黑龙江花果山户外网

标题: 关于五大连池的美好印象--------外籍友人的文章－替缥缈之风代发 [打印本页]

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 18:36
标题: 关于五大连池的美好印象--------外籍友人的文章－替缥缈之风代发
本帖最后由张崴于 2009-8-23 18:42 编辑

dear friend:thank you very much. One of my students is a member of an internet travel group, and last weekend the group went to a small town called Wudalianchi. In case you wonder what an internet travel group is, well, it was new to me as well. It seems they all like to travel, and various members of the group get together to organize potential trips each weekend. The trip to Wudalianchi was by bus, and said vehicle was to be met at a location I only had on a piece of paper—hand written—in Chinese. And I can only read a hundred characters, and only then if they are very nicely printed.
So yes, at 4:40 am I was out on the street looking for a taxi, and wondering where it would take me. At five the taxi dropped me off in front of the main administration building of the communist party in Harbin. This was a little disconcerting, especially as there was no sign of anyone other than a grumpy looking security guard. Within five minutes a large red bus tooled by with Claire, the student, waving madly from beside the bus driver.
We then drove around Harbin for half an hour, at which point the driver parked the bus and began looking at maps. This did not bode well for the trip. We soon headed out of town, but almost immediately pulled into a gas station. You all know what gas stations look like. Here is the country version of a Chinese one. They all look just like this one, except their roof is not warped. That comes from the computer refusing to deal with the image properly when making a panorama. I tried several pieces of software, and this was the least badly damaged image, so don't complain.
That is Claire on the right, and others from the group are on the way back from what passes for a toilet in a Chinese gas station. The less I say about that topic the better!

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 18:46
You can tell from the picture that the road is pretty quiet. Heck, even the main highways can be pretty quiet. To say the Chinese are overbuilding for the current level of traffic is an understatement. 花果山户外休闲网" R/ Q6 X o9 `( k; ]+ o: y8 o
The driver continued to study his maps and I was told it was because the bridge on the best road was being replaced, so we couldn't use it. We took the route less travelled, and it made quite a difference. We started on a really nicely maintained small road—and yes, the flowers on the side of the road are typical. So are the types of vehicles. However, all too soon we ended up crawling along on roads like the one below. 花果山户外休闲网. U# y. @0 [7 v, F! v( _
In case you are wondering, yes, those trucks were stuck in the mud, but they did eventually get out of the way and our driver made it up the hill. I had thought it would be fun to take a video of the bus and passengers bouncing along on the horrible road. At one point the driver was nearly bumped out of his seat—but by the time I got the camera set up, the road was smooth again.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 18:48
After about seven hours on the road we pulled into a hotel where I took a bunch of pictures with the camera accidentally on video, so the only evidence of being there is this curiously curved panorama of their nice, straight dock. It turned out the reason we went there was to check the maps once more—and try out the toilets. Chinese busses are not equipped with toilets. At least not the ones I’ve been on.哈尔滨|徒步|登山|穿越|宿营|滑雪|户外|黑龙江户外|黑龙江自助游|哈尔滨自助游|花果山|花果山户外休闲网|好运花果山|* P/ ~9 {& H U% q! u; b9 C- ]

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 18:52
So the next 'event' I got to take pictures of was the ice caves. Now you have to understand that in China, all tourist attractions are rated on a 'star' system, and out of five possible stars, Wudalianchi has not managed to earn itself a single one. So here are pictures of the famous ice cavern in the lava. Right. It is a cold place, maybe fifteen meters underground, with lots of ice sculptures, mostly lit by LED Christmas lights, with a few colored fluorescent bulbs frozen into the sculptures. The picture looks a little foggy as I had to increase the brightness to stop details getting lost. 哈尔滨|徒步|登山|穿越|宿营|滑雪|户外|黑龙江户外|黑龙江自助游|哈尔滨自助游|花果山|花果山户外休闲网|好运花果山|, _! W- j$ \3 A' C6 E6 E
If you look at the roof very carefully, you will see it is at strange angles, and lots of heavy steel bars are reinforcing it. Natural it is not. The uneven surface is because it was created by the contraction of a lava bed, and I haven't figured out how they got the floor so smooth. Probably just flooded the place. The average temperature down there is minus 5. 友谊、沟通、交流、共享,流金岁月,情感交流,子女教育,真情互动'花果山,1968年猴,60年代,70年代,哈尔滨猴,1980年猴,属猴,5 _% E. a' Y3 p1 G9 N2 i2 d
You may also notice that everyone is either clutching a camera or a water bottle. These are the two essentials for travel in China! Since water is so important, naturally the next thing we did was visit a cold spring. This area apparently has the third largest cold spring in the world, as the lava flow trapped most of a river system underground, and blockaded the rest. The name of the town roughly translates as ‘five long stringy lakes’ and they are what is left of the river. 友谊、沟通、交流、共享,流金岁月,情感交流,子女教育,真情互动'花果山,1968年猴,60年代,70年代,哈尔滨猴,1980年猴,属猴,( ?! f5 f' b c O j4 N3 J$ L h
So we had to visit the spring, and here is how the water is described, in all its curiously translated glory. In case you are wondering, the text is cut into polished stone and is reflecting all of us tourists. 哈

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 18:55
Tourist attractions often like to provide something extra. You can see below that this spring had a well dressed, but slightly aggravated monkey, which is with Jiang Xiaofan, a girl who is brave enough to pose with a monkey and to use her Chinese name with us foreigners. Why do I say brave to use her real name? Because foreigners invariably butcher (and easily forget) Chinese names until we get reasonably good at Chinese. I’m not nearly there yet.- W1 B9 U8 p6 l5 V, C
The monkey did NOT like having its picture taken, and was continually trying to jump off whoever was paying to get their picture taken with it, and get back with its owner. I hope Ms. Jiang doesn’t mind if I tell about her experience. After dinner she described its misbehavior, and its claws, which were unbelievably soft. I couldn’t resist explaining that birds have claws, cats and dogs have paws, but because a monkey is so like a person, we call those appendages hands and feet. She was mortified, wailing apologetically that she hasn’t spoken English for three years. I was stunned, as she is finishing her BA in English! (In case you wonder, that was the only mistake I noticed in her English….)www.hyhgs.com" l7 {# k5 r, a V
On the right we are fulfilling the purpose of this park by filling our containers with medicinal water. We were told it could only be kept for 4 hours or it would oxidize and become poisonous. Hmmm. This slightly seedy building has taps around the outside for filling your bottles. Don't ask me what that thingy is inside it....

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:04

Of course the reason to go there was to see the strange things the lava did, so here is a small waterfall off a ledge of lava. Is this exciting, or what?

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:10
本帖最后由张崴于 2009-8-23 19:14 编辑

Yes, that’s Claire again. The amazing thing is how the Chinese patiently wait for their 'photo op' There were at least a dozen people waiting to stand here and have this photo taken! We then headed out to a mountain. OK, a large hill, but by the time we got to the top it was already dusk, so no great photo ops. This being a place full of springs, there is one there as well, and part of our group chose to camp there overnight. Unfortunately I decided to take a picture of the springs while standing in front of the dragon’s head that the water flows from, and you can’t see it in my picture. One of the guys on the trip was smarter and took an excellent picture, but then put the picture up on the internet in a way that when I tried to download it, it failed to arrive. So you don’t get to see a cool stone dragon’s head with water gushing out. Instead, here is one of the temple, nestled in a small valley near the top of the mountain. It must be doing very well as the building under construction on the right is a pagoda for the temple.

so have a huge Guanyin Pusa on the other wing of the mountain. If you study this picture carefully you will see it is obviously a woman. Many Chinese appeal to her for anything to do with health, and particularly to have a child. The bottle in her hands contains medicine, although some say it is just water. Spoil sports. Interestingly enough, Buddhists generally insist that all Pusas are male. I have yet to be satisfied by their explanations, but in the interest of fair play dug up a quote which touches on that mystery.

"She is one of the most popular deities in all of Asia. Her name in Chinese roughly translates as "The One who Hears the Cries of the World". She is the most beloved and revered of the Chinese deities. Guan Yin is the Divine Mother we all long for: merciful, tender, compassionate, loving, protecting, caring, healing, and wise. She quietly comes to the aid of her children everywhere. Her mantra is 'Hail the Jewel in the Lotus.' Many believe that she is the female representation of Avalokitesvara, who is the Tibetan and Nepalese God of Compassion. In Asia, statues of Guan Yin can be found in front of, or on the grounds of, many Buddhist temples."

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:17
And back to more prosaic stuff, here is the town itself, at night. One thing this town did right, they have a speed limit of 30 kph in town and many of the sidewalks are elevated boardwalks set in from the road. Quite charming. And yes, that is it. There just isn't much there there.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:18
本帖最后由张崴于 2009-8-23 19:21 编辑

Once back at the bottom we filled up bottles from the spring, then went searching for our rooms for the night, which I'm sure you can guess took some time as the driver had no idea where to look. It was a fairly typical rest stop for Chinese travelers. Builders have been throwing up far too many apartment blocks but far too few cheap hotels. People buy the apartments and stick a bed or two or three in every room, then rent the apartment out to cheap tours. I got to share a bed with Claire's nephew. We started the night with him watching TV and me sleeping. We finished with him thrashing around the bed and me dodging while trying to push him back to his side. It was a futile effort, involving the barest minimum of sleep.

The next morning we headed for breakfast at some ungodly hour, and then got organized to climb another large hill. We stopped at this lava field to get a feel for the place. Yes, the unpromising bump is the volcano.

The green flag is for the group, and on other trips they have one with their URL so you could visit their site. Sadly, this one doesn’t show it.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:24
本帖最后由张崴于 2009-8-23 19:31 编辑

I’m leaving out the hike up as it was pretty standard stuff. Lots and lots of stone steps to walk up, and not much to see. We climbed perhaps 200 m to get almost to the top, where it opened up and seemed as if there was nothing more to see.

Here is that spot, and the building in the background is a typical public restroom in a park. Pretty decent. You can’t see that there are lots of signs warning us not to take souvenirs. It seems to be the first thing everyone does the moment they reach this area. In case you were convinced China is a nation of obedient sheep, the Chinese do not seem to be very interested in doing what signs tell them to do!

Most of the tourists climbing the volcano were Chinese. I think I was the only exception, even though the town is full of Russian tourists. I didn’t talk to any, but suspect they are just there to take the water cures and enjoy those deep, painful, and effective Chinese traditional massages.

We wandered a little farther, not really expecting much, and abruptly came to the first real viewpoint at this zero star park:

I was feeling just like the girl on the left. It was pretty jaw dropping. In case you are wondering, the eruption that created this crater began around 1710, with the most recent eruption around 1790. Lava from those and from other, much more ancient eruptions is found over a thousand square kilometer area. The diameter of the crater is around 350 m and the depth is 145 m, but it has been filling in as the soft rock it is built from crumbles into the hole. Needless to say the slope is incredibly unstable and highly dangerous to stand on. So what do you see?

This is almost half way around, and one of dozens of pictures of people doing something crazy so their friends can get a good picture.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:32

Yes, but at least she had a hand on the fence, so it was completely safe! Next, we were on the outside of the mountain, so it couldn’t have been anywhere near as dangerous. Right. And the other two photos are what we found on the outside of the mountain.

The irony of the next photo is no one will know what was behind those women. Only from where I was could you see the drop off was horrendous. And no, the bottle isn't trash, it is their trekking supply. Empty bottles are worth money, so they aren't left lying around for long.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:36

And the route down is pretty tame, but with plenty of barriers to hold back any rocks which decided to let go. And no, there was no chance of rain. The Chinese women are protecting their delicate complexions....

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:38

On the right is some nicely congealed volcanic lava at the point where the lava originally started flowing. According to the signs it all came out of what is now the big pit below. It was flowing through a tunnel, and when the lava cooled and retreated, the tunnel collapsed, leaving yet another cave. Oddly enough there were no steps down to visit it.

For some reason local tourists are really attracted to all kinds of small, strange caves. Here is the line up to stand in the mouth of one partially filled with cold water, which made it yet another attraction. That extremely damp cave is called the fairy palace. Perhaps the name is more sensible in Chinese….

Finally, we got to the bottom and found that almost 300 years later, the lava field is still a black, shattered desert that looks like this. Claire, on the right, demonstrates how extraordinarily rough parts of that lava field are.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:40

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:42

From there we went on a 'boat ride' which was actually an hour wandering around a part of the lava field with lots of ponds, followed by a five minute putter down a small creek in a large boat.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:43

I got to take some thoroughly arty pictures of green stuff and water, but as they may not do well in this format, you have escaped. Well, partially escaped.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:43

Next we got on the boats and everyone enjoyed posing for pictures. Here you see someone else coming upstream, camera at the ready.

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-23 19:46

Note how well they are dressed for the water, and how they are all quietly in their seats. For some reason this didn't happen on our boats, which are in the picture on the right. And finally, here is someone at their little cottage on the side of the stream, watching us tourists passing by .

I strongly suspect there is a story behind that building. Those windows are not at all common, nor is the stone. Most old buildings were made of very roughly squared off blocks of lava, but this is covered in white tile. Very fancy, and totally out of place. If I'd noticed earlier I would have asked--but probably wouldn't have learned its story anyway. The language barrier can be pretty dense at times.

The bus trip back was smooth and completely uneventful, if unexpectedly longer than the trip up. Here are some passengers making sure the driver doesn't get lost. Note the good luck charm hanging below the mirror.

The bus driver’s wife is sitting in the jump seat in the stair well. I suspect the fact we didn’t get lost is largely due to her. The organizer of the trip is sitting on the floor. He spent most of the trip sitting there, enjoying being in on the action. Claire's nephew is in the blue-black shirt. Yes, he of the overactive sleep.

When we got to the top of the mountain, he decided to camp out at the rest area instead of walking around and enjoying the different views. When we got back he had bought himself a ceramic whistle that just needs a little water, and then makes a pretty good imitation bird call. The only trouble was the whistle part was so close to the tip of the stem that sometimes it was in his mouth when he tried to blow it. He was a little surprised when I showed him what the problem was, but not as surprised as I was when he showed me it needed water to work properly!

Like most of his generation of Chinese student, he doesn't get enough exercise and isn’t exactly fit. But that is something for another story. Hope you enjoyed this one!

Ken

作者: 缥缈之风 时间: 2009-8-24 08:10
非常感谢张威。我就是太懒了。这样一点一点地发就可以全部发上去。希望通过老外的视角大家能知道一些。外国人怎么看中国。其实平时他们是不说的。

作者: 张崴 时间: 2009-8-24 20:30
老外的视角其实是很独特的,哈哈,无论怎么说,这可是花果山户外组织走向国际的第一步啊

作者: 孤独求败 时间: 2009-8-26 13:34
俺滴天呀，本来国文就没咋学好，这英文更难懂了！除了景能读懂，其他都不认识，包括人~
能否翻译成中文？？

作者: 狼外婆 时间: 2009-8-26 15:20
/:022

我就会两句英文：哈喽！你能借我一美元吗？上周徒步遇见这老外试了一下，没想到这老外还真听懂了！就是钱没借给我——真抠

作者: 释然 时间: 2009-8-28 05:31
奇幻的旅程友善的朋友美妙的回忆/:069

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