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Tunxi - My Aim Is True June, 2008 |
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Intending to spend the night, I was charged with finding suitable accommodations, and I plied the two main streets and ducked down the many shadowy alleyways, scattering surprised chickens in my quest to uncover the perfect little room. Onwards I roamed, continuing to pantomime sleep by tilting my head and putting my hands underneath while asking ‘hotel’, helpful people from the village indicating ‘follow me’, as they led me down the street to look at possible rooms for the night. Politely looking at rooms I had no intention of ever renting, declining nicely (‘no shay shay’), through the cracks of the buildings I could see the green fields of rice indicating the end of town, yet optimistically I pushed on, hopeful this last block would uncover that hidden gem. Nonetheless, after 45 hot minutes, I saw all there was to see, and regrettably I humbly reported back to the wife – no Western toilets in Likeng – none, zero, zilch, nada, diddly squat, as in ALL squat toilets. Coincidentally, the first place I looked at turned out to be the best and the one we ended up with - electronic keyed access locks, brand new pedestal sink, air conditioning, central control for all lights, squat toilet – after all, it is an ancient village. Tunxi (‘tune zee’), the place
with the funny name, is a great central location for visiting the many
historical villages of Anhui province, with easy One of our better day trips was to the mountainous temples of Qiyun Shan, about 40 minutes outside of Tunxi, where you’ll ascend painstakingly placed pink granite rocky steps, and view magnificent Tao temples carved from red sandstone cliffs, along with grottoes and niches showcasing shrines and effigies, all the while the primitive village of Qiyun Shn hugs the cliffs, masterfully gouged from the mountainside and sustaining a sizeable population. Beautiful landscapes, wonderful and historic temples, amazing views, charming villages, it is a well spent day certainly worth the price of admission ($8). At the end of the hike, we stood on the roadside and flagged down a bus heading back to Tunxi.
Home of the squat toilet, Likeng is pretty much unchanged except for the groups of tourists that continue to troupe through town. Despite this, the town itself is remarkable and certainly worthy of an overnight stay, although, as pointed out, don’t expect anything more than 1 star accommodations. We ran into a couple of other Western couples staying overnight and had a pleasant visit, exchanging travel stories and enjoying being able to communicate verbally without playing a game of charades. There are two other villages in the area worthy of visiting – Xiaoqi ($8), similar to Likeng – and Qinghua ($8), set up in the hills along a winding road. Honestly, with the costs involved you have to pick and choose which villages to visit, what with the hiring of local transport and each village charging admission, it’s just not economically feasible to see everything, so decide carefully. Back in Tunxi, our weather luck
finally ran out on us and we got stuck in our hotel for three days with
monsoon rain. When I looked up the Eventually, we wanted to get up to Huang Shan, a mountainous area about 30 minutes up the road, so with the first break in the weather we made a dash for it, passing swollen rivers and scenes of muddy devastation. In fact, we’re surprised we even made it through, since the road itself is narrow and winding and follows a small river up the mountain, the best part being, it forced our bus driver to drive like a normal person since he had no other vehicles on the road to harass or demonstrate his rudeness, so that in itself was refreshing. Hanging out in this little village town, we waited out the storms and stole hikes whenever we had the chance, since the entire area was besieged with ‘tons of rain’. One partly cloudy day we managed to squeeze in two hikes, the first out and back to the famous Emerald Pools, a magnificent canyon jaunt past beautiful turquoise pools of water, huge granite boulders and stunning bamboo forests. In fact, so stunning is the scenery that the movie ‘Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger’ was filmed here, and it’s easy to see why. I attempted some of those swaying on bamboo shaft tricks like they did in the movie, but Marge wasn’t able to capture it too well on film – guess I was moving too fast.
The following day, which promised to be the only halfway decent day of the week, we planned our assault on Huang Shan (‘Yellow Mountain’ – entrance fee $30). Awakening at 6:00AM to a misguided wake up call, we hustled to the bus station and arrived at the Yungi cable car station ($12) a little past 7:00 AM, intending to bypass the initial 20,000 steps and 3 hour ascent so that we could maximize our time on the summit. With no one in line, we didn’t have the opportunity to reconsider (at busy times there’s a 3 hour wait to get on the cable cars), as we slid into our private car and the door sealed us in. Suffice it to say, the 10 minute cable car was one of the most exhilarating rides I’ve ever been on, soaring majestically over granite canyons and quickly gaining 5000 feet of elevation, plucking us safely and refreshed on the summit ridge, ready to explore the many sites and vistas on top of this famed mountain. For the rest of the day, we
were awed by the incredible scenery and ingenuity of the pathways, some
of which are seemingly glued to the side of With poetically named rock formations, I easily discharged both batteries for my camera. Finally, after exploring the many paths on the summit and ridges of the mountain, the descent begins (or you can opt for another cable car down), an alleged 60,000 steps straight down to the valley floor, contouring the granite spires, passing through slot canyons and by ancient temples, a grueling 4 hour knee jarring experience. Marge did very well, but I was really aching, so much so, that the last few thousand steps were really burning my quads (and did so for 3-4 days after). In fact, I can’t emphasize enough how grueling this downhill segment really is – for 4 hours, it’s step after granite step all downhill – a killer on your knees, your ankles, your Achilles, your quads. However, the best scenery is around the summit ridges, so just save the energy of the climb up (usually via the Eastern steps) by taking the Yungi cable car instead, and hike down via the Western steps – it is awesome. And don’t under estimate the effort required – if you hike up (3 hours – 20,000 steps), then spend time on the summit, then hike down (4 hours – 60,000 steps), it’s a very strenuous journey – maximize your time on the summit is our best advice.
Next stop Nanjing, a 5 hour bus ride to the north, where we’ll hang out for 5 or so days before heading over to the promising destination of Shanghai, where we’ll spend another week. Then the home stretch through Xian and the terracotta warriors and up to Beijing, sampling the pre Olympic excitement and waiting for our train across Mongolia to the most expensive city in the world - Moscow. Hitting a hole the size of grapefruit from a height of 3 feet requires tremendous eye/hand coordination, something not easily acquired without practice. Moreover, not making a mess of the foot pads while hitting the small target warrants bonus points, both pre and post event. Not having much experience, it was a challenge to rise to the occasion, to prove my mettle, to become a contender. In the spirit of the Olympics, know that my hard work has paid off, that I’ve moved beyond the Western toilet, that now my aim is true.
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I
knew Marge would be upset, so I carefully considered how I would break
the news. We had arrived in the quaint little Chinese settlement of
Likeng, which hasn’t changed much in the last billion years, sitting
nimbly on the banks of two Lipton-stained bisecting streams, an
endearing and popular site for photographers and tourists. It’s not a
large village, easily covered in maybe 15-20 minutes at best, as you
pass by crumbling cobblestone buildings, a few souvenir shops, local
merchants selling tea and bamboo handicrafts, rickety old bridges
spanning the gurgling creek connecting families on opposite sides of the
stream, little kids running along the well worn rock paths stumbling on
the uneven surfaces, mothers washing clothes on flat rocks lining the
water’s edge and old scraggly dogs seeking cool comfort under rock
benches worn smooth from years of use. 
access on local buses forming the basis for engaging day trips. Once
you’ve had your fill of old Chinese villages, head up to Huang Shan, the
famed mountain region, and exhaust yourself clamoring up the eastern
steps of Yellow Mountain, spending the night on the summit, and then
descending the 10 mile western steps, passing by some of the most
beautiful scenery in China.
We
decided to venture down to the province of Jiangxi, taking the 2 hour
bus from Tunxi to Wuyuan (‘woo yon’) along a beautiful winding road, to
explore the enchanting and celebrated Huizhou villages, notable for
their well preserved characteristics. Arriving in the rather dreary town
of Wuyuan (where they have the absolutely dirtiest bus station we’ve
ever been in), we stayed only long enough to connect to Likeng, about 20
minutes outside of town on the local bus. After being left off at the
end of the road, we walked another 20 minutes to the ticket office,
where we paid another $8/each to visit the village. I must say that the
Chinese have pretty much attached a monetary value on everything worth
visiting here, some seemingly beyond the reach of the average citizen.
In our dialog, I’ll list the price of admission for one person in
parentheses to show you how everything is capitalized commercially. 
forecast, it predicted ‘tons of rain’, a curious western slang, so I
thought, sure, what’s a little rain. However, I never saw it rain so
hard for so long and sat grumpily in our room unable to even get to an
ATM, the bright side being we had internet access and I was able to
bring our blog up to date. 
That
same day we walked up to Nine Dragon Pool Waterfall, a huge waterfall
swollen with water due to the recent storms, that runs down the side of
a rather sheer vertical yellow granite rock shelf, cascading into rather
large pools in a series of nine steps on its way down the mountain. The
hike itself went up and up and up on dated granite blocks steps (20,000+
in all) that have probably been there for centuries. Finally, after 3
hours, we mercifully reached the parking lot where we were able to catch
a bus back into town. Very wonderful hike, with outstanding vistas from
the top of the waterfall, at least 2000 feet up in elevation, with an
option to cross the waterfall on a wooden plank bridge (unavailable to
us because the water level was too high) and loop around to the original
starting point. 
completely
vertical granite walls, hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of feet
above the ground. Imagine if they were to glue a cantilevered 4 foot
wide concrete walkway on the side of half dome in Yosemite – attached
somehow with iron rods drilled into the side of the vertical cliff. How
they managed to construct these at this height is quite remarkable,
hopefully all that missing rebar was redirected up here. Every now and
then, you would come to these concrete bridges that spanned two rock
formations, allowing people to hop from one pinnacle to another, again
thousands of feet in the air. Frequent viewing sites with, I thought,
rather inadequate guard rails, allow visitors to scramble to the tops of
slippery granite boulders and gain awesome views. On most of the guard
rails, the chain links they use to block access is adorned with
thousands of locks placed there by couples for good luck. Surprisingly,
there are three rather large hotels at the summit, with many people
opting to spend the night in order to catch sunrise and sunset –
something we planned on doing if the weather had been better. 
On
another showery day, we hired a driver and headed out to Shexian to
visit a couple of ancient villages – Chengkan ($8) and Tangmo ($8).
These two villages are unusual in that they haven’t yet become Unesco
World Heritage Sites, so for now they haven’t become littered with cheap
souvenir stands, and still retain the look and feel of authentic local
villages. Peering through darkened doorways, visions of a simple life
were evident, as locals congregated over a game of dominos, or simply
sat peering out at the passing day. We would expect these same villages
to follow the pattern of the other more touristy and commercialized
Hongcin ($10) and Xidi ($10), but for now, enjoy them as they are –
authentic and appealingly tourist free. 
