Last weekend we went on a 3 day holiday with our good friend, Dana, who is a TCM student at the hospital here. We took a 3 hour train ride to Zhangjiajie. This park is a UNESCO geopark, noted for it’s peculiar limestone spires amidst sub-tropical forest home to 1000’s of rare species of flora. It is these spires that inspired James Cameron’s vision of hanging mountains on the moon Pandora in his movie, Avatar.
On the trip there, we were able to buy tickets in the deluxe cabins of the train, pretty comfy.
(Maddie likes to make crazy faces in photos these days)

We arrived at the train station refreshed and ready to barter. We talked the taxi drivers down from 110 Y to 60 Y. It is a winding road up into the mountains and the taxi drivers do it as fast as possible so that they can return quickly to get more fares. There are incredibly long tunnels through the mountains, several of them just over 2kms long. Contrary to the posted signage, this is long enough for cars, taxis and buses to start passing each other in the tunnel, not for the faint of heart!
We arrived at our destination safely and checked into our hotel. We found a great little street BBQ to have some dinner and went to sleep in anticipation for what our views would be like the next day.
After a delicious Chinese/Western breakfast (with…butter!!) we headed off to the park at the crack of 10:30. Quickly bypassing both the giant LCD screen showing bits of the movie Avatar and the persistent locals who would like to be your guides lurking at the park gate, we began our day. Our first views of the towering peaks above us were awe-inspiring.

We took the ‘Golden Whip Stream’ trail, which is the most popular in the park, somewhat busy but not overly so. It is a leisurely 7km walk along a paved pathway beside the Golden Whip Stream.

There were many scenic spots along the way…


Simon, Dana, and Maddie in the backpack decided to go up another trail for a quick look around. Anticipating lots of stairs, Emily and I continued ahead along the easy trail for a while. When they returned to us they were very excited and bursting with adrenaline. It seems they had encountered a group of monkeys, who quietly watched them and checked them out from afar.

A large male came to the forefront for a better look. Eventually the monkeys realised that they were not going to be fed, or they were simply on display to these strange humans. Here is the photo Dana took a moment before all of the monkeys turned to chase them and Simon began to take flight…

Meanwhile, Emily and I enjoyed a quiet moment in the park just off the main trail.

The hike took a little longer than expected so we opted to go up the ‘Bailong Elevator’ instead of trying to make it across the park to one of the gondolas (there are 2). The Chinese have constructed this elevator both inside and outside one of the spires. It is the world’s tallest glass outdoor elevator at 1070 ft.

The view at the top was fabulous, albeit a little scary for me. We totally lucked out in that the clouds swept in only moments after this photo was taken. That was the end of the view for that afternoon.

We did not know at the time that this elevator is actually rather controversial, and the Chinese went ahead and installed it without the OK from UNESCO and the necessary environmental studies done beforehand. We are not surprised. The future of this elevator is still uncertain.
After our long and fulfilling day at the park we took one of the park buses back to the entrance, only it was the east entrance in a town called Wulingyuan and not the south, where we began. I still cannot understand how there is not a bus back to our entrance after most people just walked the 7km trail that we did. How do they all get back? Maybe we were too late. Two city buses later, with the aid of some kind Chinese people who spoke a tiny bit of English and we arrived back in Zhangjiajie village. We have been fortunate; whenever we have been really stuck we seem to find one person who can help us out with the language.
We met a nice German couple on one of these buses and Dana was very glad to be able to speak in her mother tongue for a few hours as we all had dinner together.
Day 2…

The next day dawned wet. Very wet. In fact it was pouring rain. Not ones to be scared away by a little wetness, we unpacked our raincoats and headed out. We decided to take the bus back to the east entrance, possibly buying a little time so that the rain would let up. It did not.
After much map consulation, we decided to take the Monkey’s garden trail, sounds innoucuous enough. The trail was depicted as a yellow line, same as the one we took the day before, so we figured it would be a similar walk low in the valley. An attendant at the park gate confirmed this for us.
In contrast to the day before, we were the only ones on this trail. The rain was somewhat abating and the air was warm, so we were content. The scenery was lush and green with beautiful bridges here and there.

This happens to be a pivotal photo of our day. The steps on the right are the first set of stairs that we had encountered. They continued on the left of the bridge, and then continued again. At every bend of the trail was a new set of stairs. We reasoned that perhaps we were just climbing alongside this small stream and that it would even out eventually. No, this was not the case. In this situation, at some point one must come to a decision; go up further, or down? Since we had a good 8 hours of rain previous to that moment, the unbeaten path of the stairs was quite mossy and slippery. We thought it best to keep going up. After all, this was supposed to be an ‘easy’ trail wasn’t it?
The rain did stop and we got to a few viewpoints along the way. We were, indeed, climbing way up. Some of the viewpoints were more dangerous than others, we gave this one a wide berth.

We came to a beautiful archway on our hike, and the first people we had seen all morning. This must mean we are near the top, we thought excitedly!

Then we climbed some more, and hit the cloud level.

The trail got busier with tour groups coming down to the nearby viewpoints, and finally we made it to the top! We had climbed 3,878 stairs to the top of Mt. Tianzi at 1262.5 metres. The total climb was about 750 metres or 2300 feet. This was Emily’s first peak on her own, we are so proud of her; she had a great time and did not complain once. I must say it was supremely tough for me, as my legs are not what they used to be, but I persevered. Madeline did the climb most of the way in the backpack (way to go Simon) but climbed many of the stairs near the top. The Chinese people were amazed to see two young girls tromping up the long staircases.

We did know, however, that there was a gondola waiting for us at the end; and we hoped that the map was wrong once again and would be taking us down instead of up some more as it had indicated. The gondola (with 26 more freakin’ steps to get to it, bringing the afternoon’s total to 3904!!!) ride was amazing. It was like we were flying on one of the prehistoric birds from the movie Avatar.


If this wasn’t exciting enough, we then had only 45 minutes to make it to our train. We ended up in Wulingyuan again, so had to find a taxi to take us to Zhangjiajie village, grab our backpacks from the hotel lobby, and drive down to Zhangjiajie city to get the train.

Remember the aforementioned tunnels? It was crazy.



We were warmly greeted at the Huaihua train station by one of the hospital’s drivers and welcomed back with open arms by the staff who were still at work. It was very touching and we feel that we are a part of the family of this hospital. What an adventure this has been!

Another sign that we saw in Zhangjiajie, in a washroom. The things I am learning…

As some of you may know, we visited a beautiful forest park, Zhangjiajie, last weekend. It was an awesome place. We are just sorting out the photos but I have a few ready now. There were many signs posted along the trails, and most of them had a funny English translation. Here are the gems…
Our silly girls at the park entrance:

At the start of the trail, “Welcome to the Golden Whip Brook Fit Tourism Line. Breathing the oxygen purifies the lung. Rubbing feet makes you fit. The bridge offers greatest delight. Walking on the stone stakes improves health. Deep valley provides peculiarities.

The Chinese signs often remind us to mind our manners:

A basic fire warning:

Not really too sure of the message of this one:

Watch for lightning!

On a small beach of the stream grow densely precious phoebes. Walking in the woods makes the tourists drunk with coolness and fragrance.

We soon learned what this meant…

Again, a bit of an unknown to me:

Ooooh, shaky rocks!

As we climbed a little higher, we found this sign that reads, “Friend, this is a natural oxygen bar with a rich content of negative ions”

We took an elevator, yes, an elevator, through and up the mountain side, these were the instructions posted at the door while we were waiting, I particularly enjoy the last rule:

And finally, just some basic mis-translation, I think they meant exit tunnel, but instead, instilled a feeling of something sinister lurking?

In Canada, most of you would consider Simon to be somewhat small in stature (but not in fabulousness!). In China, Simon has been pleased to find out that he is of average to above-average height. The same goes for clothes, where he might buy a size small in Canada, a medium or large would do here.
So, it was Valentines Day a while back here in China. I happened to be ‘at the mall’ that day, so I spotted some cool looking underwear that would make a good gift for him. I looked around at the display and only found sizes from Large to XX-Large. There were no smalls and no mediums, at all; in any style or colour.

Do Chinese men feel a little ‘inadequate’ about their underwear size so that the industry has completely changed the sizing so that the average man will feel good about buying himself a pair of XXL undies? Another one of the mysteries of China…

So my big day of fame in rural China has come and gone. My speech went well, I was surprised at the big round of applause after I began the speech with “Zun Jing de Lai Bin Men, Nin Men Hao”. This means Welcome, Honoured Guests. I decided to scrap the joke about the moth, it didn’t seem quite right.

For those of you who are interested, a transcript of my speech is posted here: http://www.tcmtreatment.com/images/diseases/Pauline-Speech.htm
Before and after the ceremony a humongous amount of fireworks were let off. The sound was deafening and it formed it’s own smoke cloud. Good thing the ambulance was neaby in case anyone had some bronchial problems! Hopefully they are offering a deal on tinnitus treatments this week!

The debris; note all the red in the background, both left and far right; that is literally THOUSANDS of the small red loud ones:

Afterwards the patients of the hosptial and the visiting dignitaries were invited to a fancy lunch at a nearby banquet hall. They pulled out all the stops, the meal included turtle soup, spicy toads, pig’s stomach with garlic scapes, black-skinned chicken and other assorted dishes. This is just the beginning of the serving, there were MANY more dishes.

I made the mistake of asking the translators if that was a type of mushroom in with the garlic scapes, they burst into fits of laughter so I knew I would probably not like the answer. It was, indeed, the pig stomach. I finished my bowl, it wasn’t actually that bad (It’s in the foreground of the photo).
Simon was first to try the toad. I liked it, and had a few pieces, it was cooked in a very spicy fashion.

The hospital got all gussied up for the occasion:

The dragons guarding the entrance:

The flowers were beautiful:

So were the girls, and this is their friend, Nura, from Libya:

Some of the staff got dressed up as well:

The staff were all in good spirits:

The girls gathered up some of the flowers after it was all over:


And the next day, the flowers were carted away:

For those of you who have not heard, Simon has finished the first of his films documenting our Chinese exploits. Make sure you plug in your headphones or TURN UP the speakers, because it’s rockin!!!
Click here to watch it!

Things around the new hospital are shaping up quickly. The staff have been working almost non-stop in readying the building and grounds for the grand opening ceremony on Thursday. Sod has been laid, flowers and trees planted, great amounts of dirt moved around; and today decorative red banners have been hung on the entire front of the building from the roof to the ground.
I have been asked to be the honorary spokesperson for the patients. Ok, I’m the only one who’s first language is English, so that’s why they picked me. I have prepared a speech for the visiting dignitaries and whomever else will be attending. I am not nervous about this speech since I figure only about 5% of the people will understand me fully and maybe only another 2% will have a general idea of what I’m saying. Everyone else will have no idea what I say so I can totally screw up! Ha! A translator will speak along with me for the remaining 93% of the people. I am trying to add a bit of humour, but this is a very difficult thing to do cross-culturally. Another patient, who was a media attaché for the US-Kuwait embassy for years gave me a suggestion. He heard a popular song here titled, “I love you as the moth loves the rice”, so I am going to work that into my speech. It will be a regular laugh riot. Hopefully the guests will know the song and not think I’m some weirdo talking about loving moths. Stay tuned for photos and an update of the event in a few days…

Now that we’ve been here in China, we are not so much gawking at everything in amazement or incredulousness (is this a word??), but we are relaxed with the daily routines and occurences of a Chinese city. We are beginning to see and understand some of the nuances of life here. Women carry umbrellas wherever they go. You can buy quite fancy ones, with beautiful beads and organza and lace on them. Obviously not suited to a monsoon-like downpour. The reason they carry them is that they use them for the sun. Ok, I thought, that’s good, a little personal shade, after all, it is over 35 degrees most days. However the REAL reason is that Chinese women do not like to get a suntan. It is considered unfashionable since the labourers, farmers and ‘peasants’ that work in the fields all day are deeply tanned. Chinese women spend a fortune on ‘whitening creams’, probably as effective as those that promise to erase wrinkles. The funny thing is that, in our culture, it is the opposite. A tan is a sign of opulence, for those who spend their days in leisure; golfing, playing tennis or other outdoor pursuits, instead of in an office cubicle. I am speaking about urban North Americans in particular, and making broad generalizations, of course.
So what to do if a genteel Chinese lady has left her umbrella at home, and is suddenly inundated by the bright sun? She has to find something to cover with, and quickly. How one forgets their umbrella at home but manages to remember to bring a plastic washbowl is beyond me…

Another thing that I have noticed is that Chinese men have long nails. Not the labourers who are building this hospital, but the doctors do. I have not had a chance to inspect too many men’s nails, but the hair salon was an obvious spot to see men’s nails up close. Mostly it is the index and the pinky fingers.

I am thinking this is partly fashion and perhaps a little bit of a class difference as well. I am not sure, but it is a custom that I do not find particularly attractive. Maybe that’s because I’m a short-ish length nail person myself, but Simon does not have to worry about requests for longer nails!