were then taken to lunch in Qingchengshan, which was just below Mt. Qingcheng. Awesome lunch, and chicken was the big item. Jesse even ate chicken head, as you can see in the picture! The rest of the stuff was pretty tame except for the chicken feet. General Dave loved them. I tried, but couldn’t chew. Good flavor though. If you are wondering what the odd thing about lunch was, it was not the chicken head. It was the chicken blood. It was all coagulated and was in small pieces and resembled a beef stew. Since we were about to embark on a difficult hike (yeah, right) we felt the blood would make us stronger (not like we needed it). It wasn’t bad. I had a couple pieces. I can’t say for sure I would have it again, but it is not as disgusting as you would think.
On to the climb. The weather was cool and the scenery was nice, at least what we could see. It was very overcast. So we set out on the hike. Lots of people, and it was pretty steep at the beginning. There were people who had a sort of hammock chair offering to take you up if you wanted. We all declined! As we all know, Paula had just quit smoking so some sections were difficult. One of our interpreters, Michelle, came with us. She weighs less than 100 lbs but was always telling Paula how she was strong. Paula threatened to push her off the trail! It was pretty funny. There were temples every so often and though we all wanted to learn about them, it was not to be. Jesse made offerings each time. This mountain was also the birthplace of Tao. So it is very spiritual to the Chinese. Michelle had asked me to make a prayer/wish at one of them. I didn’t feel comfortable asking a God that I had really no idea about for anything. Plus, I have everything I want already! So we pressed on. The mountain gradually became more and more steep, until it was ridiculous, even for those of us in shape. Paula struggled as you would expect, and she said she almost cried 16 times, almost had her first coronary and even assumed she was going to code since she couldn’t breathe. But did she give up? NO! She kept going and refused to let the mountain get the best of her! You have got to admire that kind of determination. Paula should be an example to us all about how you can achieve something if you really want to, whether it is physical, emotional or mental. I was glad to be there to help her up the mountain. The reward of making it to the top was not in the cards though. There was a section that was absolute mud, and no way to get around it or through it. It had started raining about halfway through our trek, and had continually gotten worse. It was good during the hike, as it kept us cool. I had had to take all long sleeves off and was in just a shirt sleeve shirt. Crazy bald headed white guy in a t-shirt coming through! I was asked numerous times to buy a poncho. General Dave even had steam coming off his head at one point! So the hike was hard, and we needed the extra nutrients that the chicken blood gave us. It was not at all what we expected, but perhaps the difficulty of it was what made it such a thrill.
The hike was definitely a high point for us up to this point. Paula may have struggled, but in the end she did everything we did. She is a trooper! General Dave is in magnificent shape, and loved every second of the hike itself. It was a great experience, we can all say that we hiked the most famous mountain, Mt. Qingcheng, in China. The scenery was beautiful, and the exercise, though tiring, was a great change from just sitting in a classroom all day. I am sure we are going to end up sore! We tried 3 different dinner places before we finally found one that could accommodate all of us. The food was delicious and beautiful, and there were the typical toasts going around. We had become quite used to this tradition, and are well versed in how the game is played. By now, our livers had become much adjusted to the frequent drinking we were doing, and it was a certainty that we could easily have a fair of amount of alcohol to please our hosts without getting close to being drunk. Which is exactly what we have been avoiding. As a team - General Dave, Paula, Jesse and I – I don’t think that there is a group that we are coming into contact with who could attack us and win. Jesse does an amazing job at protecting us, taking drinks for us and also telling us when we can stop all without the others knowing. The culture and tradition of toasting and attacking certain people is very complicated and is all a game according to Jesse. With his help and tutelage, consider us undefeated!
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