We're going to a park!
We all woke up mid-morning and rolled out for breakfast. This consisted of some sweet, doughy buns, each filled with different flavours. I’m starting to like this place! It just so happened that Golden Week was upon us. One of two national holiday weeks in China. A week where the entire hundreds of millions of people down their tools and go sightseeing. On the first day of this ballistic week, it was our bright idea to visit a particularly popular tourist hotspot. This place is known as Qianling Mountain Park. For more info check it out here.
We caught a bus to Qianling Mountain Park. When we got off, it was mayhem. Everywhere was like a huge carnival/football match with tens of thousands of people heading for one gate. It didn’t take us too long to get our tickets and inside. The entrance fee was only ¥5, but an additional ¥5 for the zoo area too.
Monkey madness
We began our ascent of the park (only a light incline). Not long after walking, it becomes apparent that there is a large amount of Macaque monkeys running around. They mostly stick to the trees, but if you walk through the trees via the path, you may make yourself a target. Keep valuables and bags secure, because these monkeys will grab it if they can. There are some people selling vegetable sticks to give to the monkeys. Some woman ended up with a monkey perched on her head. Be aware and smart.
The zoo itself isn’t so big, and has a reasonable amount of exotic animals. These include lions, bears, reptiles, smaller mammals, an aviary, and more. Not spectacular, but you might be able to enjoy yourself. To us, it seemed the most popular animal on show was in fact us! You’ll notice many people try to take photos of you (white foreigners) slyly. It’s easy to pick up on and they’re friendly enough. Be aware, once you allow one person to have a photo with you, you’ll have a queue forming in no time. We easily had 10 people asking for photos at one point alone, never mind throughout the day. It’s quite amusing and I definitely didn’t shy away. They get very excited and are grateful for your time.
Battle of the boats
After the zoo, we headed deeper into Qianling Mountain Park. We went for a stroll towards the Qianling Lake. We came out of the trees to the sight of a small harbour area with food stalls. The 3 of us hopped in to a boat, adorned with life jackets, and began rowing away. Once on the lake, it was very peaceful and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of people. When we rowed passed other boats, they were very happy to see us. I was also very fond of shouting the phrase “Wǒ ài nǐ zhōngguó”. This translates to “I love you China”. I first heard it from a video on a bus promoting the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Ever since then, I loved saying it, and the people loved hearing it!
We had a couple of fun encounters bumping into other boats, but made sure not to scare anyone of course. The sun was shining and it was very hot still. There was a current that kept pushing us to the edge of the lake, so it was a constant battle to not get ship wrecked. Luckily Cristina wasn’t afraid to take her turn paddling, so we made it back to shore okay. We had a small snack of crisps on a long stick (think Walkers or Lays), covered in tomato ketchup. As we were eating, we decided to leave Qianling Mountain Park and go back to the city. We had a decent walk ahead.
Visiting home
After departing from Qianling Mountain Park, we decided to go to Cristina’s hometown of Qingzhen. In the city we took a bus and arrived in town (I think we all napped on the bus). Cristina was letting us experience KTV (karaoke) for the first time. I was pretty excited. Cristina had pre-booked our slot, and we were taken to our room. The room was a decent size, had 2 TV screens, some seating, bathroom, and the KTV machine. Whilst here, Cristina’s sister, Jessie, arrived to join the fray.
Mat and I chose English songs we knew. Most notably were Queen, Elton John, Oasis, and more. We also got tea and popcorn delivered to our room which was neat. Mat and I sang our hearts out to these great tunes, whilst 2 Chinese girls looked on and laughed. I’m glad we all had a wicked time. To be honest, I did strain my voice a bit and got a sore throat. After an hour (which went too quick) we left and headed for something to eat.
A feast for Kings...and small Chinese girls!
On the way to the hotpot restaurant, we met Cristina’s cousin, Jenny, who would be joining for food. The 5 of us got sat down at a table and pot. Mat and I let the pros take it from here as they started the pot boiling and ordered everything. Plate after plate after bowl after plate was delivered to the table. When the table was full I though that’d be it, but then trolleys came out with more food. The amount of food was insane. Once boiling, everyone just tossed food in to the bowl to cook.
To be honest, it was delicious. It was a great meal and an even better social event. Everyone had a lot of fun and banter, especially at me trying to use chopsticks! We finally polished off the food (somehow), and yet more came out! Would this barrage of food ever stop? I kept slogging away, eating what I could before I almost burst at the seams. Thankfully, they decided enough was enough and we departed.
Tour of the town
When we left it was getting dark, but we decided to go for a walk. They kindly gave us a tour of their town. We visited some populated squares which had people singing and dancing, as well as streets with food stalls and shops. They purchased a flag each for me and Mat. Mine went through a hole in the top of my backpack, similar to a flag bearer. Mat’s however went through his hair, as seen in the movies.
Jessie kindly picked us up and dropped us off in Guiyang. Mat, Cristina and I had a brief walk around the Guiyang city square before turning in for the night. We have an early train to catch tomorrow, to Chengdu. After an eventful and exhausting day, sleep found me quickly.
Tip!
Make sure to book trains well in advance. We were only supposed to stay in Guiyang for 2 days, but all of the trains got booked up. This was partly due to it being National Holiday Week, but it could easily happen any other time of the year. We definitely enjoyed staying extra days with Cristina, but we learned our lesson. There are fast trains and slow trains. The slow trains are cheaper, take longer, and sell out quicker. As a consequence of not booking earlier, we had to take quite a few fast trains which accounted for a lot of our expenditure in China.
