As I said the casual stroll up the mountain became a tad more strenuous as the stone steps rolled away beneath our feet. It turns out that climbing a mountain whose summit is over a mile above sea level is pretty tough going, even if there are steps all the way up. This was more than made up for by the exquisite views of mountain peaks towering above us, tree covered valleys stretching out as far as the eye could see and, just for a bit of a change, the occasional group of guys in dress shoes and trendy blazers puffing and panting their way up the mountain with cries of 'Jiayou!' which roughly translates as "Pour some oil on it!'
While we were taking a break part way up the mountain one of the groups of dressed up dudes stopped for a break near us and one particularly snazzily dressed guy saw us and exclaimed to his friends 'Oh! Waiguoren!' in other words 'Oh! Foreigners!' He clearly wasn't expecting us to understand because when we replied 'Yup' they all looked at their friend and then fell about laughing. We carried on up the mountain with them, receiving our very own cries of 'Jiayou!' for a little while until the mountain proved too much for them (or more accurately their wardrobe) and they stopped for another break.
We carried on up the mountain with occasional stops for food, flute playing and being awestruck by how absurdly beautiful the views were. As we were resuming our climb, a man ran (yes I said ran!) past us and on up the steps. We looked at each other in shock as the man belted it off up the mountain. He was soon followed by other mountain running nutters, who all seemed to be wearing similar stuff. It turned out that we were going up the mountain on the same day as hordes of people who had come for the Summit Climb and some of them were just sprinting up there! At one point a young lad came puffing along behind us and then fell to floor grabbing his calf and groaning. It looked like he had cramp so I asked him if he wanted me to help, which received some very enthusiastic nodding and grimacing. Tip for travellers, if you're camera-shy, don't help a Chinese guy stretch off half way up a mountain, it's cat nip for camera toting Chinese tourists!
We got to the top of the mountain after about 4 hours of walking and I celebrated by busting out the flute again!
We carried on up the mountain with occasional stops for food, flute playing and being awestruck by how absurdly beautiful the views were. As we were resuming our climb, a man ran (yes I said ran!) past us and on up the steps. We looked at each other in shock as the man belted it off up the mountain. He was soon followed by other mountain running nutters, who all seemed to be wearing similar stuff. It turned out that we were going up the mountain on the same day as hordes of people who had come for the Summit Climb and some of them were just sprinting up there! At one point a young lad came puffing along behind us and then fell to floor grabbing his calf and groaning. It looked like he had cramp so I asked him if he wanted me to help, which received some very enthusiastic nodding and grimacing. Tip for travellers, if you're camera-shy, don't help a Chinese guy stretch off half way up a mountain, it's cat nip for camera toting Chinese tourists!
We got to the top of the mountain after about 4 hours of walking and I celebrated by busting out the flute again!
