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Thumbs down!
We arrived at the top of the famous Misty Yellow Mountains, Huang Shan, to find not only everything completely obscured by mist but driving rain and outrageously priced mountain top hotels. First instinct was to get out of Dodge but we ended up staying for one more day, then another...and another, waiting for the mist to clear. |
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Welcome to Yellow Mountain!
Cheryl is suddenly possessed by the spirit of Megan, presenter of our leaving gift DVD guide to China. Behind her is the Tree of Strength and Unity. |
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Iron Men
The path from the foot of the mountain to the hotels at the top has 20,000 steps at leg-jellyingly steep gradient up the rock faces. In the face of a rain storm, we swallowed our pride and took the cable car. No such luck for the porters who lug food, furniture and even people up these extreme slopes. Respect to surely the hardest men in the Universe! |
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Beginning to Believe Peak
And after waiting patiently for 2 days the clouds briefly parted, like a shy bride peeking round her veil, to reveal a vista of glorious mountain peaks and ridges as far as the eye could see. Almost worth all the waiting... |
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Lover's Tree
As the trunk splits into two halfway up this tree has come to symbolise love and young couples attach padlocks to the rails around the tree to symbolise their attachment to each other. None of that pansy nonsense for us, of course! |
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Shrink-wrapped Stud
Here we have an historical re-enactment of the dramatic Star Wars scene where the two walls close in remorselessly on Han, Luke, Chewy and Princess Lea who - trapped in-between - struggle vainly to keep from being crushed to a pulp. Why Magnus should be wrapped in clingfilm for this shoot is not clear. |
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Crouching Tiger Land
At the foot of the Yellow Mountain is a sub-tropical wonderland of bamboo forest, waterfalls and emerald pools. The bamboo tree-top fight and diving-for-sword scenes from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed here. There was drama too on our visit as we walked deeper into the hills with not a person in sight and darkness falling. Walking along the path, Cheryl let out an unearthly shriek and ran from the path, arms flailing. A gigantic spider had leapt from a tree and landed on her head. On further investigation it transpired to be a less than deadly if spider-shaped twig. Still, that gives you a flavour of the nerve-shredding life on the edge we are living on our travels. |
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Moving upriver - in style!
Joining a grimy Chinese passenger liner for a 4-day journey up the Yangzi river we approached our shared accommodation with some trepidation. What joy to discover a free upgrade to a first class cabin with soft bunks, TV and a river view. We also had the whole prow of the boat as a private lounge area to catch the afternoon sun and watch the passage through the Three Gorges by moonlight. Cheryl specially worked up an '80s style hairdo to celebrate this happy event. |
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Sing along with me now...
With no instruments to play for over a month, Magnus was going a bit stir crazy. Robert got things going by giving an harmonica for the tune-daft Scotsman but Bob Dylan wannabe, Campbell needed a guitar to feel like a REAL man. Not very practical for hiking around SE Asia and fitting into packed buses but as we sat in the mid-afternoon sunshine making up and singing songs together who cares?! Cheryl is also learning the guitar now and she's a natural - she can already play Wild Thing! |
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Follow the Yellow River
The Yangzi or Yellow river is the third longest in the world; after the Amazon and the Nile. The periodic flooding of the river has caused devastation and millions of deaths, hence the Three Gorges Project: a gigantic dam to allow better control of water levels downstream. There is a serious environmental cost: the dam will flood a massive area of land, displace 3 MILLION people from their homes, disrupt natural habitats and submerge the famous Three Gorges. Given that China has 9 out of the world's 10 most polluted cities and will become the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gasses in the next few years (taking 1st place - despite G.W. Bush's best efforts - from the US of A) the liberties being taken with the environment give pause for thought. |
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Gorges scenery
We rose before dawn to enjoy the stretch of river which leads to the Gorges: towering cliffs and caves housing stone age relics line the river. |
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River getting deeper, mountain not going to stay high for very long
One of the towns running along the Three Gorges stretch of river which will be submerged in a couple of years. Hope they get it right this time - a similar project in the north of China went tragically wrong in the '70s. The dam broke and 300,000 people were killed. The story didn't even make the state-controlled news China... |
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Age of Empires fishermen
Fishermen lining the river still use primitive techniques such as large nets on a pole in order to catch fish. Just like in Age of Empires for anyone who's played that game! |
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