And Saturday was our "day off". After checking in on our babies in the hospital first thing in the early morning, the team packed on to yet another bus.Inexplicably, we took a quick detour to a bus depot first.
Two and a half hours on the bus. In a matter of minutes, leaving the crush of the city for more bucolic landscape.
I think our driver tried to pop in a DVD of some dubbed German martial arts B-movie, quickly rejected and replaced by a series of Chinese pop music videos that revealed an alarming amount of gyrating pre-pubescent flesh. Thankfully, that didn't last long either.
Most of us either dozed or became entranced by the scenes framed by the bus windows. As we traveled through Hunan Province, we got to see a little more of the "real" China. So much farmland, so many shades of lush green stepped into the earth, dotted with bent backs and water buffalo.
We stopped for a delicious lunch - loads and loads of banquet-worthy food.
Left photo, top to bottom: braised pumpkin, the ubiquitous green bean and eggplant, incredibly tasty five-layer pork.
So called five-layer pork, because the cut displays these gorgeous ribbons of thick fat alternating with a relative scarcity of soft-cooked meat, sitting on a bed of braised salty greens. It's a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. I must admit, I do love my food, but I usually carefully dissect away big chunks of fat. On this day, I gobbled up every bit of that unctuous pork. I don't think I've ever had any better.
Right photo, top to bottom: whole chicken stewed in broth, a different (!) kind of fatty pork, creamy eggs scrambled with Chinese chives, and a perfectly crispy green onion pancake. And that rustic wooden bucket filled with steamed rice.
The bus finally arrived at our destination, Zhangjiajie. A famous scenic area of Hunan, the scale reminded me a bit of someplace like Yosemite here at home. We had a single afternoon; we could barely scratch the surface of the park.I'm here with Sarah, one of our sweet translators for the day trip, in front of the ticketing area for Zhangjiajie.
The start of the scenic nature walk. Bravely, we turned down the tram that took you past the whimsically named rock formations. Instead, we walked. And sweated.
Jen and Alex, helpfully pointing out the "Tourism Etiquette Rules for Chinese Citizens". The particular phrase they're highlighting: Don't go barebacked in public places. If the resolution on your screen is good enough, you can zoom in on the text; it's chock full of gems like that.
The other part of Zhangjiajie we did get to see was the cable car ride to the top of one of the mountain peaks.
In the cable car: Stef, Alex, and Faith. The look of terror on Faith's face is absolutely genuine. She had a terrible fear of heights, but our stalwart young translator from Nashville stuck it out and lived to tell about it.
The views from the top were absolutely worth it.
The way back down was a bit rougher on the spirit. Two hours of creeping towards the cable cars, trying to keep cool, and defending our personal space. Then back on the bus, homeward bound.
