Huang Shan Mountain Part 1

To the south of Hefei, in the Anhui Province, is a huge mountain range called Huang Shan. Andi and I took a trip here last week and stayed on the mountain overnight. The mountain range is over 100 million years old, amazingly shaped, and one hell of a climb. I have never seen so many stairs in all my life!! They estimate that there are 60,000 stone steps on the mountain and that they are roughly 1,500 years old.

You can enter the mountain from four different directions. We stared on the south side and exited on the east. At the base of where we started was a temple that they turned into a museum.

There is only one way to get up the mountain: cable car.

The cable car ride takes about 10 minutes, during which you are suspended over sections of the mountain. It is amazing how they construct the poles that stabilize the cars as they go up. Some of them are placed on small little sections of rock that look impossible to get to.

Two views as we rode up.

Some of the stone steps are man-made and are built right into the rock themselves. They also built bannister's out of rock, making the rock look like wood, that line the steps in some sections.

There are several different paths to follow as you move along the mountain. Most of them are built right into the mountain itself.

Climbing this section sucked! :p

Walking isn't the only way to get through the mountain. You can hire two guys to carry you up and down the stairs while you sit in a chair made of bamboo like the one above. It is expensive, however.

As you go along the mountain there are small stores where you can buy food and drinks. There are also several hotels at different sections. To get product to these places, guys pack several things together and then tie them onto a bamboo pole. This is ridiculously hard work and Andi says that they don't get paid very well(they get paid by weight of product). This guy had water, cucumbers, corn, and soda drinks.

With food on the mountain comes trash on the mountain. People walk around and clean up after others, cramming trash into bags. Then it's the long walk up and down to take it off the mountain.

These seven poor bastards had to carry up a motor!!

There are two ways to stay on the mountain. One of them is too sleep in tents which Andi was amazed to see. Chinese people just don't go camping!

The other way is to stay at one of the several hotels on the mountain. We were lucky and were able to stay at the only four star hotel up there. Our entire trip on the mountain was "provided" for us because of how high up Andi's father is in the government here. As my aunt says, "one hand washes the other."

Chinese Cemetery

I've gotten a little behind on my posts due to the fact that Andi and I have been traveling. That just means I have a lot more coming soon! :p Anyway, last Saturday we took a day trip to Andi's father's hometown of Bengbu. We stopped by the hospital to see her grandfather, had lunch with aunt's, uncle's, and cousin's, but the most interesting part was going to a Chinese cemetery to see her grandmother.

The entrance to the cemetery from the inside. Just outside the gates there are small stalls selling flowers, firecrackers, cigarettes, incense, fruits, and cakes. You leave most of these items on the grave or lite the firecrackers and incense. They also burn money or leave alcohol. The thought process behind burning money or leaving edible items is that the dead can use them on the "other side." I saw several graves sprinkled with cigarettes or had fruit on them.  

The first spots right inside the entrance are quite large. They are also more expensive.

In China, it is mandatory that you are cremated. There are no coffins in China! Due to the fact that they have 13 billion people, they can't afford to waste space. In the space you would bury one American body, they can bury three.

Under the red tablet above is the ashes of a husband and a wife. Since someone will die first, the other side is left open and then closed after they are both dead.

There were many sections to the cemetery. Andi's grandmother was buried in one of the older ones. Everything was so close together, getting photo's wasn't really an option. As you get closer to the gate, the space opens up a bit like above.

This area was all new and filling up fast!

The only other thing interesting I saw that day was a women hacking up a turtle for soup! I have had turtle here in many different forms from soup to sauteed. It's not bad but there are a lot of bones!!

Food, Food, and More Food!!

Here's another group of photos of things I've been eating over here.

Most of the time we have breakfast at home. Andi's dad gets up at 6am every morning, goes out and brings home food before he heads off to work. It's different every day and always tasty. They don't eat cereal, toast or eggs and bacon here, instead it's bowls of noodles, dumplings, baozi and several different bread items. Above was a fried egg we made at home with pot stickers and a chinese pancake(just bread) that her dad bought.

In the office building where Andi's parents work is a restaurnt where they each get a card with $300 yuen on it so they can buy there meals there. In the picture above is beef with spicy peppers, shrimp with kidney beans and bitter melon, and a stir-fry of peppers and onions(just like the filling inside of a steak and cheese).

Usually dinner comes from the same restuarnt. At this point, I have tried everything they have on the menu! :p Here is a whole chicken(served cold) and spicy and sour soup with tofu. 

Whole fish in a spicy sauce. Remember; Chinese love to pick at the bones so it's almost always served this way no matter where you are.

Also from the same restaurnt was winter melon with chinese ham. Winter melon is quite good and you can find it in the USA in any asian supermarket. Chinese ham here is super salty!! I'm not a big fan.

While we were in Hangzhou we went out for breakfast once. I ordered a steamed meat bun and spicy beef noodles. It was garnished with scallions and small dried shirmps.

Going out for lunch is always the same as dinner; lot's of dishes!! Here from left to right: Steamed Goose, one of the many versions of Twice Cooked Pork that I have tried(nothing has beaten Gourmet Dumpling House in Boston's Chinatown, however), steamed Kai-Lan, and on the bottom in the small dish is pickled green beans.

We also ordered a plate of egg dumplings. The egg is paper thin like a crepe and filled with pork. Andi's mom knows how to make these and is going to show me. Here they are served in a light chicken broth with leeks.

This here is the only time I have gone out to dinner and only gotten one dish. We met Andi's two friends and they ordered this mixed pot for all of us. Some of the things I recognized inside were seaweed noodles, pork intestine, red onion, cauliflower, broccoli, and rice noodles. There was also something very tasty that no one could translate for me. All I know was it came from the spine of an animal.

On another occasion, we went out with a friend of Andi's to a Sichuan restaruant here in Hefei. Above is beef with peppers.

I love this dish! A huge plate of fried chicken bites with chili and peanuts.

Husband and Wife Lung. Here is a story I found behind the origin

to the name of this dish:

In Chengdu during the 1920s and 1930s, Guo Chaohua opened, in the name of himself and his wife, a small restaurant serving sliced ox lungs. They took so much care in preparing the dish and used the tight degree of fire and spices, including chili, Chinese prickly ash and sesame oil, that people graced their restaurant very often. Since the husband and wife managed the place together, people gave a nickname to the house specialty: "Husband and Wife Lung Slices." The dish has since been improved again and again. Nowadays, beef, ox heart and tongue are used instead of ox lungs, and the change has made the dish all the more delicious. In fact, it has become a special Sichuan style cold dish.

Another version of Twice Cooked Pork. Here is was served with small buns that had been steamed and then seared on a flat top. You then make little sandwiches with the twice cooked pork. This is not the normal way to eat this dish, just this restaurants little touch.

Dan Dan Noodles. Another of my favorite dishes here in China.

I realized that I haven't really posted much on drinks here in China. Above is one that I've come to really love: Corn Juice. You would think this would be all over South America but I don't recall ever seeing it there. Here it is usually milk based, has a very light corn flavor, and can be quite sweet.

Another of my favorites is Peanut Milk(on the left). It is light on the peanut flavor and slightly creamy. I have also found a very refreshing tea drink(on the right). It doesn't have much tea flavor and it's really that sweet but for some reason I love it! :P

Lord Bao

In Andi's hometown of Hefei, there is a memorial to a very famous person in China called Lord Bao. Lord Bao was a high ranking official during the early 1000's who fought corruption and injustice. I guess he would resemble a superhero if China had one!

One of the pagoda's just inside the temple. I have seen several of these buildings since I have been here in China and I have to say they are amazing! There really cool to see up close and are always one of the first things you notice when you spot one from far away.

Once inside, you walk across a small bridge over a pond filled with water lilies.

The entrance is guarded by two stone statues that look like a cross between dragons and lions. This cross-breed like statue is very popular here in China. I have seen it at the entrance to banks, restaurants, and office buildings. These two statues had little monkey like dragon creatures crawling on them.

Lord Bao in gold!

People come, light incense, and pray in front of the statue. Andi's mom told me that the people who come here to pray usually have done something wrong. :P

Stone tablets that tell stories about the deeds that Lord Bao did.

Now these things are cool! Back in ancient times, if you were sentenced to death, you would have your head chopped off by one of these devices. It would depend on your status in society as to which one would be used to lop your head off. In both pictures: the bottom one would be used for merchants and common folk, the middle for government officers or store owners, and the top one for royalty such as the emperors son or wife.

Outside of the museum is a little sitting area. I thought this elephant furniture was kinda neat. It's all made of marble.

The pond that surrounds the museum has many stone made bridges like the one above.