I have just been to an area called WuYi Shan (WuYi Mountain) where there are a lot of hills and mountains to climb, but there is only one really famous one and that is the one everyone climbs. And so we snaked (should it be snook?) up a path of steps cut into the rock, nose-to-toe with the person in front. When we were at the top I looked at another mountain bare of people and wished myself there. Oh, I should explain. This trip was organized and paid for by my work as a kind of‘team-building’ thing.
I’d prefer to go somewhere where there are less people (no people is impossible in China) and be more independent. But here, very trip is a kind of pilgrimage. There is a (written) list of ‘famous places’ in China that all Chinese feel they must visit. And they do it in droves. It’s all tour-groups and such and nothing to be done on your own. We even had matching baseball caps (and they gave us bags just before we left). The tour guide was very bossy and kept telling us to be careful. "This is not walking down the street" seemed to be his favourite line. And he kept changing the plans. And as only his first decision was translated, most of the time I had no idea what was going on. I must admit to not always suffering in silence.
My favourite part was a gentle float down the river on a bamboo raft. We sat on wicker armchairs that were lashed to the raft (which was a little submerged due to our combined weight). I enjoyed dangling my feet in the first clear water I’ve seen in China. It was beautiful. The air was clean and clear and the scenery interesting as we drifted gently down river. We floated across some wee ‘rapids’ which brought shouts of delight from everyone who couldn’t swim (everyone but me). We had all been issued with life jackets (I only wore mine as we went past the ‘security station’). I so wanted to jump in.
On Sunday I was told that we would be ‘playing with water again’ - but this time we’d be white-water rafting down a different part of the river. ‘White water’ was an exaggeration. This was a long (over 2 hours) float down the river that I’d been really excited about. It would have been lovely if they hadn’t built up all our expectations. Well, if they hadn’t built up MY expectations. I smile. Everyone else thought it was very scary.
This time, we were in rubber dinghies and HAD to wear life jackets. Each dinghy had 4 or 5 people in it plus a helmsman. We had been warned that we’d get very wet and to bring a fresh supply of clothes. I was so excited! What we weren’t told was that the only way we could get wet was if someone threw water over us. So that is what they did. As we were pushing off from shore, someone (whose job it is probably) threw buckets of water over us. Luckily, we had all been given wooden paddles and I soon reverted to my childhood and had a good time pretending I was in my own canoe.
We had a few water fights with our colleagues in the other boats but my favourite part was when, in the midst of a furious battle I ‘accidentally’ fell overboard. I couldn’t pretend to sink because of the life jacket (I did try) but the helmsman was suitably unimpressed. I smile. My small revenge for the whole fake thing.
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