An Airport Is Still Around Me

Hiking Among Killer Buses: Day 2 of the Bingyu Valley

 

July 12, 2015

By Taylor

 

We woke up super early at 5:30 a.m. to begin our real visit to the Bingyu Valley. The day before we had been near the valley but not actually in it. We had duck eggs and other interesting things for breakfast along with bread and honey. Then we loaded up the bus and headed into the valley.

 

The view from the boat

 

Our trip started with a short boat ride. The scenery was amazing (although hazy from the rain and air pollution) but it was packed with people and things for sale – not very peaceful. It was also raining. We tried to enjoy it anyway. After a short boat ride, we got off to begin our hike. One of the group members told us we would now go on a ten kilometer hike. I wasn’t too excited about this because I didn’t think Christian could hike that far. My mom said not to worry though. Most of the time we only have a vague idea about what is going on anyway – and she doubted it was really going to be a ten kilometer hike.

 

The hike was neat. It was beside a river with steep green mountains and cliff and lush forests. The “hike” was on a paved walkway crowded with people, music blasting, people trying to sale you stuff, and amusement rides. We were huge celebrities there. There were two women who wanted to take my picture. They took so many pictures of me that I couldn’t walk two feet without them snapping another one. I think I probably got my picture taken at least one hundred times that day – literally. Sarah Ann too. At one point, there was a beautiful background so we wanted to take a family picture. We asked someone in our group to take it for us. Pretty soon, random strangers had gathered around to take our family picture too – maybe twenty people or so. It was pretty funny.

 

Here’s our family picture that attracted a crowd

 

 

Here’s us with the group we traveled with for the whole weekend

 

Towards the end of the hike, we rode a zipline across the river. At first I was scared and didn’t want to do it. But then I rode it and it was fun. While we were walking back on the paved trail by the river, some killer mini-buses came along. They drove way too fast on a trail full of people walking and would honk if you didn’t move out of the way – and not slow down either. It was crazy. Teddy, my friend, invited me to sleep at his house. I was excited.

 

Here I am riding the zipline across the river

 

After riding on our bus for an hour, we stopped at a Chinese barbeque place. Here, you chose raw meat and cooked it at your table on a grill or in a hot pot. It was really good - especially the vegetables. I didn’t think I would like the vegetables so much. We were all stuffed at the end. There was all kinds of strange food there including these things that looked like goblin arms and hands. I don’t know what they were – and I don’t want to know. After two hours at the restaurant, we headed back to Dalian.