Wizhishan

With the aid of our note written in Chinese we made our way to the bus station and once again joined the line where it appears that one should argue the price of the ticket and each person takes 5 minutes to process. Finally we reached the front of the line and paid the requested amount and were guided to the bus to Wizhishan.

We had read that hiking up the Wizhishan Mountain was a worthwhile hike and we really felt the need to get out of the cities. The local bus trip was through the countryside and as it picked up and dropped off passengers we felt as though we had finally found the “China” we had been seeking. It was hilly and tree covered with terraced rice paddies on the hillside.

We arrived at the town set on a pretty river and walked across to the hotel recommended in the Lonely Planet only to be waved away by the man who appeared to be in charge. As we walked along the road a sign pointed to a fancy hotel overlooking the river. It looked as though it would be out of our price range but found that it was brand new and the rooms were half price at $60 a night—perfect.

We wandered through the town and markets which were lovely with much less panic and noise than we had been subjected to in Haikou. The stalls selling betel nuts abound. This is the nut from the betel palm tree which is pounded and wrapped in a leaf along with lime and is chewed as a wad in the mouth. It obviously is an addictive drug but results in red and rotting teeth. Spitting is a nasty after effect and the sidewalks are all sticky and red—yuk!!

Stores selling massive amounts of fireworks and others with huge numbers of Chinese lanterns reflected the preparedness for Chinese New Year. It actually lasts forty days and traditionally everyone travels home but as they are becoming more educated and affluent they travel further afield. We would often hear the strings of bangers going off and came to the realization of how long the celebrations will go on. After the fireworks finish there is a huge area with remnants of pink pieces of paper remaining. We heard a report of a truck loaded with fireworks had exploded blowing up the road and killing several people--we were not surprised.

We caught the bus to the village where the head of the trail for the 5 hour hike up the mountain was. It wound through the picturesque tribal villages with the mountain towering above. We set off up the trail but the effects of the cough we had had since Sanya `caused us to stop frequently to have coughing fits. We were also sweating profusely and after one hour decided to go back down as four more hours of this would not be enjoyable.

Once we got to the bottom we wandered along the picturesque road where people were tending the rice paddies and vegetable gardens along a lovely treed area. We flagged the bus down and got the last two seats. As the bus progressed it picked up children going home from school and other locals all of whom had to stand. At one stage I was surprised to see everyone sit on the floor and the bus driver after a few minutes yelled and everyone stood again. Oh oh a few blocks later the bus was stopped by an official who was obviously a bus inspector. He made all of the standing passengers get off the bus and the fares were refunded—it seems that the driver had misjudged where the inspector would be and the previous sitting episode was so the inspector would not see the standing passengers. After having been in buses which were so crowded you could hardly breathe we found it strange that suddenly the rules changed.

The hotel was lovely but no one spoke English. The menu had pictures which helped but many advertised meals were not available—after having been in Asia for 18 months that is no longer a surprise!! Once again communicating was a huge issue and we were frustrated with their miming skills or lack of them and we were unable to have our simplest requests answered in any way at all. We found the town very pleasant and thought we would like to stay one more night. After trying every way we could imagine to ask for the extra night one young woman finally had the bright idea to have us write into her translator---wow eureka!!

Her answer was that we would have to pay more money—whew no problem and we were now booked for another night.

We wandered along the river marveling at the cultivation being done even in little plots on the river bank. We followed a lovely trail which was being planted with decorative bushes and plants to see a castle like structure at the top. As we neared it we went through what was obviously an expensive condo complex in a western style with lovely views. People were driving golf carts through and we could easily have been in North America. The tower turned out to be a 6 star hotel which looked almost ready to open. We had come across another huge one near Wizhishan Mountain which looked to be ready within a few weeks. It seems that tourism is alive and well in Hainan.
Our next stop was to be Baoting at a fancy resort where we will splurge for a few days.