6/26/06 

China Update #14 by Darrol Butler

Dear Family, Friends, Fellow Students, and Professors: 

July 1 

Hiking . . .     After my finals finished, Mike, Juice and I decided to go for a short backpacking trip.  Juice is the friend that accompanied my Mom, Thomas, Mike and I on the trip to the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges and the Three Gorges Dam at the beginning of May.  For Juice it was her first backpacking trip so she was extremely excited about it and quite curious about the different types of gear that we were carrying with us, such as our sleeping pads, the water bladders that we put in the back of our backpacks, our camp stoves, and so on. 

We decided to go hiking in the hills to the north of Beijing so we ended up catching one of the long distance buses in Dongzhimen to the city of Huairou.  The bus ride, with all of its stops, took about an hour and a half to reach Huairou.  Afterwards we spent quite a lot of time trying to find transportation to our destination.  Eventually Juice bargained with a driver to take us the twenty seven kilometers further (about a forty minute drive), to a park in a small canyon located in the mountains.  We finally arrived at around three in the afternoon and after paying the entrance fee, the three of us set off hiking. The north of China has been in a drought for quite some time now, but the canyon had a beautiful little creek cascading down it.  We hiked for a good three and a half hours, working our way higher and higher up the canyon.  The steep canyon walls and jagged peaks made for quite a scenic hike.  There were not too many people on the trail, and it was very quiet except for the sound of running water, the chirps and whistles of birds, the various sounds of insects and mosquitoes, and the occasional call or shout of other people.  I was surprised to find that the creek, though fairly small, was damned up in several places with poured concrete. The creek looked very clean, one of the cleanest I had seen in China so far, so I imagine the water was being stored as drinking water.  This idea was also supported by the multitude of no swimming signs posted all along the creek.  One of the workers told us that during the wet seasons and a non drought period that there would be a lot more water flowing through the canyon. 

A little less than half way up the trail we came across a small gazebo with a spring in it.  Quite a few hikers (all Chinese except for Mike and I) were sitting in the shade eating and talking, while others were filling up their water bottles.  Everyone was quite surprised to see Mike and I and they immediately began watching us with curiosity.  They became even more interested when Mike and I unpacked our water filter and began filtering the water from the spring, which they were using straight from the source, to fill up our water bottles and water bladders.  I kept trying with my limited vocabulary to tell them that I thought the water was very clean, but that the filter would make it even cleaner.  Anyway, it was a fun experience. :O) 

After leaving the gazebo we stopped on the trail to eat what we thought would be our dinner.  We snacked on cherries and brought out three of our four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Somehow the sandwiches had ended up in the bottom of Juice’s pack, so we all ended up eating smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we each topped with two smashed baby bananas.  After eating, one of the workers came down the trail and tried to tell us to turn back because it would be dark soon and the park would soon close.  We were very surprised because we had paid a fee to enter the park and we planned on staying the night there.  Eventually we were able to convince him to let us continue on because we had our flashlights with us and we told him that we were fast hikers.  However, he noticed our large backpacks and the tent hanging from the bottom of Mike’s pack and told us that we could not sleep in the park.  We were all disappointed and tried to persuade him to let us stay, but it was to no avail.  Eventually we promised to him that we could make it back to the gate before it would close and then we continued up the path. 

The scenery became more and more scenic the closer we got to the head of the canyon.  The walls became steep cliffs and the creek cascaded over steeper and steeper rocks into deep pools that were enticing us, along with the hot and humid weather, into going swimming.  Finally we reached the end of the trail where the creek slid down a rock into a beautiful little pool.  We couldn’t take it anymore, we were the last ones in the park, we were three and a half hours up the trail with nobody around, we were all hot and sweaty, the scenery was absolutely spectacular, and the water was calling us!  In addition, Juice has been asking me to take her swimming for quite a while now, but I have no desire to go to the expensive and overcrowded swimming pools that can be found in Beijing, and because there are very few unpolluted waterways in China it is not very easy to find a natural environment to swim in.  It was getting close to dark and we didn’t want our clothes to get wet so Mike and I stripped down to our bare skin and hopped in.  Juice seemed quite shocked with how little regard Mike and I showed to stripping :O)  She, on the other hand, stripped down to her underwear and sports bra, which looked pretty much like a two piece swimming suit.  I was anxious to get out of the park and find somewhere to set up camp so I hopped in and out fairly quickly.  Mike on the other hand spent his time going up and down the rockslide in order to get his thrills, while Juice swam around like she had just been turned into a dolphin in a fifteen foot square pool.  She was so excited she backed into a rock, slightly bruising her side, and then tripped on her way out of the water and cut her knee on a sharp rock.  She wasn’t hurt bad and at least I finally had a reason to use the small Sawyer first aid kit that I have been carrying with me on backpacking trips for the last few years. 

After hiking back out we decided to stop at the resort (more like a small restaurant with a veranda and a few rooms for sleeping) at the head of the trail and get a bite to eat.  We ended up eating a few simple dishes and some rice, but the menu had some interesting items on it that I was tempted to try, such as barbequed skewered rabbit and barbequed skewered kidneys, though we cannot remember exactly which animal the kidneys came from. 

When we finished eating it was already dark and we were all fairly tired.  We were discussing whether to try and find a way back to Beijing that night, possibly by hitchhiking or trying to flag down a minibus, or to find a place on the side of the road where we could set up camp.  Finally we rationalized that we needed to start walking back down the road in the direction of Huairou.  Mike and I put on our headlamps and Juice carried a small LED light with her so we were able to make our way down the road.  We were surprised to find out that heavy trucks carrying cargo and machinery as well as regular vehicles were speeding up and down the small winding mountain road with little regard to which side of the road they were on or if another vehicle was coming from the opposite direction.  In fact, it was so hairy that we began walking in the ditch on the side of the road.  After walking past a small village we came to a vista where we could look down upon a flat open area below us.  We searched around and ended up finding a small road going down the embankment which we followed to the bottom.  We ended up in a level area next to a creek and amid the concrete and brick rubble of a demolished building.  Finally the three of us settled on a flat cement pad among a cluster of trees squeezed between the remainder of the dilapidated building and a low stone wall running along the bank of the creek.  The spot was perfect.  We quickly set up the tent and then spent an hour or two talking, and looking at the stars.  We were even lucky enough to see a huge bright object pass overhead which completely surprised Mike and Juice.  I recognized it as the International Space Station and explained to them the orbit of the station, the speed it is traveling at and why it appears so bright to us.  Juice was really excited because it was her first time to see a satellite. 

The next morning Juice and I woke up early and went for a walk to check out our surroundings.  Right next to where we were camped we found a cement structure running alongside the creek and divided into three holding ponds that looked like it was designed for storing water and regulating creek flow.  The creek itself had two metal weirs going across it raising the level of the stream and forming two separate ponds.  Not more than sixty yards from where we camped there was another pile of brick where some other buildings had been.  Juice and I also found what appeared to be an old garden because there were several worn down ridges of soil running parallel to each other, some of which had some volunteer plants still growing on them.  Additionally we came across an uncovered outdoor public toilet built of stone with the Chinese characters for male and female painted onto the two entrances.  Juice and I ended up wandering across the stream and up an overgrown trail in a gully covered with lush vegetation.  We wandered around in the gully, making our way farther up the densely covered trail for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Eventually we decided to go back to see if Mike had woken up and to eat breakfast.  I also wanted to ask Mike if he was interested in doing a midmorning hike up the trail to see what we could find. 

Juice and I both returned to camp and then woke Mike up.  After boiling water for instant oatmeal, coffee and tea we sat down on the low stone wall next to the creek and talked.  Juice and I told Mike about the outdoor toilet we had found, and about our little excursion up the gully on the other side of the creek.  While we were eating and talking Mike discovered an old cement table top, still partially covered with tile, and decided to set it on some bricks to make a table for laying our stuff out on.  Mike went over to pick it up, but it was too heavy for him to lift and maneuver by himself.  After failing to convince him to give it up, Juice and I finally went over to help him lift the table.  We had just lifted the table up on its edge and started to roll it towards the brick base when an L-shaped piece of the old tile top sheared off and fell vertically onto Juice’s foot.  Immediately Juice let go of the heavy cement table and began hopping up and down on her other foot while holding the injured one in her hand.  It was quite apparent that her thin aqua shoes hadn’t done much to stop the impact of the tile when it fell onto her foot.  Juice said her foot would be alright, but it looked to Mike and I like she was in a lot of pain, so we made her take her shoe off and go to soak her foot in the cold creek to keep the swelling down. 

Juice kept objecting to soaking her foot in the cold creek, but Mike and I sat by her, talked to distract her from the cold and the pain and continually reminding her to keep it under the water.  After about and hour Mike decided to go explore the gully across the creek so I continued to supervise Juice, making sure she kept her foot in the cold water, and talking with her, while watching minnows, pollywogs, and water skippers flow by.  After about and hour Mike came back and we decided to clear a spot for us to exercise.  The two of us played foot bag for another hour or so while Juice busied herself using our cups to catch minnows, tadpoles and snails.   By the time Mike and I were done exercising Juice had quite a collection of creatures stored in our cups and cook set.

Eventually we decided that Juice’s foot had soaked enough and that we should find a way back to Beijing so we could take better care of her.  We shared our one remaining smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a small block of Gouda cheese and some raisins before packing up and preparing to leave.  Just as we started packing a couple came down the small road in their car, got out, and started talking with us.  They told us that they came to this area once a week because it was pretty and few people went there.  We asked them about the dilapidated buildings and they told us that the spot used to be a resort, but that it was demolished because a new road would be going through the site.  In addition to chatting with them and the information they gave us about the area, they told us we would be able to get a cheap ride back to Huairou by flagging down a bus or a minivan.  The three of us hiked back up the dirt road to the main road and then began walking in the direction of Huairou and Beijing.  It didn’t take us but ten minutes of walking before we were able to flag down a minivan and catch a ride to Huairou.  From Huairou we were able to find a long distance bus back to Beijing.  

Once back in Beijing we took the subway and light rail back to Wudaokou.  After arriving Mike and I got some ice so we could begin icing Juice’s foot.  When we got her shoe off again we found that her big toe had swollen up and was forming a blood blister under the toenail.  It looked pretty bad.  We made her ice it for several hours and then we had her sleep with her foot elevated above her heart.  The next day I got a taxi and took Juice back to her place because she had to continue with her research.  The following evening I went back across town to help her take care of her foot.  Because you cannot buy bagged ice in China, I stopped at a coffee shop and convinced them to give me some ice for buying some of their coffee.  I also went into fifteen to twenty drink stands on the side of the street and searched through their iceboxes for frozen bottles of drinking water.  Most of them didn’t have any frozen bottles, but I was able to find a few.  In total I ended up with one bag of ice, which was melting quickly, and six bottles of frozen water.  Again I made Juice ice her foot for several hours and then elevate it while she slept. 

The next day while Juice was at work, I went to several medical supply stores and eventually to the huge People’s Liberation Army Hospital nearby her house to find a boot to keep the pressure off of her toe when walking.  Unfortunately I had no luck, and I was surprised to find out that boots and splints are not commonly used in China.  At the hospital they told me they could make a cast for her, or they could make a plastic boot but that they had to be made to fit so I would have to bring Juice in with me to get it made.  After Juice got off work I took her to the hospital to have a boot made for her, but she was not willing to pay the price for one and would not let me pay to get one made for her so I ended up giving her a pair of slippers to use, though she only used the right one, and some aspirin to help keep the swelling and pain down for the next few days.  I felt bad but there was not much more I could do.  After about a week the swelling in her toe went down, and she was able to wear a shoe on her foot again, though she ended up losing her big toenail.  To my surprise Juice told me that this was not her first time to lose that toenail. 

After coming back from our trip with Toby Bodeen to Sichuan province and Tibet, I was glad to hear from Juice that her big toenail is starting to come back and that she is walking without problems.  All in all it was quite an interesting trip in China, and though Juice lost her toenail, she had a wonderful time on her very first backpacking trip. 

Until the next email update, take care, and thanks for reading, 

Darrol Butler
hairyleprechaun@gmail.com 

My new address:

Darrol Butler
c/o Office of CSU International Programs
Shao Yuan, Building 2, Room 101
Peking University
Haidian District, Beijing, 100871
China

 

Darrol, Mike & Juice  halfway up the canyon trail posing for a photo after eating our dinner.	Me sitting on a rock at the head of the canyon.
On the way back down, looking down canyon.  Suspension bridge in foreground.	The tent set up between the creek and one of the mostly torn down resort buildings.
Scenery across the creek from where we camped.	Juice and I posing in front of the tent with debris in foreground.  Notice the cement table and the piece of tile on it which later fell onto Juice’s foot.
Abandoned outdoor public toilet	Juice standing in front of the toilet.  Notice that it is roofless.
Me posing on the trail	The remains of another building.
An old garden.  Notice the volunteer plants still growing in rows.	Close up of the first two pools (looking downstream).
The dilapidated main building of the resort.	Juice’s swollen big toe after returning to Beijing.