Mountain Day Story

What’s up DS? I’m here to tell you all about a nice day going up and down a mountain near Shaxi village. We’ve seen a few mountains on our trip so far, but we had a much more thorough visit to this one.

Up until this point, we would wake up around 6:00-7:00am, something none of us were too fond of. Luckily our day didn’t begin until 10:30, so we all got some much needed rest. After a healthy breakfast, we hopped into our van and drove up part of the mountain for a few hours to go and pick up some lunch. We had the pleasure of eating our midday meal about halfway up the mountain, which provided us with a pretty cool view. Lunch itself was an awesome, unique experience. We had a barbecue pit in the center of our table and got to cook our own food on a raging fire. Overall a stellar meal.

We finished eating at around 2:00, and took another van to the top of the mountain in a ride that was nothing short of nauseating. It was all worth it once we reached the top. The mountain’s peak stood at just under 9000 ft, and our village was somewhere around 6900 ft. The view was breathtaking. I could not only see Shaxi village, but all of the villages surrounding it.

When we were up there, we got to see some of the grottoes that had been there for ages. The grottoes depicted Buddhist beliefs; each grotto being more sacred than the next. This was one of the few places we have seen where photos were not allowed, specifically for religious purposes.

The walk back down the mountain was the highlight for me. Following a stone path and climbing down hundreds of stair proved to be a lot more fun than one might think. Walking down the mountain took 2 hours total, but this is where I felt like I connected most with the natural elements of my surroundings. About halfway down we all stopped at a pagoda to take a little rest and enjoy the view from the other side of the mountain. This is about the point where the way down stopped being a ramp and became completely stairs, a steep, uneven challenge had arrived. It took a while, but we made it down safely. It was a pretty tiring day, so I made sure to get myself a good night’s sleep.

Well that’s my mountain day story. I’ll post some more stories a little later, but for now, I’ll be posting pictures daily on the account I made for this trip: https://vsco.co/charlieinchina (nothing wrong with a little self promotion).

Stay Classy America.

[Ed.: Note Charlie's photos in the right column ... check them frequently!]