My first conversation in Chinese  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
My father had nicely written a letter to me mentioning information he had discovered about Huang Shan, or the Yellow Mountain.

He had said that it was a mist shrouded, rainy mountain that was featured in classical Chinese poetry. But he also mentioned how the city of Huang Shan is located right next to the Yanghtze river.

As our driver was taking us home from the Mountain, we crossed a large river. I was sleepily listening to iPod, when I realized this was the largest body of water we had to cross.

I excitedly ripped out my earphones and asked "Yanghtze?" in my best fake chinese accent. The driver perked up and said, "Wei, wei! Yanghtze [some chinese I couldn't understand]."

I was so happy he was able to understand me.


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Huang Shan outdoor market street  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
After visiting the Huang Shan mountains, we returned to our hotel, freshened up, then ordered taxis to go down to the city and the main market street.

We were waiting a while, and when some two taxis came up to drop some guests off at the hotel, Mikey and I flagged them. The concierge came running out and stopped us, then explained with a garbled story about how some taxis can be dangerous.

Of course, when our rides did arrive, we didn't recognize them because they weren't taxis, it was the concierge's friends. But they didn't stiff us too much on the cost.


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There were some cool sights, like this woman who was taking silkworm casings and processing them. I had never seen that in person before.

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Then there were more inexplicable things, like the toys. And the posters with engrish.


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Alexa and Pam got really excited to find a yarn shop, though the items on sale weren't that exciting.


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I thought the colors of the indigo shop were really beautiful and eye catching. I just wanted to surround myself with real indigo after seeing it.


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At one point we passed these frying patties that really stood out for their green color. I was like, looks gross and passed it up. Then later, I was thinking about what they might taste like when Alexa mentioned about how Alyssa wanted to try them. We went back and I picked up one.


It was so warm and delicious and nicely cooked. The main ingredients seemed to be spinach, with stuffed garlic in the center. Mind blowing!


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Even while selling stuff to tourists, life continues unabated.

More observations from Yellow Mountain  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
The views from Yellow Mountain are stunning precisely because of the difficulty in getting up to them. Once there, you can only traverse narrow, winding paths with huge changes in elevation.


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It was hilarious to see this sight of a sign telling people not to do something,

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and hundreds of people doing it.


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We were much more polite about it.


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The thing about Huang Shan is that everything has to be carried in by hand. EVERYTHING.

That not only includes all drinks and food, but also construction materials and visitors to the hotel.

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Including porters just for the visitors to the hotel's luggage.


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It makes you much more aware of everything you use, and whether or not it is "recycle" or "unredeemable."


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Here's an example of unredeemable.


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I guess there is a tradition of tying locks on to any cable near a bridge or railing for good luck.


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Speaking of ignoring the posted signs. Signs which were literally written in red paint that must have been applied less than an hour before.


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Jojo brand jeans are popular in China.

Sweet, sweet visors, you rock my world  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
In addition to the sight of asian women with golfing caps sproinging their giant curls of black hair ever and ever higher, my favorite sight in China is the prevalence of weird visor/golf caps.

Especially when you see a motorcyclist with one of those big arc welder masks over their face, and you realize afterwards it transforms into the bestest fashion ever.

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Up, up and away (To the Yellow mountain)  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
We took a breathtaking (literally, in Kris's case) cable car ride up to the top of Huang Shan, or the Yellow Mountain. This is a site that has been the legendary inspiration for classical Chinese poetry and painting since ancient times.

You know those paintings of cloudy, mist enshrouded mountains with lonely pine trees sticking out? Imagine that now, with 10 billion Korean tourists and the six of us hanging out up there.


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Some of the rocks looked just like they were ready to fall right off the mountains. There must be something about the mineral content of the rocks to make such beautiful formations.




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When we got to the top, it looked like this. Well, actually, it was impossible to take a pic from the very top of the cable car station because of all the tour groups crowding around the balcony.




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I am assuming that there is a poem about this tree, and I would love to find it. Any help in the comments section would truly be appreciated.




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Believe it or not, we had just hiked up from the path you see here. I was not looking forward to much to the haul back.



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NCC Mini-Van102  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
I love how the logos for many things in China seem to be taken from the logos of other products.

Like the logo on the back of this car brand, that I could never figure out what the name is, looks just like a Federation logo from Star Trek.

There is also a car brand named Cherry, and their logo looks very much like the Infiniti logo.

There is another brand that looks just like the Toyota logo turned upside down.

Look at those palm trees!  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
We were riding in a hired car out to Huang Shan, or the legendary Yellow Mountain.

For some reason, as we scaled the mountain roads and became surrounded by bamboo forests, I got the urge to sing Izumi's favorite Karate Kid-ism.

"Look at those palm trees! Damn! You know what that means."

I thought about how I would have to explain the whole entire line, and how it would make little sense to everyone.

Then I thought, it would just about be worth it.

All of a sudden, in the very next moment, we passed a palm tree.

I was so astonished, I almost yelled out. I thought, I will just photograph the next one.

Nope, didn't happen. It was the only palm tree on the whole mountain. I had to wait until we came back down.

The lap of luxury  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
It is wide. It is deep.

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And sometimes it comes with a caddy.


Actually, it came with something that made it totally luxurious.


Hot water.

My introduction to how China works was when we arrived at Alexa's apartment in Beijing. We woke up, tried to shower, and found out that the hot water had been shut down for two weeks without any warning. 

Except that when Alexa tried to complain to the building manager, he pointed to the sign saying that the water was going to be out.

Maybe we had always been at war with hot shower-ania?

A new meaning to the term big  

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Originally uploaded by ocean yamaha
We took a trip to the Forbidden City, as well as a view of Mao's mausoleum. I thought I had understood the idea of "big."

But my ideas have been rewritten.


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I can tell you that Grant is not buried here. I can also tell you that Grant does not have a tomb that he can rise out of for viewing. Such incredible technology.


While we were hanging out in the square checking out the mausoleum, some Chinese people who must have been from out in the country came up and asked Pam and Kris to pose for a photo. Alexa was on the phone, and told us not to do it, but it was too late. Instantly, 10 more people started lining up while another five photographers showed up. They started crowding around us and Alexa protested to them that it was just rude.

I don't think they understood her.

Thankfully, in China, everything is so safe. We had nothing to worry, and the photo op quickly busted up and dispersed and we made our way to the Forbidden City.


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I remember seeing the Forbidden City in the movie, The Last Emperor. But I had no idea the sense of scale to which you can lose yourself in. You can get a little better idea from this photo.


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Alexa had hired a guide for us. His name was Jong, and I must admit I had a little trouble understanding his English.


As we walked from inner palace to inner palace, Jong told us about many of the symbolic statues. He showed us some turtle statues, saying they symbolize long life.


When we got to a court of Dowager Ci Yi (I think), Kris asked what the deer meant. Jong seemed to fumble for words for just a second. He finally came up with the symbol just as I turned to see the statue and was greeted by this:

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He said, "it means happy."