50% Beautiful Day

Another Chinese Holiday = Another day for adventure!! 

This Chinese holiday was their "Independence Day", not really sure what type of dependency they were freed from, but they celebrate how the nation made the swap to Communism. What a great reason to celebrate! WOO HOO Communism! 

This holiday, Josh and I were invited to join on someone else's adventure. There was talk of visiting the countryside, hiking up a mountain and then ending with a visit to the beach!!! Sounded fabulous so we grabbed the camera, brought our suits, packed a lunch and hit the road... Fu Xing did not disappoint. 

 

The scenery was beautiful, we were out from underneath the smog covered sky, and the air was fresh (thats hard to come by here)! We hiked a trail that consisted of mud and moss which became the detriment to our reputation...I fell straight on my butt at least 6 or 7 times, not at all gracefully, and came out covered in mud and who knows what else. I was proud of Josh though, he, being normally the more unbalanced of the two of us, ( I mean short muscled babe, I know you were born with it) only fell twice. I'm going to blame it on the Chacos. Thanks to us, China now believes that Americans are big lugs that can't stay on their feet. haha

But like I said earlier...the scenery was beautiful!

We hiked for around an hour and ended up on the top of Da Mu Shin (I thought it was funny that when you say the mountain's name it sounds like da moose shin, and da means big so it sounds like its named big moose shin. hehe). So there we were on the top of the big moose shin and it was soooo windy! We are talking seriously windy...to the point where I had a genuine concern that some of the littler Chinese would be blown right off the mountain top. I was half jokingly and half seriously telling them to hold on tight, too bad none of them understood me...well at least I could say that I tried.

A few ladies hiked in wedges or heels...what the heck?

We walked around the top for about an hour and I couldn't help but feel a little like I was Julie Andrews, and I absolutely couldn't help belting out the Chorus of "The Hills are Alive." Don't worry, I know all of the other hikers enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure any dog within earshot loved it so much they had to join in. It was great fun.

How gorgeous is that?!?! Oh and the view is pretty good too. :)

At the top we also enjoyed more beautiful scenery, a picnic lunch, games, and occasionaly the aroma of massive cow poop collection piles. Apparently, the locals collect the poop, put it on the mountain top (can't blame them for wanting it far away) and eventually use it as fertilizer...Josh and I figured it would only be polite to help out with the cause. 

 

However, I couldn't help but feel that once again we only damaged America's Image...we got some pretty strange looks. 

 Once we finished lunch and spent some quality time spreading the "Good News" with some of our new friends, we headed back down the mountain and were off to the beach. Big moose shin was a success and now we were on to hit the waves, I was excited!!! Unfortunately, the beach was not as satisfying...

That beach was CROWDED, and when I say crowded I mean CHINA CROWDED! Not only was it crowded but every male on the beach young and old wore shorty shorts (spandex shorty shorts) which was not pleasant. There was also trash covering the sand and even some was washing up in the water. Like when Josh and I were walking along and a dirty diaper washed up right in front of us...gross. 

Josh and I in front of the Chinese Lighthouse. It was strange looking.

 

MMM...dirty diaper wash up.

It didn't take us long to decide that that it was a good thing we got our Hepatitis shots before we came, and that there was no way we were voluntarily getting in the water. Well, at least Big Moose Shin was beautiful... not a bad day!