Sunday Huangshan and Qijong

The way that they built the trails on this hike was crazy. There were lots of places where they just some how added stairs and trails right to the side of the mountain.


I don't think many of the Chinese people are accustom to our version of outdoor activities. This hike was intense. I can hardly walk today! There were lots of women out there in the middle of no where walking around in high heels???
One big cultural differences that I just don't understand is that here in China everyone travels in a tour group. On Sunday the trails were so packed that we couldn't even enjoy ourselves. You literally had to fight for your piece of ground. If that wasn't bad enough, every once in a while you'd be lucky enough to be standing next to one of the tour group leaders and his loud speaker blaring into your ear!! Thank God Saturday was better! Why when you live in a country so populated would you want to join hundreds of others IN A GROUP on vacation????

So after seeing loads of guys carrying things like this, I realized one reason why things up here on the mountain were so expensive. You have to hike several miles around the mountain all up and down steep hills to get to the different hotels. If i had to carry everything I wanted to eat in, I'd probably be eating cliff bars.

Sunday: So we've been in Huangshan for the last few days which is this exorbitantly expensive park in Eastern China. Although it has been an expensive trip, it is really breathtakingly beautiful. It is suppose to have a lot of clouds, but the weather has been beautiful here so we have had nothing but clear blue sky. The clear sky is a nice change from Shanghai, where I am told that it is grey because of the pollution nearly all of the time. I was hoping that there would be clouds today but no such luck. It looks like it will be another beautiful clear day! Oh well!

The park is surrounded by majestic peaks with trees that look like what ever that tree was on the "Karate Kid." There are also Rhododendrons- huge ones everywhere and they are all in bloom. The paved trail runs dangerously close to the edge of the mountain. If I were scared of heights this would have been a pretty scary hike. Also the stairs winding up and down are not for the unfit, though we saw plenty of people young and old out there taking their time and struggling to get up and down the hills. When we returned to the hotel the craziest thing happened. We decided that it was time to get a foot massage and have a beer. I've never had a professional foot massage before and though everything up here on this mountain seems over priced $20 for 50 minutes seemed like a deal waiting for me. The massage itself was painful, but in a good way. Praveen was there with his little translation book trying to communicate with the guys massaging us. My masseuse had mastered the phrase,"No pain. No gain." Personally I'd prefer that they shut up and get to work on my legs and feet, but it was cute watching Praveen chat with them. The guy rubbing me hit a couple of unbearably sore spots in my feet which he told me were related to my lower back and my neck.

My lower back has given me problems for years. My neck however is was only sore because I get a big fat failing mark in the art of packing. Praveen had told me we needed to hike a half hour from where the tram dropped us and the hotel. There are no cars up here. If you want any easier transportation you have to have someone carry you, which they will do for a fee. They have these chairs that you can sit in supported by two poles with a guy at either end. I might consider that for the trip down. So anyway, by the time we reached the hotel my back was killing me from carrying my bag. What Praveen didn't tell me until after we got here is that he expects me to walk back down for three hours with that pack. Anyone who has done any serious hiking knows the down hill is the hardest on the knees- especially for me. My knees are not that good.

Back to the massage. After this guy was done giving me this foot massage, turned leg massage,turned back massage- which was freaking fabulous- he told me my back was not so good and asked me to stay put. He brings back this other guy who takes a wet towel puts it below my feet, sits in front of me- does these tai-chi type movements with his hands, sticks his finger out and with out touching me begins to send electric shocks though my hands. I was so taken back I almost cried. It was completely amazing. He ran his finger, above but along my thumb and strong electric shocks jolted me. It wasn't painful but did make me jump a little. He then went over my pointer finger and I had the same reaction, but when he went over my middle finger I felt nothing. He repeated the process over my entire hand and each time I felt an electric shock on every finger except my middle finger. Some how between the translation book, Praveen and this other guy's very broken English they communicated to me the reason I couldn't feel anything in my middle finger was because there was a blockage that was not allowing the blood to flow in my back and that this was all connected. I am certain I have several "blockages" of some kind, I have always had very poor circulation and though bikrum yoga helps, I've never really found a way to cure it. So this guy tells me that for $70 he can fix my lower back and neck using something called Qijong. I am totally, perplexed, intrigued and emotional from this strange experience so I agree. Praveen is suspicious so he joins me in this little back room. Now it's just me and Praveen and this medicine man that can't even communicate a little bit in English. We played some charades to try and communicate. I really wish we could have talked because what follows only gets wierder.

I am glad Praveen was in the room because I had no idea what was happening so he was able to tell me about it later. So the guy directs me to sit on this bed. Then he takes this small bowl that looks like a small goldfish bowl. He puts some kind of camphor in it and lights it on fire. He then puts the bowl with the open side towards my skin on my back and my skin begins to get sucked inside forming a bubble like thing. Like I said, I didn't know any of this was happening. What I thought was happening is that he had some kind of hot clamps that he clamped down on my back and some how as my muscles released so too, did the clamps until they almost fell off. He does this in five spots and leaves them there until the fire goes out. He then motions to Praveen to come and take a look at something on my back. In the small of my back some how blood has come out. He shows Praveen what looks like a small pin prick but there was no pin and I never felt a prick. I am a little weirded out. No one is speaking English and I don't know what's happening. Praveen seems totally freaked and asked me several times if I am okay. I am fine, but I am trying to figure out what the blood is. I thought for a second he removed some kind of worm from my back and that totally freaked me out. Turns out there was no worm, just blood. I am still not sure what that was about. So this medicine man then puts several bandages with something that feels like tiger balm on them and we again play charades until we figure out that I am not to remove them and not to take a shower for 12 hours. He again asks me to lay down and does this electrical current thing over my entire body, which he has done three other times by now. This time I can feel the electricity jolting my body pretty much everywhere as he runs his finger up and down over my major veins. One really weird thing is that aside from just feeling this very strong electrical voltage running through my veins, when he got close to my ears, I could hear the electricity. It sounded like a mosquito buzzing in my ear. Tired and perplexed Praveen and I paid the guy the 500RMB ($70) and went to bed.

This morning we woke up to try and see the sunrise. At 4.15am my body was asking me why the hell I was climbing up to the top of a mountain with out coffee and with a poor night's sleep. I was hoping it would be worth while, unfortunately there were thousands of other people there as well and it was really hard to find a place to see the sun. Oh well. Back to the hotel for some coffee and to start a new adventure,,,,