Gu Mountain

This Friday was "May Day," the Chinese equivalent of Labor Day, only more widely celebrated. For the occasion, one of my students, a girl named Melly took me to Gu Mountain, a smallish kind of mountain on the edge of the city. I doubt it would be secluded in any event, but apparently everyone takes their friends and parents and cousins to climb "mountians" on holidays. Imagine Disneyland on a Saturday afternoon of a four day weekend; then multipy that image by two. The 2000 meter walk to the peak was more like standing in an interminable queue. Here's a picture of the trail that gives you some idea (but believe it or not, that was taken during a lull).

The weather was good though, and we got a pretty good view of the city.

Here's a picture with me and Melly. Isn't she cute?

We met a bunch of her friends, none of whom spoke any English. My Chinese is sufficient to say hello and what's your name, but that's about it. However, they gave us lunch and one girl offered me three different types of nuts. Then they played a game that was so interesting I have to describe it to you.

They formed three lines with any number of people in them. We had about 25 people, and there were usually anywhere from 1 to 11 people in a line. One person was the policeman and he/she would pick any line she liked and those people would count off: yi, er, san (one, two, three)... Then she would ask the first person, "How many people are in your family?" The first person could cite any number he wished and everyone in the line over that number had to leave and run into another line before the policeman could tag him. Apparently, this stems from the government trying to control population - if your family has too many people, you get in trouble. If you got caught, you became the policeman, kind of like tag. I knew just barely enough Chinese to get by in this game, but it was really great!

I have to show this because it's kind of funny. We were taking pictures (of all the people I played the game with) and I got my friend to take my camera up there for a group shot. But somehow she got it stuck on video mode. "Bethany, it doesn't work!"