Da Hei Shan

October 1st is National Day. It is sort of like Independence Day for us Americans. Everyone gets a few days off work and all schools and businesses are closed. It is actually illegal for most people to work that day from what I've heard. It is also a day for families to get together and celebrate.

Obviously, my family is not here to celebrate National Day with me, even though I didn't really care to. Michael, the owner of the school, felt that since everyone had some time off the school should go on a day trip and that way the foreigners and the Chinese Teachers who had nothing to do could have some fun together. He planned a trip to a large mountain about 45 minutes out of Dalian near the development zone called Kai Fa Qu.

The name of this mountain in English is "Big Black Mountain". I should have known this would be bad just from the name. "Black" always foreshadows something evil or difficult. I am not a fan of exercise or sweating. When our buses arrived at the mountain I immediately thought how I should have just stayed in bed. We hadn't even begun our trek but I was already sweating just from the sun! One of the other teachers pointed way up the mountain and said, "that's where we are going." I thought she was joking! It looked so far away and so high up. After a stop at the bathroom, the group started climbing.

Naturally, I was at the end of the pack of people. Even though I'm in China, I'm still one of the shortest people here and can't keep up that well with everyone else. The walk was quite leisurely as people were taking pictures of this and that. Somehow I ended up quite a ways in front of most of the others. The teachers who were walking with me decided to take a snack break and we sat down in a random pagoda to eat some oranges and rest a minute. We then began the trek again and caught up with the first group which included Patrick. I collapsed on a step and asked how much longer we had. Patrick said, "We are almost there. It's just up on that bluff." I thought, "Oh, thank God! 'Cause I'm about to die!" Some of the other teachers started catching up so we got up and began moving again.

Patrick was right, we were almost there. But as I turned what I thought was one of the last corners I saw one of the steepest staircases I've ever seen in my life! After forcing myself to go up this I was disappointed to see another staircase around the next corner. Eventually I got to the top and was greeted by a Buddhist temple. After a rest I entered the temple with everyone else and began wandering around looking at stuff. I just thought, "Great, we are at the end. Let's go back now so I can take a shower." But no, this wasn't the Big Easy Mountain or the Big Fun-time Mountain. This was the Big "Let's test every ones endurance" Black Mountain. We still had about another mile or so to go.

The rest of it wasn't quite so bad. It was on a paved road with only a slight incline. We got to the top and took some pictures of the landscape and all that touristy stuff. All of a sudden there was a group forming to go even higher on the mountain. Apparently the rest of the people hadn't gotten enough yet. There was a small trail leading up even further to where some radio towers were. I opted out of this fun-filled adventure and decided to check out another pagoda with fake terra-cotta warriors around it. There was a Chinese teacher, Tommy (the manager), and Michael who accompanied me. After checking out all this we began the journey to the bottom of the mountain. We walked down a winding paved road to a small farming community at the bottom.

When we reached the bottom we headed into a house. The houses at the bottom of the hill prepare "countryside" food for tourists and Michael had arranged for us to have lunch there. The house was quite interesting. It had the normal bedrooms, living room, and kitchen but there was more. They had a small courtyard in the middle of the house and a strange room with a huge platform that filled 90% of the room. I was invited to go in that room which turned out to be a bedroom. This platform was the family bed. When I sat on the bed it was warm. I was told that this is a traditional Chinese bed. In the winter and during holidays families will eat together and sleep together on this bed. The stove in the kitchen is exhausted through a horizontal chimney that runs under the bed and keeps it warm.

After the other teachers arrived we ate. The food was delicious. It tasted just like American food. There was even something that was just like pot roast. After finishing dinner we boarded the buses and went back home.

My batteries died but here are some pictures that I got.