Adventures Outside Beijing

What an exciting weekend! Yesterday Ben and I returned from a work retreat with George's company. We accompanied about 20 employees and their families to a recreational national park called "yi bai xian," or, the hundren km gorge. The drive, which took about 2 hours, was pretty uneventful. We were offered some interesting snacks, including packaged duck stomach. The offer was tempting, but we opted for more generic snack options. Upon arriving at the park, we checked into our hotel. The hotel was a little...rustic, but it was fun to spend time with all of George's friends. After grabbing a quick lunch at the hotel, we departed for the gorge. Like the park we visited in Zhengzhou, this park had many man-made waterfalls and rock formations, but everything was still very beautiful. To reach the gorge, we took carts pulled by donkeys. There were about five carts carrying our entire party. The ride quickly turned into a race between the carts; although I felt bad for the donkeys, my competitive side got the better of me. Needless to say me and Ben's cart came in first place. The gorge was very cool; in some parts we had to walk single file through it! The most impressive thing we saw was a giant rock formation jutting out of a nearby mountain. This natural rock formation looked like the female Buddha. I tried to take a picture for Li Laoshi, but the glare was really bad! After exploring the gorge for the entire afternoon, we hobbled back to the hotel. We ate dinner out on the back porch. I was very proud to see that my chopstick skills have greatly improved since I've come to China; I was even able to pick up individual kernals of corn! After dinner, we learned very quickly that Chinese people LOVE to party. After witnessing several amusing drinking games, I headed to bed. The party didn't end however, as a karaoke machine was wheeled out. I've come to the conclusion that karaoke is definately China's national passtime! Fireworks erupted from every direction, oftentimes out of the windows of surrounding buildings. Although I did not witness it, apparently Ben sang some karaoke. I had heard Ben sing in Zhengzhou, so I was sad that I missed out. Eventually everyone headed to bed. The next morning, we woke up around 8:00. We spent the morning exploring the pond behind the hotel. Ben and I tried our hand at bamboo rafting (see picture above). It was alot harder than it looked! We not only had to balance ourselves on the raft, but also avoid getting tipped over by passing rafts that seemed to have a vendetta against us! We amused ourselves by singing pirate songs and sabatoging other rafts. After we had proven that we were indeed the fiercest raft on the pond, we boarded the bus to head back to Beijing. On the way, we stopped to get some lunch. Several members of our party fished in a pond outside the restaurant; they caught five fish that we then ate for lunch. After eating a great meal, we started our long journey back to Beijing. It was a little bittersweet to realize that this was our last bus ride in China! The rest of my night was uneventful; I was extremely tired, so I headed to bed early. Tommorow we start our last week of work at NCR.

-Julie