Straight to the Top!

Lately we have had a lot of free time due to the semester winding down. As the Spring Festival break looms nearer, we have had to find new ways to entertain ourselves besides purchasing more pirated dvds. Since there is a small mountain at the south entrance of our school we decided to take a little hike and see if we could reach the top. From the picture below you can see the two peaks we were able to summit.

As we got to the foot of the trail, we ran into two elderly Chinese men who were determined to not let us climb the mountain. They kept pointing to a piece of paper, which after examining, was just a list. We put our names down on the list and the number 4, because the people ahead of us on the list had put some number down. They looked at our names, pointed at the number and began a discussion. Apparently, they were impressed by the number four, and we were cleared for climbing the "mountain." Also at the foot of the trail was a pretty little stream with lots of chickens walking around and drinking the water.

Oh yeah, it really wasn't that pretty. It was actually kind of disgusting, and I would NOT want to be eating those chickens after what they were eating and drinking! It was a pretty cool day, so we were appropriately bundled. The walk started as a nice leisurely stroll on a path, but soon became a pretty vertical ascent with lots of sliding rocks. After managing the loose terrain, we had to start shedding some layers, and we began to respect this "mountain." If you remember Tai Shan - the mountain we climbed in a trip in October - "climbing" it was just walking up a steep staircase. It seems the Chinese prefer these straight-to-the-top trails over the North American zig-zag trails. In other words, these trails can be really demanding, even for smaller mountains. Nevertheless, we braved the harsh trail, the "limited oxygen," and the "dizzying altitude" and finally reached the summit!
I'm a little confused as to the title of the picture above. It's either going to be "Darbie's Search," or "Conquistadarbie." Feel free to vote for either on a comment, or submit your own. The rocks on the top of the mountain are huge and a lot of fun to free climb. The rocks almost have a fake quality to them, like something you'd find at Big Thunder Mountain in Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Here's Darbie negotiating the sheer cliff face like the pro she is!


From the top of the mountain you can see the wonder that is Huangdao. On a really clear day, you can see all the way across the bay to Qingdao. It's definitely worth the trek. So, if you're in the Huangdao area and would like to go for a little climb, give us a holler.

DB&KM