Huaibei, Anhui Life.....China

   The first time I went to China I got a window seat on the airplane for what I thought would be a good view of Shanghai from the air, this is what I saw.

                       


After landing at Pudong Airport I stayed one night in Shanghai before taking the 600 km train ride from Shanghai north west to Huaibei, Anhui. What I thought while viewing out of the window of the train was that the landscape seemed like it was one big industrial site; every river seemed like it was used for industry, the amount of large highway projects was astounding. Mixed in with industrial stacks were farms that were tended by an aging population; I saw young grandchildren playing as apparent grandparents focused on manual labour. Upon arrival in Huaibei I witnessed what a "coal city" looked like.

                       

 There is a coal fired power plant right in the city; 70% of China's energy is produced by coal powered plants; many restaurants use coal to heat the cooking surfaces, street vendors use honeycomb coal for cooking. I could feel the effects of the bad air on my lungs fairly quickly and I wondered about the local peoples health, particularly children.

 Here men shovel coal which is used to give a school power

                            

  Once I was settled in Huaibei I had to find food that was appropriate to my palate; one of the first restaurants I went into had chicken feet, pigs feet/ear, and many la (spicy) dishes, this was going to be a challenge. There were many men smoking in the restaurants, although there were large no smoking signs; I would try to find non-smoking establishments. There were also a lot of street vendors selling food so I looked forward to finding more than a morsel that agreed with my stomach.

                         

     I learned that there are actually many restaurants, that are a bit pricey for Chinese standards, that have excellent food, one just needs the budget available to eat every day in a nice restaurant.

  The igniting of fireworks seemed to be rampant at all hours of the day and night. The first time I heard a string of small firecrackers go off I thought there was some sort of celebration; these small bangers were the most common, but there were also large explosions. I can honestly say that I heard fireworks every day in this country. Not only did the Chinese invent fireworks, they are also the largest producer and exporter in the world; so many people get injured.

Speaking of fireworks and explosions, it only took once for me to be startled by a man making popcorn on the street like this guy, next time I would be ready. He heats up hundreds of kernels of corn and then there is a loud boom and the container expands (filled with popcorn).....very loud.

                           

     My first week in this city of China was a bit hard going as I felt that the culture was too different from my home. There was a lot of chaos on the streets with horn honking, cars parked on the sidewalk, motorcycles maneuvering through pedestrians on these same pedestrian easements that should be used for safe walking (so many pedestrians are killed by vehicles each year in China). The buses were very crowded as people pushed to get a seat; at the shops people did not wait their turn, jumping the queue was the norm. So much cigarette smoking existed everywhere I turned, it was hard to accept the second hand smoke. When walking around the markets there were items for sale that we do not sell in Canada, like skinned dog.

                            

I wondered what I had gotten myself into and it did not make sense to leave my family and our nice home for this style of living in this East Asian Country. Once I got more used to my surroundings I started to see things a little different. I noticed that many of the street vendors had swollen hands from working out in the cold all day, I learned that they were too proud to take a tip for their meals that they cooked up on the street (some cost as little as 80 cents), although they made very little.

                             

  Shoes repair men were often seen on the sidewalks

                             

In Shanghai the minimum wage had just been raised to 1,100 RMB per month ($170), and that was most often for 6 days per week; in the smaller cities it is less and in the countryside even worse. Watching people peddle around on very old bicycles or carry very heavy loads by using bags attached to the ends of a bamboo pole helped me realize that these people are very good at long term suffering, I walked so many kms per day taking in the culture as I listened to English songs on my MP3, that really helped me cope since I often went days without talking to anyone in English.

  Sometimes sorting out who is a real friend when you are in a country where the citizens speak their native tongue, while I do not, can be a challenge. I noticed that many people were treating me like I was a super human, just because I was so different. Each day I could hear locals calling out laowai, laowai (foreigner); people from the countryside were often amazed at my appearance. I often went to small villages in the countryside which give me an accurate reflection on the life of 100's of millions of Chinese.

                              

                              

These people led a very simple life

                                           

                                           

  Often men can be seen sitting around playing cards or mahjong

                            

  There were very few birds around Huaibei in comparison to Canada. From 1958-1962 there was a 4 pests campaign by the government to encourage citizens to kill rats, flies, mosquito's, and sparrows, who were eating the grains; many other birds were killed. It turned out that sparrows ate many of the nuisance bugs so they were replaced on the list by bed bugs, which were then replaced by cockroaches. Conservation still seems to be a problem in this country as one can go to a park and see hundreds of dead bee's that were poisoned so people could take a photo by flowers without having to worry about being stung.

  My highlight of Huiabei by far was meeting so many students; mostly university students but also many elementary age kids. The students at the Huaibei University came from all over China as their options for school placements depended on their college entrance exam score, that year 9.5 million students took the college entrance exam. I could rant about the Chinese education system but I want to finish this post with admitting that after traveling extensively around China that I learned just how friendly most of the people in Huaibei are.....to me the foreigner anyway.

  The students, who are now between 23- 27 years of age were an honour to meet. They are respectful, they care about the environment, acknowledge their parents hard work, and for the most part are diligent with their study. There was little heat in the classrooms or dormitories which made the school life very difficult, what made study frustrating for them was the realization that their education system was very poor. Somehow through all these challenges they remained true to themselves and I can say that I am beyond proud to have made their acquaintance.

Tai Mountain, Shandong.........China

  It was the May 1st, China's Labor Day holiday, and most of the news stations were warning the Chinese not to travel because of the crowds and congestion. It was a bit strange, and it made no sense to me that the government would encourage citizens to stay home on a holiday rather than contributing to the domestic tourist economy. I was going to venture to Mount Tai in Shandong, one of the five great mountains and a holy land for Buddhism and Taoism. In ancient times many emperors climbed to the top to pray for the Chinese; also many famous poets described the mountain in their poems.

  In the morning I headed with Hope my travel companion to the little train station in Huaibei, Anhui for the 325 km trip north to the small city of Taishan, Shandong. I saw some familiar faces on the train, English major students who spoke English well, so this made the ride on the overcrowded train much more enjoyable. Once we made it to Tai Shan City we found a hotel room for 300 RMB and had time to look around a bit, I could see that it was a Chinese tourist city. The weather was hot so I figured that the more than 6,566 step climb up the 1500 metre ascent would be a sweaty affair.

  My sleep was not good for several reasons; the box spring was so hard, many hotel beds do not have a top mattress; there was so much horn honking on the street; sirens were blaring and Chinese tourists were making so much noise in the hallway. At 5am I thought we may as well get motivated on reaching the base of the mountain, this would help with tolerating the heat.

After we entered the Red Gate

                         

we met a Russian girl named Anna who was studying Chinese at a university near Beijing, we befriended her and she accompanied Hope and I up the mountain. As I stated in other posts, most all of the popular Chinese mountains have concrete stairs from the bottom to the top. On this day the 4 hours of ascending Mt. Tai would start with very few fellow stair climbers; the people we saw were very friendly, as were the people in the shops and restaurants around the hotel. So many people wanted to get their picture taken with me, at first it was flattering but then it became too time consuming as many people would be waiting with camera in hand. There were so many temples that we passed on the way up the mountain, some were more significant than the others.

                              

                              

                              

The relaxing/sociable climb lasted for a couple of hours until we reached the Zhongtian Gate which is where the bus stop is that most of the Chinese that were intending to go the rest of the way up the mountain were getting off buses. There were thousands of people approaching the same set of stairs for the main route going up the mountain, the crowd was astonishing. Some bad behaviour seemed evident as people started to push as they shuffled their way toward to 2 metre wide space. Many Chinese climb these famous mountains to see the sunrise so when one climbs up in the morning, there are also crowds coming back down from spending the night up there. From the bus stop onward was a human traffic jam like nothing I had experienced before, as far as the eye could see the path was loaded with people.

From this photo one can see an empty staircase leading to a small temple, the main route for the top is a solid snake of people.

                       

                       




I entered in my journal that there must have been 20-30 thousand people on the mountain that day; in total I saw 3 foreigners, including me. The next 2 hours of climbing was a real eye opener for travel in this most populous nation on a holiday. The people were throwing all of their snack garbage on the ground, so many men were smoking and it was near impossible to escape the smoke since we were jammed so tightly. There were some screams and people yelling at each other as the sun beamed down upon us. Compounding the problem of people trying to go up as others were trying to go down were the vendors who were half blocking landings with their carts and small huts.

                                         

                                         


 Some people hopped over the small wall that ran up the sides of the stairs so that is what we did, it was just too hot to stand there. Probably the trickiest part of scrambling up the dusty trail was avoiding all of the human excrement that dotted the side of the mountain. On the top of the mountain, Yuhuang Peak, was like a small town with many shops and temples; even a Heaven Street. The temples were just okay for me, I have seen so many of them in Asian countries. Many tablets were to be found on the mountain, at Yuhuang Peak there was one that dated back to 1545, so people have been climbing this mountain for some time.

     I heard the zipper of my backpack and turned around to catch a guy who was holding a shirt over my pack as he tried to open it to steal something. I grabbed his arm and started yelling at him, he said something in Chinese.There are a lot of pick pockets around China and they must have a big pay day on these crowded mountains as city folks come out to be tourists. When we got up to one of the temples we looked down to a landing where this pick pocket stood with 3 other guys; searching out possible victims,

                         

                          

                          

On the top there was enough space for the crowds to disburse and we could relax and casually take advantage of the views.

                          


I took about about an hour to reflect on the climb before going back down the 6,566 steps. I thought about the difficulty for men to carry supplies on the litter (human powered vehicle), some men often get paid to take the tourist up these mountains on these wooden carriages on poles. So many people wanted photo's, especially when they saw me writing in my journal with my left hand; I accepted many requests before we left. My knees could really feel the exertion once I got to the bottom, it was a slow km walk back to the hotel. I had now experienced a tourist site with no crowd control and was witness to some bad behaviour; given some time and space, the Chinese tourists seemed very pleasant.

Guilin To Heng Shan Mountain

   In China there are many mountains but for the Chinese people some are more famous; I am referring to the five great mountains, four sacred mountains of Buddhism, and four sacred mountains of Taoism. I tried to climb many mountains while in China; the climbing most often was easy, getting to the mountain perhaps not so simple.

   I was in Guilin, Hunan, which was a great touristy place to visit; the locals were friendly and there were plenty of foreigners around visiting the sites. Looking at my map I planned to go north and climb Heng Shan mountain, it is one of the five great mountains; so I bought a train ticket to the city of Hengshan. The only train ticket available was at 12:43 am, and the train was a "slow train" so that meant the trip would take 10 hours for the approx. 320 km ride. The train system throughout China was a little complicated, they have the D train, the F train, fast trains; the fast trains only go a certain route; the slow trains yield to all other train traffic so one is always stopped (with locals who most often take the slow train). So I sat on a hard bench seat with the crowds of local villagers and I was lucky enough to meet a young person who spoke English.....we talked through the night. The long slow train rides can be brutal BUT you get to endure the journey with regular folks ( I call them sweat trains).

  When I got off of the train I noticed that only five other people got off, the temperature was already 38 degrees. I rounded the corner to go down the steps and saw that Hengshan was a disgusting small city with dirty streets.

                               

 The locals looked at me like I was from outer space; I wondered how this place could be the gateway to one of the five great mountains. I walked down the main street and everyone was looking at me. There were many garbage piles burning in the streets, junk laying around, chickens and dogs were picking in the dirt looking for food. I could hear hey,hey,hey!; there was a shop with these old prostitutes at the door and they were gesturing for me to come over, I ignored them. One of these mid-40's ladies came out on the street and began pulling my arms towards the shop; I just kept walking saying, no,no until she gave up.

   With small cities like Hengshan it is very difficult to communicate; sometimes a person will know someone who has a bit of English so they will call that person. I walked to the end of that main street gesturing to people 'sleep' so they could point me to a hotel but they could just not understand. I traveled so much in China so I was used to being in places where communication was difficult, it was frustrating at times. I ended up to text the young student from the train and she called me; I then give the phone to a guy on the street and she explained hotel in Chinese. This man gestured across the highway so I ventured over to a dilapidated old building. When I entered I surprised a lady at the front desk and she started saying many things in Mandarin, I said Ting Bu Dong (I do not understand) and she smiled. For so long I tried to communicate with her that I wanted a room; she talked Chinese and I talked in English. Finally I called that young lady from the train and she talked to the lady.....I got a room.

  The room was gross, although I have slept in a lot worse. When I turned on the tap in the washroom the water was brown; there were two ants nests in the wall, I could see hundreds of them coming and going. I had to eat and somehow I had to get some rest....more importantly I had to find out how to get to the base of the mountain that I would climb the next day. The hotel did not have a restaurant so I headed back over to the main street of town and chose what I thought would be the only option that I had for eating. There was a photo on the wall of chicken soup with rice so I ordered that ; people were stopping at the restaurant door to stare. When the soup came it was disgusting, there was just a broth with many chicken bones (very little meat) and the chicken head; I ate the rice and then left to search for the route to climb the mountain. I pointed to a map and asked people, Heng Shan, Heng Shan.... man it took so long before a man gestured to an old bus.

  I ended up getting on that bus, the lady asked for 5 RMB, I knew by that sum that the start of the mountain climb was quit far. Twenty kms we drove to a place called Hangshan....which was the starting point for Heng Shan. For the mountains popular with the Chinese there are many shops at the base that sell souvenirs and incense for worshiping Buddha. Many people were saying hello, hello, hotel.

                              


Now I knew where the mountain was, it was time to get back on the bus that had just brought me there 5 minutes earlier. The conductor of the bus (usually the drivers wife) closed the door on the bus, I knocked on the door for her to let me in and the lady was saying no, no. I tried to go in the front door of the bus and it appeared to me that the lady could not understand why I would want to take a bus back to where I just came from. It was frustrating but also a bit humorous, thank goodness the lady finally let me in. She and her husband were talking and looking at me like I was crazy, I was trying to use gestures to tell them that I just wanted to see where the mountain entrance was but they just could not grasp that concept.

  I made it back to the hotel and passed out ( I had been awake for 35 hours) until the all too common fireworks woke me up at 5am. Fireworks in China can go off at any hour of any day, this noise pollution is a big problem in the country.

  After my instant noodles in the morning I took the sweat bus to Hangshan and walked to the end of the street of shops. I saw two guys and they spoke English well. I asked them if I go straight to get to the mountain or turn right ?, they said straight but it is very difficult; right is where most Chinese go to take a bus most of the way up; straight it was. I walked about an hour up the road and there was one temple, that was a good sign because these "great mountains" have many temples, with a large one at the top. I came up to a fork in the road with a sign that only had Chinese characters; a motorcycle approached  and the driver asked me if I wanted a ride for 2 RMB, I had feared that I had went the wrong way so I showed him the map on the brochure and told him I wanted to go to a temple near the bottom of the mountain.

   I hopped on his bike and he took me off the beaten track to a place with a restaurant, he wanted 200 RMB from me. I argued with him and in the end he took me back down to the temple for 20 RMB. I walked the other route and came upon a pagoda which I climbed in order to get a view.

                                         

 I could see from the top that there were some temples that dotted the side of the mountain. Once I got down there was a lady that gestured to me, pointing to a path; soon after I saw a sign with the peaks name; it was to be 11 kms to get there.

                               


   Temple after temple I passed; there was one neat old residence of someone famous, but like all sacred mountains they are too repetitious (unless you are a Buddhist).

                           

                           


                             

Once on top, the large temple there was very dirty and so crowded; I did not see a foreigner, most Chinese took the bus.

                               


The peak is about 2,000 metres high and there were some nice views from the top; but that changed as a big storm moved in while I was up there.

                                 

 The thunder came right after the lightening so the eye of the storm was directly overhead, I could feel the electricity when the flash of lightening appeared. I looked for cover and found an English speaker in the crowd named Sunny, she was a delight to meet, she took the pressure off. I do not enjoy being around hundreds of people when most of them smoke, they throw the incense (with the plastic wrap) and fireworks in the burn pits so it generally makes for a loud and smelly occasion.

  After all of the exertion of climbing up and down the mountain on a very hot day I took the sweat bus back to the luxurious hotel room (not) in Heng Shan, which is where you do not want to go to climb Heng Shan mountain.
 

China...Huaibei to Mount Yao

   From Huaibei, Anhui south to Suzhou was a 1.5 hour train ride. Kalina and I waited 2 hours at the Suzhou station before we boarded the night train to Pingdingshan. The crowded station was gross, many people were throwing their food scraps on the floor, spitting, and smoking. I had to use the washroom and when I went in the stench was overwhelming, I had to turn around and leave without relieving myself. Once the worker opened a single gate the chaos started when crowds rushed the gate, pushing and pulling each other. We got down onto a bottom platform and raced along with the others, workers were yelling at the passengers, they seemed to be saying, go, go, go. For us we were rushing to get into the sleeper car while most others were making sure they got a bench seat.

   Once in the train we sat for 20 minutes before it made a late departure, turned out there was absolutely no hurry. The train left around midnight and I only managed a couple of hours of shuteye since the bunk was basically a thin mat on plywood. By 5:30 I could gaze out of the window and see the landscape, which consisted of small cities, farmland and many villages. There was a lot of industry and the waterways looked very dirty.

                           


We arrived at Pingdingshan, yet another coal city where more than half of the 5 million residents have jobs related to the mining industry. We took a local bus to get to a long distance bus station where we finally boarded a bus that took us to our destination. The 11 am bus was full so we had to wait until 1pm before boarding the bus for the 3 hour ride to the base of Mount Yao.

                         

 The scenery was good as this bus traveled through many small villages to drop off and pick up passengers. In the distance I could see the Spring Temple Buddha which is the tallest statue in the world at 128 metres (420 ft), it took more than 10 years to build; at a cost of $55 million.


                        

 The bus trip was great for gawking out the window until we got to a spot where a road crew was demolishing a bridge. 

                          


All of the traffic was diverted down to a river bed, that is where we stopped.

                          

For 30 minutes we stayed there, many people got out of the bus, cars, and trucks ahead. I went for a walk to see what the problem was and the dilemma ended up to be two small boulders that made the turn for trucks coming up from the river bank too difficult. So many people from this small village were crowded around until finally someone found a pry bar and moved the boulders. There was so much yelling and chaos over these two rocks, the traffic was backed up for several kms., thank goodness it was not the rainy season.

   Kalina and I found a hotel for 80 RMB in a small village at the base of the mountain with no hot water; it was cold at this higher elevation so washing up was quick. After the long haul the day before with only a couple of hours of sleep it was easy to pass out.

                           


At 7:30 am we left the hotel to ascend the 1,000 metre's (3,000 ft) up the mountain by foot; there were so many cement stairs, the first flight had about 400.

                                       

 On most of the Chinese mountains there are both stairs and chair lifts, which most Chinese take. We walked about 6,000 steps in total to get to the top and the view was excellent, we were high enough to be above the clouds. The first couple of thousand stairs there were very few people, once we got to the first chair lift drop off the crowd became thick. So many people wanted to get their photo with a foreigner, I was the only one I saw on the mountain that day. I did not mind about 20 photo's but each time I stopped there were several people waiting in line to get their photo with me; I told Kalina that we should keep moving to make sure I did not get stuck in front of the Chinese tourists camera. The people were very friendly but our mission was to get to the top.


                                        

  Since we got to the top around 12:30 we had some time to take in the scenery, there were nice views from up there.


                          


                          


                          


                                         

    Once we rested and felt fulfilled with our reward at the mountain summit we made a plan to go down. We spotted 2 young couples who shared the bus with us, we had dinner with them the night before; they told us that they had climbed up a different route, so we thought we may as well take advantage of some new scenery. There are 3 chair lifts that go partially up the mountain and then an express lift that goes all of the way to the top. The trail that they took came up by the express lift so we headed to that part of the mountain, about 500 metres. We did not see a trail so we headed back in the direction of the peak; again we saw these 4 people and again they explained to Kalina in Chinese where the trail was. We returned to the chairlift and this time we noticed a dirt trail so we started to descend.

  We ended up to find cement stairs after about 10 minutes so that was intriguing. Eventually the stairs split in two directions so I left Kalina sitting while I ran down the one staircase that ended at a small temple.

                     


 I took a couple of photo's and went back to the junction. We walked about 2 hours down these stairs until we ended at another park gate entrance. It was evident by then that this was the old entrance to the mountain and we were in trouble. There were no people around but there were two guys lazing around a small tourist information hut, they showed us a map of the area and we could see that it was about 30 kms. to get around to the other gate that we entered in the morning; it was on the other side of the mountain. One guy said he would take us around by motorcycle and that we should wait outside. Kalina heard them talking, it seemed that one of the guys wanted to rip us off for 500 RMB, they knew we were stuck.

  Actually we were not completely stuck.....at 6pm we turned around and headed back up to the top of the mountain. Both of us were so tired and it was hell to try to salvage enough energy to make it back up. Our drinking water had ran out half way down the wrong side and we had to keep stopping to sit down. The last half an hour we walked in the dark, but seeing the lights from the chair lift building give us hope. Once we made it back to the top there was one shack where a shop owner/caretaker of the mountain stayed. Kalina and the lady of the shop were trying to think of how we could make it back down, using the stairs in the dark would have taken us about 4 hours; if we could have handled it. An aha moment came to the lady when she suggested that although the chair lift was stopped for the day they were not allowed to leave anyone with a lift ticket on the mountain. This lady had lift tickets in her small shop so we were able to buy a 60 RMB ticket for 100 RMB and it was a win, win for all of us. This ANGEL made 40 RMB, which was great for her, we were able to hear the chairlift start up after she talked to the workers on the radio

   After 14 hours of abusing our bodies we ended up sitting in the chair lift; it was dark and the sky was filled with stars.....it was a fabulous chair lift ride. Not only was the scenery spectacular, we came to the realization that we would get back to the hotel after enduring the mix up in search of new views. I had guessed that we walked up about 10,000 stairs and down about 2,000 steps ( the other side of the mountain had a trail system). Thank goodness that Kalina was so strong willed, fit and young. I learned early on in this mountain adventure that if you go off the beaten trek in China it is so useful to have a translator.

   In the morning I was a bit stiff as we left the hotel and took a taxi, then bus, to Pingdingshan. Once we arrived at the station it was very crowded; again the workers opened just one small gate and the crowd pushed to get through. The madness was very chaotic as men pushed women with small children so that they could perhaps get a seat on the train. There are seat tickets and standing tickets, if one gets on soon enough then they may find a seat for her/his long trip. Kalina and I ended up meeting many locals as we shared our seats, as they did with us. I learned to tough it out like the locals on the slow train, it is crowded, smells, and the washroom (WC) is disgusting....but there is little choice at times, since not all areas in the country are serviced by the fast train. The next day I reminisced about my experience, both the rewards and the set-backs......I was ready to go again.

 China...Spy in Sanya

  I was in Sanya, Hainan, the most southern city in China and had planned to meet my young Chinese friend Star for lunch. I got to a beach that is frequented by Russian tourists about 3 hours early, I planned to walk the coast line in search of some photo's.

                      

 As I traversed over rocks by the sea the water began crashing higher against the bluff. Once I got to a point where I could not navigate further along the waters edge I wondered if I should turn around and find somewhere else to discover, and take photo's.

                                      

 Going up often gives the best opportunity for scenery photo's so I give little thought and started to climb at the base of the cliff, just for a better view was my intention.

                                     

   At about 30 metres (100 ft) I was finding the ascent more difficult but still manageable. I focused on a tree that was growing out of the rock, this tree would help me to surpass a tough climbing section. I pulled on this tree to test it's strength and was satisfied that it was strong enough to hold me. I jumped and pulled hand over hand to climb the tree which released 100's of large red bull ants that started biting me all over my body. Frantically I got back down to a ledge that was my jumping platform and stripped my clothes off; while trying to slap the ants as I was disrobing After assessing the damage- my scraped arms and legs- I found a crack which supported my thought to continue ascending the cliff. After some careful climbing I reached a clearing that afforded me good views for my photo's.

  Once I gathered my legs I continued to climb; seemed like going back down the face of the cliff was not an option, it was not safe. Once I reached the top of this 100 metre cliff I found that it was a military mountain which was flat on top with a helicopter pad, some barracks, and other assorted buildings. At first a few of the 50 some odd soldiers approached with shocked looks on their faces, they were immediately very pleasant. A couple of the soldiers took me to a building and give me a glass of water (it was very hot)....they were so shy. I am not sure what they thought of this 50 year old foreigner who was cut up, dirty, and sweaty.

   The atmosphere quickly changed when the head officer came in, he was very intense; not exactly the most polite guy I have met in a white uniform. Immediately he raised his voice to the sociable young soldiers and gestured that he wanted my phone and camera (of which he removed the batteries). To jump ahead...I sat in that one room building for 2 hours with one of the junior men who spoke very few words of English, he managed to articulate that I needed to stay there. Soon after that 5 high end vehicles pulled up that contained 14 top officials. I watched them out of the window and the head honcho was so serious looking. Another vehicle pulled up about 30 minutes later which contained 3 secret service agents, one who was a translator; that is how I knew they were agents. By this time I was getting impatient and the mid-20's translator kept saying "no problem sir", while I said "yes there is a problem", I want to leave here and walk down the road.

   After 5 hours of the officers talking Chinese and the translator asking me questions, it was obvious that they THOUGHT I WAS A SPY. When I mentioned that my wife and daughter were traveling with me the translator asked, "what did you tell them?" They took me outside and asked me for seemingly the 20th time,  "how did you get up this mountain?" I told the translator that rock climbing is popular in the west....they just could not believe I climbed the cliff. I tried to get through to them that a spy was not going to walk around the top of the mountain in front of them. One of the men got me to go over to a car and he put a blindfold on me so we could drive down the mountain using their access road, seemed as though they wanted to see from which point that I ascended the mountain. Some officers were beside me where I had walked earlier while others were just off the beach in the grass; laying down in the long grass some 10 metres from the sea was a sign printed in Chinese, Russian, and English which read, 'Chinese Military Installation--absolutely no entry beyond this point.'

   It seemed apparent that while up on the mountain that the head officers thought the sign was standing, not laying down in the long grass. Surely THIS is why they kept screaming in Chinese while they looked at me. If that sign was standing I am sure they would have put me in jail. After 8 hours with me and an interrogation of my friend Star, they let me go, but not before closing off the floor of the hotel I was checked into and searching my backpack. I had sit in a room at the hotel while they drafted up a letter that they wanted me to sign. The 10 page document that was written in Chinese only supposedly said " I willingly entered China's most southern military installation." I was very angry by the end (as angry as one could realistically get with these guys). I demanded my camera card back since I had so many photo's of China; they agreed to put the photo's on a disk and they kept the card (so that I could not retrieve the deleted SECRET scenery photo's).

Poor Star never did get lunch, here she is helping make sure I do not lose many photo's by translating with the camera shop owner (and the military)

When we walked out of the hotel to go to a camera shop there was a big crowd on the street....these guys blocked so much of the sidewalk with their vehicles, maybe people thought I was a murderer? When the translator went to get in his vehicle I said to him, " hey, I will meet you there tomorrow to put up the sign."

  Two days later I checked my e-mail at an internet cafe and there was a message from my wife that said, "Daddy...be careful."