Well, I've finally returned from my two week trip around Northeast China, and now am forced to begin working on the papers and projects about our travels we have to turn in to our Chinese teachers in class Thursday. So, now I must begin the arduous process of putting two weeks into one blog post. haha Here goes:
Starting out with my group (of 18 students, one Chinese teacher, and the program director) we got on an overnight train and went to Yanji. Since I have never travelled by train I was super excited despite the daunting amount of time that we had to travel on the train, 25 hours. Anyways, overnight trains consist of a hallway on the right side of the car and little open (as in lacking a door) compartments on the left side. There are six bunks in each compartment, three stacked on top of each other on each side of the compartment. I originally had a bottom bunk, but when I got to my bed a Chinese woman asked if I could switch with her mother because her mother was elderly, so of course I switched. Having a top bunk was actually quite pleasant outside of having about two feet of head room to maneuver. It really didn't matter since the only time I was in my bunk was when I was sleeping. When we arrived in Yanji we went to a Korean restaurant that had a kang. Kang is essentially a heated floor. The table you sit at is about a foot off of the floor and you sit on the floor of the kang, of course not wearing shoes. The next day we left to go hiking in Chang bai shan forest. Upon waking up, one thing immediately stood out as one looked out the window. It was going to be a wet hike... It was raining and it did not appear as if there was any mercy in mother nature's disposition for the day. So after trying to wait out the rain till 11, buying better rain gear (all camo, perfect for hiking 6 miles from the North Korean border), and heading to where we would start our hike, the rain finally subsided. When we arrived at our "trail- head" one thing became very clear. Past 15 feet into the forest, there was not a trail. Nonetheless we began our hike bushwacking through all kinds of brush scaling logs, and tip toeing through briars. After about an hour another thing was becoming quite apparent as we rambled through the forest in no particular direction. Our guide was not fully sure on where he was going. I think this became most apparent when he started rushing ahead and then looking in circles as if to find his bearings. About an hour and a half in we came to a few creeks. We passed over them without much thought and then came to what we thought were a few puddles. Then a few puddles became a strand of puddles, and the strand of puddles became somewhat of a swamp. After having soaked my shoes and socks in, at times knee deep water, almost tested the water resistance capabilities of my camera, and screamed "jia you" ( a chinese saying for like push on, or like take hope, or something of the sort, essentially its like a moral boost saying in Chinese) to fellow classmates at least a hundred times we scaled a bank to a road which I later found out was the road we were dropped off at, just deeper into the forest. Having familiarized ourselves with the terrain of some of the Korean war, learned a bit about being Rambo, and in the process exhausted each of our pairs of dry socks for our two day camping trip we continued on up the road. Eventually we were given a choice of staying on the road or bushwacking it again, as both would lead us to our "campsite." After hiking along a pretty stream and seeing how natives of the area capture frogs to eat (one foot deep holes in the ground ) and crossing a "bridge" of two logs next to each other, each of about half a foot in diameter, we got back to the road. After following the road a bit longer we came to where we thought there would be a campsite. There was no such place. haha It only got more exciting!!! After shouldering all of our suitcases, as we thought the car carrying our luggage was supposed to be able to drive to our campsite, we treked back into the forest to get to where our tour guides said our campsite was. This portion of the trip got interesting really quick as no more than 10 feet in we had to cross a bridge more rickety than the first and then a second covered in moss, with all of luggage. We finally made camp about a 10 minute hike in. There was not a cleared area and we were forced to clear the area of trees and the such ourselves, while trying to put up tents and start a fire as the sun was going down and we were losing light. We then had kabobs, fire roasted bread, and smores for dinner, and went to bed after attempting to dry our socks and shoes near the fire. I unfortunately melted a bit of one sock as apparently putting something too close to fire will do that, but reduced amount of moisture was well worth the charred top of my sock. All in all this may have been one of my favorite days of the trip. It was packed with so much adventure and adversity and everyone kept their spirits up and just kept going. It was really cool to see a group of people who didn't know each other very well to really come together in one day due to all sorts of obstacles we had to overcome to get to our campsite.
The next morning we woke up in our tents to the sound of rain and then as one got out of their sleeping bag the feeling of water in the bottom of their tent. Quite pleasant.... We eventually hiked a few minutes and saw two waterfalls right by our campsite. So pretty, I love waterfalls so much. Then we packed up camp and headed back across the bridges with our luggage and down the road to be picked up by our bus. We were supposed to camp two nights, but since all of our stuff was soaked and it was getting cold, we made the smart decision and let mother nature win. The next day we went to Chang Bai Shan and Tianchi. It was so incredibly pretty. Absolutely insane. I'm fairly sure it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I couldn't help but continually think about how some one could ever deny the existence of God with such beauty surrounding us every day. I also had to keep checking to make sure I wasn't dreaming. haha That day we also went to hot springs... Which was like a really large hot tub, and lots of naked asian men. haha We weren't allowed to wear bathing suits so we added a vanilla tint to the predominantly yellow population in the hot spring. It was funny to see how awkward and out of place a lot of the guys on our trip seemed to be feeling. I'd have to say that I was a bit thankful for having changed in locker rooms for football and baseball in high school as I didn't feel to nervous and was able to enjoy the hot springs. The next day we went to Yanbian. After arriving we had Korean barbeque, and it was so good. The food is cooked in the middle right in front of you and then you wrap it in lettuce slices to eat it. I definitely look forward to eating that again. The next day we went to the college in Yanbian and met with some students. The girl I got to know was named Vita. We got about an hour to hang out and it was really cool to hear about Northeast Chinese culture, Chinese college student culture, and just to hang out. For lunch we went and learned how to make Dan gao. It's essentially rice bread. You mash up sticky rice til it is like a dough and then you cook it. It was really good. After we played some dress up with some traditional Korean garb of the people who taught us to make dan gao we got the day off. Later that night I met up with Vita and one of her friends Louise for dinner because I wanted to learn more from them about Northeastern Chinese culture. I also wanted to see what they thought about "dad". Dinner was awesome and they taught me a bunch of really useful stuff. I also found out that one of them knew "Dad" and the other didn't. I'm actually hoping to talk to them some more some day, but distance may be a factor in me getting that opportunity, but I did get their e mails. The following day we went to see the North Korean border. Since our teacher was American they wouldn't let us walk on the bridge to the border line, but we still got a pretty good look at the stark difference between the two countries. My heart absolutely breaks for that country. The difference in only appearances in the two cities was enough. On top of that I simply can not comprehend the amount of brainwashing that goes on to keep the people of North Korea from revolting. That country's government is absolutely sick...
The following day we went to Harbin where we spent two nights. We had most of the time off as free time, and one of the nights was the moon festival. For the moon festival we went to a restaurant that had a nationalistic skit and then a comedian. I actually got to dance in front of the restaurant while one of my classmates beat boxed. The comedian invited one of our class to come up and beat box and the guy who went up actually knows how. It was a ton of fun. After that we went to KTV which was really fun outside of seeing my classmates drink way past their limits and me not being able to sing due to a loss of my voice because of a cold. After Harbin we went to Shiwei which was super cold. It's right on the Russian border. The town was made up of a bunch of small log cabins. It has a population of about 4,000 unless it's winter, then it drops to 400. It's practically like in Siberia so everyone goes to the cities for winter. The coolest thing about Shiwei is that I got to ride a horse for the first time. I actually got the horse to gallop too!!! It was so much fun. I'd really really love to do that again. Our last destination was the grasslands. The grasslands were really pretty. They really reminded me of Nebraska, except instead of corn, just grass. haha I caught the sunrise and sunset from the top of a little knoll both days. Great alone time to be with God. Gotta love some G- time. haha While on the grasslands we got to learn about mongolian culture a bit. My favorite parts are their dancing and the fact that they wrestle. We got to wrestle a bunch and it was so much fun. Well, I'll probably end up adding to this, but for now that's all.
Hope everything back home is absolutely awesome!!!
Yours,
Colton
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