Hey Hey and a Huge G'Day toya,

Before I begin to rant and rave about my day's adventures I'd like to send a huge happy birthday G'Day to my Big Bro and greatest friend ever along with another greatest friend ever whom share this wonderful day of birth.

Happy Birthday to the both of you.

Oh, I'm so sorry I spent it in this most wonderful part of the world and not back home with you two.  Really I am...seriously I am....OK, I'm a little sorry....Really I am....I AM!  

I AM, I AM, I AM.....SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR CAKE! HA HA HA HA!

************************************************************ *
 
My first day's adventures using the 'Big Boy' ticket was totally awesome!  
We walked, we climbed and we also drank a lot of water.
 
Getting out of bed just after six back in Shaowu wasn't that much fun and we then had to wait for a few buses but we finally placed our butts on the bus leaving at eight. I've never driven to Wuyi Shan during the daylight hours and I found the country side to be very beautiful. We arrived, found rooms at the Yun Long Hotel and were out the door and into a taxi by half ten. We caught the cab to the Heavenly Tour Peak entrance and of course just like in most of China's touristy areas the cab driver refused to turn on the meter.
 
They tell you what it will cost. You can go to the next driver and if he wants to beat it then he's yours but there is a set price none of them will go below and that price is surely triple what it would be by meter.
That's a real bugger for everyone!
 
At this stage I hadn't really read anything about Wuyi Shan and thought that it was pretty much a big mountain you climb. Wrong! As described in my first entry, Wuyi Shan really is so much more. Surprise to me, it was awesome WHO National Park. At that stage we had no idea about the about the ticketing structure but found out pretty much straight away. For information on tickets and costs see my first entry.
 
We tried to find the free sneaky entrance but gave up and purchased the Big Boy Two Day ticket instead.


 
Ourfirststop was the Site of The Wuyi Academy. Nice building, a lot of words about people whom had attended but we were actually looking for some sort of gardens but didn't find them and found the Academy instead. We quickly moved on and zig zagged our way through Zig Zag Caves. I thought they were really cool and reminded me of Hanging Rock in Victoria Australia.
 
We never found any missing school children though.
Oh well, mystery continues!


 
Wethen made our way up the smallest stairs I've ever set foot on. They were tiny, wet and moss covered. You could put your toes on them and not much more. At the top we found a big hole in the rock with some stone seats. Known as Happy Gathering Cave I guess maybe it once was a nice place to gather...Not!



After carefully making our way back down the tiny steps we made our way past the beautiful Shizhao Pavilion and the Clouds Lair on the rivers six twist. We found Malan Islet pretty much straight away. A section of the river where hundreds of Chinese gather to wade in the river up to their knees.
 
There were hundreds of colourful tour peak caps everywhere!  


 
Wethen followed the river towards the Seventh Twist and left the river to follow the little trickle known as Squirrel Brooklet. We finally found Peach Blossom Cave which we quickly passed through. More of a long archway really. It seems that any dint in the wall passes for a cave here and will be happily given a name! To be serious I think what it really means is the entire area around it as on another map it is known as Peach Blossom Paradise and goes on to describe the area as this; 
 
Peach Blossom Cave is famous for its "landscape is Wuling like."  Its entrance is "No Path" with doubt and has another interest on it. Inside is rock around it, mountain springs here and there and reflecting the beauty of bamboo, peach and plum and a quiet place which historic famous persons enjoy living here. Peach Blossoming Taoist Temple too. 
 
I have a feeling they are trying their best to tell you that the area is really beautiful, full of bamboo and peach trees and if that's not enough you can go also find a Taoist Temple! If that is what they are trying to say then they would more than be right. It was really beautiful walking around that part of the park and the Kai Yuan or Taoist Temple was a breathtaking sight. Set beneath a huge mountain in a lush green valley it was almost an invitation to move in and live there. Just across the temples green grassy grounds was a huge statue carved out of a huge stone. The statue was almost identical to the one I visited on Qing Yuan Shan (mountain) in Quanzhou.
 
It was a statue of the legendary Song Dynasty Taoism founder, Laozi.
 
Our next destination was to climb the Heavenly Peak but we didn't want to climb the stairs with the hundreds so we decided to take the long way around and end up at the back of the mountain. On the right side of the Laozi statue is a set of stairs, after getting confirmation of where they went from a guy who lived at the temple we began our climb. It was hot, it got hotter and we were beginning to soak our clothes. We finally reached level ground and followed Orange Tree Brook which was a long long way down. We actually thought it was a huge river but when our trail past over a tiny trickle and began to take us parallel to the way we had just come we began to laugh.
 
What was down there was really a small trickle that turned into a tiny river and obviously got bigger.


 
Wewere soon climbing again and when we reached the Half Hill Pavilion we knew there was still a large climb to follow. How happy were we when we spotted the Wuyi Arch at the top of the mountain. My first thought was actually, 'what kind of a person would make someone else carry such huge stonework up the side of a bloody mountain!'  Happily for us there was a tea house at the top and we refilled ourselves on overpriced Mizone. While the others rested I continued on to the Birds Eye View Pavilion and what did I see? Bloody trees mate. The Birds Eye View Pavilion is sadly without view.
 
With my tail between my legs I headed back to the others.
We then made our way down the other side of the mountain until we reached Flax Brooklet that runs about three quarters up the mountain creates a beautiful water fall as it leaves the mountain side. This is the water fall thousands admire from the Waterfall Viewing Pavilion halfway down Heavenly Tour Peak.


 
The others continued on to the Heavenly Peak Taoist Temple and I of course wanted to know what was down the other way. So I headed in the opposite direction and soon come across a beautiful old stone arch way. Through the archway I spotted an old pagoda with a tiny stone statue of Laozi beneath it. Surrounding the pagoda was a tea plantation. When I found the door of the pagoda I actually found an old stone well that had been modernized. Electric pumps were now used to flow the water to its destination. It looked so strange seeing a stone well and on the wall behind it seeing electrical switches.
 
I met the others at the Taoist Temple and when I reached the peak I lost my breath.
It was totally awesome!


 
The tops of the huge crags were beneath us and there was the river snaking its way between them. The bamboo rafts looked like ice-cream sticks with ants on them. Surrounding us was a breathtaking sight. Some of the crags tops were covered with trees and others were completely bare. Trees or no trees, all were an awesome sight and that view went on for as far as the eye could see. It was kind of like being at the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai and having high rises as far as the eye could see in all directions!      
 
We decided against joining the hundreds descending the peak by way of the main stairs. I'm sure the views of the waterfall created by the Flax Brooklet as it left the mountain would have been an awesome site. But at the bottom of the stairs was the Malan Islet so we decided to head around the back and down the other side of the mountain.
 
And mate, what an adventure that was!


 
Wetook the trail that took us past the 'Air Monitoring Station' and this took us down a bare stone mountain side of the 'Immortal Tour Rock'. The stairs were a heap of fun. Once we made it to the little pagoda known as 'Immortals Tour Pavillion' we sat for a rest. The pagoda joined our current peak to the next. It was here that we really begin to decend in a very steep manner. Whoever thought of putting this staircase on the bare side of this crag was a comlete lunitic. That wold probably describe the people who actually use it too I guess! Ha Ha! Slowly, very slowly and very carefully we made our way down the rock and when we finally made it to the river side we breathed a sigh of relief.
 
What a really stupid place to put a staircase!

At the bottom we made a few wrong turns, one of which led us down to the river and to a little stoney beach. Here we surprised many of the Chinese as they floated by on the bamboo rafts. Many 'Hellows' filled the air until we decided to continue. We found the Little Nine Bend Stream trail that led us back to the main bridge that takes you through to the ticket booth. It is here that those wanting a free entry into the park can try to sneak past the Park Guard Booth . Here we haggled with a few taxi drivers who had no problem doubling what we paid that morning.
 
Hey, you've climbed and walked all day and I guess most will pay what they are asked or pay a little lower anyhow.
We finally agreed on the same amount as the morning and we cabbed it to the Wuyi Palace.


 
Notmuch of a palace really. Beautiful buildings of course but pretty much the same as the Wuyi Academy, lots of words about people long gone. We took the left track and followed the river. The first thing we came across was 'The Potted Landscape' and this my friends was stunning. For those who have been to Japan and fell in love with their public gardens, gardens you had to pay to get in...infact any garden in Japan is a beautiful experiece. Always stunning, clean and wonderfully kept. This was pretty much the same deal and an awesome find here in China.
 
Obviously it was NOT a Public Garden!
It was a long quiet walk and on both sides of the track was hundreds of Bonsia trees.
Man how I love bonsia trees!


 
Halfway through the walk is a stunning ancient style home that is situated beneath what is known as 'Great King Peak' and man, this really is the king of all the peaks. It was totally awesome to look at and hopefully next time I will get to climb it. We had to pass this time as it was nearing six and this part of the park closes at six and sadly this section of the ticket had been clipped. We'll see what tomorrow would bring but we would have to enter from another section and our plans for the following day were way up the top of the park.

We continued along the track and we soon made it to the Zhizhi Nunery.


 
Ihave no details at all about this place but it was quiet and extremely beautiful. It didn't look that old and had obviously had a large amount of money spent on it. Some of the wood carvings on the front pillars were awesome. For it being a Nunnery we found a complete lack of Nun.
 
There were None Nuns.
I wondered this, when a Nun goes to sleep does she say Nunneigh?
 
From there we continued on to the next sign that read 'Blaa Blaa Water Rock'. I really have no idea what it was supposed to be but we ended up at a tiny beach where some guy was swimming. By now it was time to hot foot it back through the Bonsia Park before it closed locking us in for the night. We caught Bus No: 6 back to our hotel. I think this bus runs from the main street and only goes to Wuyi Palace but I can't be certain.
 
After a shower we went next door and ordered a feast and some cold beers.
 
If we wanted to pay 80 Yuan we could have had Monkey Meat for dinner. There it was in the fridge still with half its scalp on it. Beside the fridge in cages sat a duck and a rabbit. On the table were live turtles and frogs whom bounced around in their netting fighting to free themselves. I can do the frogs and turtles on the table as in Guangxi we used to actually hunt frogs and rats for bbq.
 
I can also eat duck and rabbit but if its in a cage I can't order it if you know what I mean.
 
If its already cut and sitting on a plate waiting to be cooked yeah butI can't look at a live rabbit or duck and know that it would be on my plate very soon. Of course I've had to do it in many villages in Guangxi where they slit its throat without thought right in front of you and leave it twitching until its life slowly fades as its blood flow slows to a stop. But for me that's different. Anyhow, after dinner we walked Wuy's main street that is almost 99% tea shops.
 
How they all make money is beyond me, but when I say it is 99% tea shops, it really is!
 
That was my first day at Wuyi Shan.
It was filled with hours of walking, climbing and most of all, extremely awesome sites and scenery!
I would put it up there as one of the most beautiful places I've been to in China
What I didn't know as I happily fell asleep that night was that tomorrows adventure would be even more beautiful!
 
Beers and Noodles toya....shane
 
The soundtrack to this entry was an absolute brilliant find.many years ago.
I had no reason to want to purchase it except for the title.
It's a double album and full of old blues and gospel tracks
The title of the album is 'African-American Sacred Steel Guitar'