A few weekends ago, a friend asked me to go hiking with her
at a Mountain called Fragrant Hill. I was looking forward to spending some time
with friends and being one with nature. What I did not realize was that I would
be one with nature with about a million other people. Thus, titling this blog
post人山人海. The literal
translation of this Chinese idiom means people mountains, people sea. It means
something along the lines of people as far as the eye can see.
We started off the day early, leaving our apartment complex
around 6 am in order to get to the train station before 7. We had a good group
of people with us, 14 in total, so we waited for everyone to get to the train
station. We got our tickets and hopped on the fast train to Beijing. The fact
that we were actually going into Beijing should have tipped me off that I would
not have the serene experience with nature that I had envisioned. For some
reason had it in my head that we were not going into the city, but that we
would be going some place outside the city. I was wrong.
Once at the Beijing train station, we bought our return
tickets to guarantee our seat home. We bought tickets for around 3:20, thinking
that would give us enough time to hike, eat lunch, and return to the train
station. Then off we went on the subway to the northern part of Beijing.
Waiting in line for the bus
Up until this point in the trip everything had gone
according to plan. However, when we got off the subway, things began to change.
It was pure madness as we waited for a bus. Literally hundreds of people were
waiting in line. And yes, I did say line. There were people shouting at us in
Chinese corralling us into lines as we waited for the right bus. Once the bus
came along, the herders would shove as many people as possible onto the bus. We
were not fortunate to get a seat on a bus, but we were lucky to be right by the
door, so we had a bit more space than those sardined down the aisles.
The stop and go traffic and the heat of the many people plus
the several layers of clothes made the bus ride rather unpleasant, but being
with a good group of friends made up for the discomfort. After what seemed like
hours of sitting in traffic, we asked the bus driver to open the door so that
we could just walk the rest of the way.
As we walked to toward the mountain, nature began to call to
me, and I need to make a “quick” pit stop. The problem was there was quite a
line, and this would be far from a quick stop. I will not go into the details
of facilities, but I believe I now have a new worst bathroom ever experience.
With the line for the bus, the bus ride itself, the wait for
the restroom, and the walk to the mountain, we arrived much later than
anticipated. We realized that we would have to choose between hiking up the
mountain (the whole point of our trip) and making our train on time. Since we
could exchange our tickets once at no cost to us, we decided to hike up the
mountain. To make things more
interesting, our group somehow got split up, so some people ended up at the
east entrance to the mountain and some ended up the south entrance. The plan
was to hike up the mountain and meet each other at the top.
The hike seemed never ending. Plus we had not eaten lunch,
and it was around 2. There were so many people on the mountain that we had
traffic jams of people. As I walked I watched in envy as the people serenely took
the cable cars up the mountain, vowing to myself that I would not walk down the
mountain but that I would take the cable car. Honestly, at this point of the
trip, I had a bad attitude. Things had not gone according to plan, and I had
not wanted to be gone the whole day.
Our group at the top of the mountain
Once we got to the top, we enjoyed the view, met up with the
rest of our group, and took some group photos. I assumed that everyone would
want to take the cable cars down, but only my co-workers college roommate whose
English name is Jade wanted to go with me. So she and I planned to take a cable
car together. However, we were told that we would have to wait in line for an
hour and a half to take the cable car, so we decided to just give up and walk
down. The rest of the group had already started down the mountain, so I ended
up walking down the mountain with my co-workers college roommate who barely
spoke English. This was my favorite part of the trip. We ended up speaking in
Chinese the entire walk down the mountain. Now, my Chinese is not all that
good, but with her limited English, my limited Chinese, hand gestures, and
dictionaries on our phones, we were able to communicate. Often times, I find
trying to communicate in Chinese incredibly stressful, but Jade had the type of
personality that could make friends with anyone. She was bubbly and friendly,
and she made me comfortable enough to speak my broken Chinese with her.
Somehow, we made it down the mountain before the rest of the
group, so we bought some street food and waited for them to come down.
10羊肉串 (Lamb Meat on a Stick) for 10 Kuai ($1.50)
Then the madness of getting back to the Beijing train
station began. We walked, took bus, and then took a subway to get to there. On
the subway, my second favorite part of the day happened. There was a little
girl who stood next to us and she had a little musical toy, so I sang and
played with her until she got off.
Once at the Beijing train station, we exchanged our tickets
and got some food while we waited for our train. Then we went to wait in line
for our train. There was the moment of panic when we realized that the line we
were waiting in was for the next train and that we should have boarded the
train already, but never fear, we made it on the train.
So our plan of hopefully being home by 4:30 did not happen.
We walked into our apartment around 9pm. I am glad for experience and the cool
interactions that I got to have with some people. I’m glad that I did it once.
Key word being once.
