Final Part: Chang Bai Shan (White Mountain)

On Tuesday, the seven of us took a bus to Baihe, which is the town closest to the Northern entrance of Chang Bai Mountain, which is located in China's largest nature preserve. This mountain also holds a great deal of importance for Koreans and which 1/2 of it is located in N. Korea.

We got off the bus in what we thought was Bai He and began a search for a cheap hostel. We were immediately bombarded by several people offering lodgings and tours of Chang Bai Shan, but we broke free, except for one persistent gentleman. He hounded us for about 1/2 an hour but in the end, helped us find a family guesthouse for 15 yuan a night (2 dollars).

During lunch, we discovered that we were NOT in Bai He, but Tudou! D'oh! Nevertheless, the two towns are practically one city, so we were not that far off.

We ended up meeting the nicest man in China, who drove us around in his mini-van. We gave him an English name, Chuckles, because he was extremely jolly and pleasant mannered.

He drove us to Chang Bai Shan early in the morning and we began our journey up the mountain, which in 2000 won the record for a volcanic lake at the highest elevation. The pictures I've seen of Heaven Lake are spectacular and I was excited to see it in person. When we arrived at the peak, however, we were disappointed as we were greeted by a lake enshrouded in fog. Good thing we waited around because as the minutes passed, the fog began to dissipate and we had some gorgeous views of the lake.

(That's me!)

The rest of the day was filled with walking to different sites in the park: a Waterfall from Heaven Lake, small Heaven Lake, hot springs (where they boil eggs, corn, and funny pork sticks) and the Underground Forest. Pictures of all of it are in this sentence!

The following day was filled with a visit to a random sculpture park and this amazing card game that Jenny and Sherry taught us called: Red Tens! I think in total we spent over 15 hours on the trip playing this card game. It was like crack; we couldn't stop.

Now, I'm back in Jilin, ready to continue teaching medical English and start teaching my legal English class in a few weeks. I'm going to show 'Legally Blond' and leave it at that! (Just kidding) Its going to be an interesting class, as I do not know much about law, but will be well informed for my class!

Part 2: Tumen, China/N. Korean Border

Matt, Kevin, and I were debating on whether or not to stay in Yanji on Sunday because we also had Monday in Yanji with our friends who were coming in that evening. We trekked to the bus station to see about a trip to Tumen. With our broken Chinese, we were able to figure out that the next bus left in 40 minutes, but we couldn't buy the return ticket there. On top of that we weren't even sure if there was a return bus. D'oh! We said, "what the heck, we'll go and if we get back great, if not, there are places to stay there, probably."

Tumen is a border town between China and N. Korea and was pretty amazing to witness. I think after hearing all about or rather not hearing much about this country, to actually visualize N. Korea was surreal.

We couldn't glean much about N. Korea from Tumen, but Matt and Kevin paid 2 yuan each to look at the opposing border town through telescopes and binoculars. From their reports, the buildings looked monochrome and during the night, it was pretty much pitch black.

Along the river, there were alot of touristy gimmicks, so we did them! We paid 20 yuan to cross 1/2 way across the bridge between China and N. Korea; and rode a 3 person tandem bike, which was in shabby condition; but we were able to pull of a 360 turn without falling over.

The rest of the pictures from Yanji and Tumen are here: click me!

We were able to get a train back to Yanji to meet up with our friends at midnight and continue our travels to Bai He, which is right next to Chang Bai Shan, China's largest nature reserve.

National Holiday Triology: Part 1: Yanji

I've returned to Jilin after a week of travel to Yanji, Tumen, and Chang Bai Shan. Its been a great, but tiring week; as soon as I stepped out of the Jilin Train Station, it felt good to be back 'home.'

I last reported that on the beginning of our journey that I was going to stand for 7 hours. This turned out to be a rumor and all three of us ended up finding a seat amongst the passengers. So sadly, I didn't build any character, but I was well rested and pleasant upon arrival.

We arrived in Yanji and started the short trek to our lodgings. As we passed the buildings, dodging cars in the streets, I definitely was reminded that we were in China, but also it felt quite different from Jilin. Since Yanji is the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, all of the signs are in Chinese and Korean. Furthermore, there is a huge Korean population in the city, which contributes to the mix of Korean/Chinese food everywhere.

The afternoon was spent exploring the city. We found a park which sadly had animals in minuscule cages. There was a tiger and a cheetah, right next to each other, with barely enough room to walk around. The cheetah was pacing back and forth, which Matt and Kevin said was probably due to the poor animal's suffocating space causing him/her to go crazy. I was quite disturbed by this maltreatment, so I suggested to come back later in the night for Mission: Liberation. I was reminded that these carnivores are probably famished and would eat their liberators; Mission: Liberation, aborted.

Dinner was spent at a Korean BBQ place which was fun because we got to grill our own food. It was analogous to roasting smores over a campfire, but instead with meat on a stick and in my case garlic cloves and fishballs, which I tried to order more of after the first batch. However, each time I tried to say, in Chinese, 'fish,' then 'white fish' while motioning my hands into a ball formation; and then I gave up because instead of a frozen, half spherical fishball, I got donkey and then some funky fish skin thing.

In my typical clumsy fashion, I was jumping up on to a step and proceeded to trip and gouge my knee on the corner of the step. That pretty much ended our night on the town and I tended to my gushing wound which I think looked alot worse than it really was and I'm glad to report that I'm healing well with no signs of infection.