Ní hăo!

So our first destination of the week was the city of Jiujiang and Mount Lushan (which translates to Mount House Mountain (Lushan - 庐山)). Our hotel was nice and located really close to where Tazzy and Rachael live, so we knew the area. As we were tired from travelling, and on holiday, we treated ourselves to a McDonalds - the only western places out here are fast food restaurants.

We headed back to the hotel, just planning on relaxing and maybe watching a movie, but this was not to be. Lucie got a text from Neil (one of the college students from the train) asking if we would like to go out for a drink. We debated this for a few moments, they had been really nice and we hadn't felt uncomfortable when we were with them on the train, so we decided to go for it. They came and picked us up and took us to this outdoor restaurant/bar. We hadn't expected to be eating as well, but Neil and Shaun ordered various dishes - some chicken and sausage sticks which were coated with a really spicy sauce, giant chillis, and snails. Yes. Snails. I am proud to say that I was brave enough to try them, and apart from the spice which hit you afterwards, I actually liked them! While we were sat in this place, Lucie made a new friend. A little Chinese girl came over and was absolutely fascinated with Lucie. She was the most adorable thing and so funny, and she seemed quite upset when her parents came to get her to take her home.

Now, Neil and Shaun had invited us out for a drink, so I should probably mention this briefly. We knew from Chinese culture that as Neil and Shaun had invited us out, they were our hosts, so would probably buy our drinks, but we took money anyway - just in case, and for if we had to get a taxi home. We were right about them paying, but didn't expect what they bought. All I'll say is, here you bought the beer in 3L barrels and served yourself.

We had a good night and also discovered that Neil liked a lot of the same British music as Lucie, so we sang together much to the amusement of the few other late customers. We got home safely by taxi around 1.30 am and panicked a little when we thought we had been locked out of our hotel as the front doors were locked. Luckily the side doors were still open so we got back to our room okay. We had a good night and it was really our first experience of drinking out in China without the whole PT group.

On the Sunday morning we awoke a little bleary eyed, but after a wash and dressing we felt ready to tackle Mt. Lushan. Heading out into Jiujiang, our plan was to get a taxi to the bottom of the mountain and then the bus which takes an hour to take you up (the recommended route by our fellow volunteers). But every taxi that pulled over was going to charge us around 150CNY, which we were just not going to pay. A little frustrated I racked my brains and remember another route I had read about online, so we decided to try that instead, which worked out to be a much better route. We took a taxi to the long distance bus station, where we got the bus to the bottom of Mt. Lushan - costing us only 15CNY! Entry to Mt. Lushan is supposed to be 180CNY, but I noticed a student's price so we decided to see if our ISIC cards would work. And they did!

(Note to future volunteers: Take your ISIC card everywhere, Lucie and I managed to get discounts at every site we visited with them)

The bus up the mountain took an hour and was very twisty and turny. Now I'm not a very good bus traveller as it is, so I wasn't feeling great as it was, so when the woman behind us started throwing up in a bag, I'm positive I turned green. We were relieved to get off the bus, and then it was deciding where to go on the mountain. It's a huge area and we knew we would only be able to do one or two things. We decided on the 3 Step Waterfall, and eventually managed to communicate with a Chinese assistant where we wanted to go. She was very helpful.

I'm going to sum up Mt. Lushan in one sentence. It cost us lots of money, and we walked up and down far too many steps.

And when I say far too many, I mean hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds. It was almost a 2km walk from the last drop off point, and I would say about 1.5km of this was down steps. Our legs were shaking and we weren't sure if we were ever going to reach the bottom. Unfortunately Lucie felt a bit ill, so on our first sighting of the Falls, she decided to stay at that point. But I was determined to get right down to the pool at the bottom of the Falls. Making sure Lucie was okay, I then proceeded even further down the mountain. And I'm glad I did. The 3 Step Waterfall was absolutely spectacular, and no photo can really show it's wonder - though the professional photo I got taken is pretty close.

The climb back up all those steps was long and slow, and we made it back to the pick-up point after 4pm. Knowing that the Mountain shut at 6pm, and the fact that we were absolutely knackered, we just decided to head back to the hotel as we had an early start on the Monday to catch our train to Nanchang.

I really enjoyed our time in Jiujiang - it was probably the most interesting of our 3 destinations - but Lucie and I aren't planning on returning any time soon, as this was our second visit to the city, and there is so much to see in China.

My next blog will tell you about our almost 3 days in Nanchang, and our impromptu visit to the Tengwang Pavilion.

Until next time,

Zàijiàn x