Last monday saw Brian, myself and some of his students going on a Camping trip, as we had Monday - Wednesday off, due to the Qing Ming Festival. The festival celebrates people's deceased relatives, and so people go to their families tombs & graves and decorate them with flowers, make offerings etc.

The mountain we visited was Mt. Wugong (not the one in the picture at the top of this post btw!) - not sure on the details but it's apparently twice as tall as Mt Snowdon. So we set off on monday morning, taking a (very crowded) bus to Wugong which took about an hour and a half. It was really interesting to see how quickly the surroundings became v.rural after only 5 minutes out of Pingxiang. We arrived, hired a couple of tents & then set off up the mountain.

It took us about 6 hours to get to the peak, after climbing up endless flights of concrete stairs, that spiralled practically vertical upwards into the mountain's forest (my legs have only just recovered). The surroundings on the mountain gave it an almost Lord of the Rings-type feel; lots of trees, forest, waterfalls with large rocks for people to have a rest on etc. At one point we crossed a rope bridge, which was more Indiana Jones, but still added to the intrepid feel of climbing a mountain!

Once at the top, we made camp for the night & had some well-needed food & a rest. The restaurant felt v.nomadic (it was basically a large garden shed) with live chickens roaming around before said chickens were caught, killed, cooked & then chopped up on a trestle table in the same part of the restaurant where people were eating. Needless to say, after dinner I went straight to bed to (try &) get some sleep, which I failed too, and so had to endure a night in a rain and wind lashed tent, damp sleeping bag (due to the rain) and pretty dire toilet facilities.

Having said all that & being knackered the next day, when we started our descent at half past 6 in the morning, Wugong really is a place to visit if you are in the area, as the scenery is breathtaking and there's a peace & tranquillity to mountains I think, Wugong being no exception, that makes it a great place to go & relax and just wander around for a day.

The next festival/holiday is coming up at the end of the month - National Labour Week, a short break again (3 days I think) so I am already thinking of where to visit. Nowhere, though, with too many stairs.

xx