Haituo Mountain

I just spent the last two days at Haituo Mountain. The point of the trip was to collect medicinal herbs, but to me, it was more of a hiking/ exploration/ vacation/ adventure trip. It is one of the Chinese National Parks and is as beautiful as Yosemite, CA or Interlaken, SZ, with its own unique style and Chinese twist.

On Tuesday, we went hiking in the valley shortly after arriving to observe medicinal herbs and then after the hike my professor, Dr. Burgess, and I went running. I didn't feel like running because I had just spent the morning and early afternoon traveling and hiking but the run was WELL worth it. The mountains we saw while running were breathtakingly beautiful!!! There was something about seeing them on my own two feet (instead of in a bus) that made me feel small and I was able to appreciate their size, beauty, and magnificence even more. We were also able to run places that the bus didn't/ couldn't drive by, we managed to not run off any cliffs though!

The next day we to 龙青霞 (long qing xia) to explore some more and I had a real adventure! We took a boat ride through a winding canyon and lake-- again, the mountains/ rocks were breathtaking. I took tons of pictures and I was thinking that Lord of the Rings could have been filmed there. We visited the Diamond temple, which was a small temple embedded in the mountains, complete with Buddhas and incense. There was a bell, which I rang a few times for my grandparents. Then I had my adventure and was able to cross something off my life-long bucket list.

There was a zip line and bungee jumping operation over the canyon and lake. Our professor asked if I wanted to go bungee jumping and I thought she was joking but I said yes anyway because it has been something the daredevil in me has wanted to try since I first saw people bungee jumping at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe when I was about 11 or 12. First, one of my classmates went bungee jumping and after I saw her go, I COMPLETELY changed my mind after I saw the first drop. Instead, I went on the zip line with my professor, which was really fun, not scary, and enjoyable. After gaining trust in the infrastructure and people I decided to give bungee jumping a try. It was terrifying and exhilarating!!! I'm never doing it again, but I'm really glad I went because it was a thrill! Dad, Mom- I promise I won't take anymore risks for the rest of the trip!

The rest of the trip was really fun, probably partly due to the adrenaline rush I got from bungee jumping! The food in the mountains was good too, for dinner on Tuesday I had some greens from the trees and plants where we went hiking, donkey(!), and really delicious lamb right off the biggest bone I've ever seen at a table. I had warm soy milk, steamed bread, porridge, and pickled cabbage-- my personal favorite for breakfast. Lunch on Wednesday was good too, I tried what looked to my like a Chinese style lamb kabob, it was the SPICIEST food I have ever tasted! If it was tofu or vegetables instead of lamb, Gregg would have been very excited. I had to rinse it off in my tea to finish it!