Chishui Danzia National Park (7-15)

On the weekend between the two weeks of teachers’ training in Luzhou, the school sent us on a trip to Chishui Danxia National Geological Park in Guizhou province. The plan had been for the five of us and one teacher to go with a guide in a van. However, Saturday morning a larger bus, the most comfortable bus I've been on, showed up. So they called the assistant teachers to join us. Winnie, my assistant, said she was called at 7:55. The original departure time was 8:00. It was nice that they could be included. Two brought their sons, and one brought her husband and daughter.

It took a little over three hours to reach our first destination. The road went through beautiful farm country. Crops in the area are corn and rice. I enjoyed looking out the window and taking photos. 

I wondered why the tops of the corn plants were still there, as the tassels are removed in the U.S. I learned later that the fruit there is what is used to make the local liquor.

Our first stop was lunch. Then we entered the park, which is known for its waterfalls and the Danxie land formations.  We walked through the bamboo forest where there are also many tree ferns, which our guide told us have existed since the dinosaur times. 

We walked along the beautiful path, passing several waterfalls, for two hours to get to our destination—

a waterfall in front of a small cave. We could walk through the cave behind the waterfall, which was remarkable. Then we took the park shuttle back.

After returning to the entrance, we went to another section of the park where we walked to the Danxie land formations. This was a shorter walk and took only forty minutes.  But it was uphill and had a lot of stairs. 

The teachers’ husband who was with us became my assistant. He carried my bag, as well as his wife’s, and held my arm to help me move up the stairs faster. I was surprised what a difference his support made. 

The formations are red rocks, which the sign called the "Danxia Wonders." I wondered if they were cliff dwellings, as there were some of what looked like ruins.

After viewing the rocks, one can pay to take a slide down, but we opted to walk.

After dinner, I started to go for a walk, and, of course, Winnie joined me. The other Volunteers wanted to swim in the river but were told it was not safe. When they went down to river, some of the Chinese teachers joined them and stayed as long as they did even though they didn’t seem to want to be there. We were not to be left alone. Winnie and I had an enjoyable walk looking at items in the shops, especially some beautiful paper umbrellas. Winnie bought me—and herself—a small fan.

When we returned, the hotel’s show had begun. The guide had said it was an extra expense that we would have to pay for ourselves. Since it was 120 yuan ($20), no one planned to do that. Winnie said the usual price would be about 100 yuan. But, when we walked past, there were people standing in back of the benches; so we joined them. After a while, someone gave us two stools. And later some of the people on the benches next to us left and the women still sitting there told us to sit with them. So we did. Thus we saw the show without paying.  The show featured the area’s Miao minority people. (I remember seeing them when I was in China 25 years ago.) There were several dances, but between the dances, they did audience participation. They picked people from the audience to go up and sing. I was glad I hadn’t paid for that. But I did enjoy the dances.

Sunday morning we went to another section of the park to go to the famous large waterfall. On the way we encountered a rock slide that made the road impassable for buses. After waiting for half an hour, we were told that we could walk. 

Because we were walking, we were able to enjoy the scenery and several small waterfalls. Winnie and I walked for 45 minutes. We were behind the others because she walks very slowly. Then the bus came by, and we rode to the park, which took five minutes. Because many buses were stopped, many people were walking, and it was very crowded at the entrance. We took the shuttle to the starting point to walk to the waterfall.

The walk there took us 45 minutes, since Winnie is very slow. 

Shizhangdong is famous for being one of the biggest and best waterfalls in China. 

By the time we got there, people from our group were leaving. So, because of that and because Winnie didn’t want to stay longer than a few minutes, we did not get to go to the back of the waterfall. Since we had gone downhill on the way to the waterfall, we had to go back up. We met some others from our group who were returning from closer to the waterfall. Among them was my assistant. I really appreciated his “lifting” me up the stairs. At the top, he bought me an ice cream bar while we waited for the shuttle.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and headed back to Luzhou. Again, I enjoyed the lovely farm country.

Winnie was my roommate and buddy. It reminded me of when I went on the trip with teachers in Thailand and Khun Toy was my buddy. Other than when we sat on the bus, we were together all the time. This was my first experience spending so much time with a Chinese person. She walks very, very slowly. The other volunteers said that all Chinese walk slowly, but Winnie was way behind the rest. The second day I had stopped for a photo and, when I was leaving, I saw her approaching alone. Everyone else was ahead; so I waited and walked with her. I was surprised that the other teachers had left her behind because that would not have happened in Thailand. I wondered if they thought she and I were together, and, therefore, it was OK to leave her behind or if that’s typical culturally here. She said many times that we were slow because I take a lot of photos. That is true, but I’m fast. We were slow because she walks slowly and because I had to take many photos of her in many places. Sometimes I wasn’t sure which of us was taking care of the other. It was annoying when she poked me in the arm when she wanted to talk, which was sometimes often. This was not a gentle pat to get my attention; it was a hard poke. It was also a little annoying when she said every time we went out that the country air is fresh and good for our health. But I understand that her English is limited and she was trying to make small talk. She’s a nice person and I like her. It was good to have someone to hang out with.

The two 15-year-old sons of teachers introduced themselves and chatted very briefly. One took photos of me for me. He told me he thinks people my age are charming; we have a lot of knowledge and experience. Hard not to like him.

The area is known for mushrooms and many places were selling dried mushrooms.

It was a good weekend outing, and it was really nice of the school to provide it for us. I enjoyed the opportunity to see the countryside and to walk in the forest and to hang out with Winnie. This was my first travels in the countryside; so I especially enjoyed seeing more of the countryside.