The remarkable Hukou Falls is six hours northeast of Xi’an by bus!

The second largest waterfall in China, it is also said to be the largest yellow waterfall in the world. The translation of its name is “Tea kettle falls”, an apt name for the swirling, frothing silt laden tempest.

In this area, the broad Huanghe (Yellow River) is flowing toward the south and acts as the border between China’s Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. The river has a light brown, “muddy” appearance from the silt that travels with the water. This color is what is the “yellow” in the name of the river.

At Hukou Falls, the river’s path is suddenly constricted as it is forced through a narrow opening between mountains on on both east and west sides. The abrupt narrowing, combined with a drop in elevation is what created Hukou Falls.

It is a sight to behold!

As I approached the falls, an ever increasing spray filled the air. I put on a rain coat, and covered all but the protruding lens end of my camera with plastic. The ground became increasingly slick and muddy. The mist an increasing hazard. I put my camera away, and continued, using the more water resistant camera of my phone.

Afterwards, another six hour bus ride to return to Xi’an.

Luoyang had been China’s capital during many dynasties. At times it acted as a dual capital with Xi’an as the western capital and Luoyang the eastern. Sadly, over many, many centuries, most of the grand, historic buildings of the capital were destroyed.

I had chosen my hotel because of its favorable location, and it’s view. It was a short walk from a historic older part of town. From a small rooftop terrace is a view of two reconstructed Tang Dynasty structures: Ming Tang Palace, and Tian Tang Pagoda.

In the evening it took little time to reach a bustling night market area with lots of food vendors, as well as stalks selling knickknacks. There were even tables where vendors would sit creating packs of cigarettes using compact rolling machines.

I had previously been to Luoyang in 2016, without knowing anything about the city. Blindly accompanying three other teachers from a program in Xi’an, we skipped the Luoyang itself, and visited the Shaolin temple and Longmen grottoes.
Having already seen them, I had no desire to re-visit either of those spots. But I did want to go up Songshan (Song Mountain) and visit White Horse Temple. I was mislead into thinking a package tour offered through my hotel would include both of those- on a tour that also involved seeing Shaolin Temple (again!)

Well, it turned out that Songshan was NOT on this excursion’s itinerary. This meant lots of wasted travel time and visit time for the Shaolin Temple. Actually, the tour company was pretty worthless in most respects. To effect the itinerary they shuffled subsets of confused tourists from one bus to another, rather than keeping them on a single bus.

Although the tour company was weak at best, my fellow tourists we’re generally friendly: whether they spoke English or not!
(hey! old men bond easily no matter what language challenges exist!)

I have already posted photos of the Shaolin Temple in “Pere’s Ramblings” for 2016, so I’ll skip that here, and move on to the White Horse Temple.

This temple is close to 2,000 years old and is said to be the oldest Buddhist temple in China.

The following day (on my own), I visited “Guanlinsi” (Guanlin Temple), famous for being the burial site of Guan Yu, a heroic figure during the “Three Kingdoms” period of Chinese history. (He is mentioned in my page on Sanmenxia)

I said that Guan Yu was buried here, but actually it was only his head which was attached to a wooden body. The details of these circumstances are a bit complex. Read the book! 🙂

I previously mentioned the Ming Tang Palace and Tian Tang Pagoda- shown below.

Although these are quite attractive, and said to be built over the foundations of the original structures, these are quite modern buildings. Theses have structural steel cores and I believe they were constructed within the last ten years.

My next stop was Tunxi. Technically, this refers to the Tunxi District of the city of Huangshan. But perhaps more to the point is it’s old name: “Huizhou”.

Anyone who has carefully followed my “Learning Chinese Provinces” video series on YouTube might recognize the name Huizhou.
Combined parts of two cities’ names, Anqing and Huizhou provide the name of their province: Anhui.

The prime tourism / shopping destination is a pedestrian thoroughfare named “Old Street”. My hotel was located there.

Taxis and other cars cannot get too close to the location of the hotel. After rolling my bags close to where I knew it was located, and began to query shopkeepers. Most drew a blank. But then a guy I asked pointed and gestured. Although one side of the hotel overlooks “Old Street”, its entrance is located on a tiny alley, barely four feet wide.

The hotel is a gem. (Thanks for the recommendation Marlene!)
The manager reported that the building had belonged to her family for several generations. My room was equipped with two traditional Chinese “kang” beds: a sort of raised platform with a canopy.

I felt a bit guilty to have such a large room, but from the online booking sites it seemed to be the way to get a balcony looking over Old Street.

I browsed the shops a bit. Their wares were very nice and also very expensive.

Marlene had mentioned a factory that made ornate “ink sticks” of a variety used in traditional calligraphy. So, of course I had to check it out!

In addition to the process of incorporating the material that, when rubbed into a little bit of water, would become ink, these sticks were beautiful. Cast in molds that created artistic images on the surface, those images were then hand-colored at the factory.

Back on Old Street, I window shopped a bit more, resisting the lure of various fine items that I could not afford.

At a store filled with calligraphy tools and supplies, I started an idle conversation with a young fellow who worked there. His command of English was great. The conversation progressively became more involved. We discussed Chinese geography and history. Soon our talk delved into the evolution of the written Chinese language and some subtle nuances of the transition from “traditional” characters to the “simplified” characters used by most Chinese today.

He was extremely knowledgeable and quickly two hours passed. Eventually he needed to help attend customers. But we agreed to meet up and continue the conversation over a bit of food after his shop closed.

Both the food and the conversation were excellent! The man’s “English name” is Jim. But when I talk to m wife, I appreciatively refer to him as “the young scholar”.

Like Honcun, the small town of Xidi is a UNESCO “World Heritage Site”.

It’s Ming and Qing dynasty buildings display the attractive “Hui-style” architecture. In this case, “Hui” refers to the Anhui city Huizhou, not the Hui minority group.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) is a world famous series of peaks in southern Anhui province.

Friday, I traveled to the mountain and ascended via a cable car. I spent most of the day exploring various rugged trails, and absorbing the beauty of the rock formations.

My good friend Marlene had visited Huangshan in June. Unfortunately she had the bad fortune to suffer almost constant rain while she was there. (But, she is an excellent photographer and nevertheless got some great photos!)

My experience was different, and Friday was virtually cloudless.

I stayed in a hotel on the mountain Friday night. Along with a hundred others I woke early Saturday morning and stumbled in the dark up a steep series of steps toward the top of Lion Peak. We all waited in the cold for sunrise.

As the sky lightened, a sea of clouds washed up the mountain. It was spectacular!

After what seemed like an hour of beauty, the excitement subsided as the rising clouds settled in over the mountain.
I headed back to the hotel for a quick breakfast, and then checked out.

The thick mist of the enveloping cloud made visibility poor. I had a decision to make: head to the nearest cable car and go down the mountain? Or try to make sense of the mostly useless maps of the mountain trails, and take a much longer route to try to glimpse the famous “Greeting Pine” that provides a visual welcome to visitors.

I selected the latter option- undoubtedly the wrong choice given my advanced age and ruined ankles (in my defense- I did survive… Barely!)

The correct path was often uncertain, and the poor visibility did not help. It was brutal! Extended climbs that had me panting and my heart pounding, descents that had my knees screaming in pain- then, repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

After a couple of hours, a strong, bitter cold wind began to blow. At times it challenged my balance. Other times it tried to send my hat flying. I cinched the chin cord of the hat tighter!

The wind began to create occasional breaks in the clouds, exposing rugged peaks. Eventually the enveloping cloud was gone! But the dramatic and challenging up and down of the mountain path remained.

Maps were bad, and trail signs gave dubious and sometimes contradictory guidance.

Yet somehow I finally made it to the Greeting Pine. There I jockeyed with hundreds of other who also wanted photos.

That done, I fought my way along trails packed with new arrivals to reach the cable car station and head down!

I will be staying overnight in Hongcun before heading up Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) tomorrow!

Besides being a World Heritage site, some very recognizable spots in Honcun were shown in the movie “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.”

In fact, the exterior of my hotel here can be seen about 2/3 the way into the movie.

The town is really cute, although many of it’s alleys are now filled with gift shops, and Hocun is filled (at least during the day) with hordes of tourists (I guess I am one of them!)

Yet it’s beauty is such that when I walked around South Lake, I encountered easily 100 young art students with easels painting scenes of the lake, the arched bridge, and/or aquatic plants with huge leaves that grow near one shore.

An online “Tourist Map” showed a mere handful of streets/alleys.

Well, I have only been here a few hours and have gotten lost a bunch of times!

A more complete map was posted in town.

Just a few quick snapshots for now:

Most Americans know nothing of China. Living in a fog of misconceptions they imagine an Asian “Gulag” peopled by mindless robots, living in poverty. They see images of North Korea, and visualize China as it’s twin.

I was quite surprised by the reality of China, from my first visit in 2015. Surprised by its people, and surprised by its prosperity. There are some aspects of China that are far more modern than America.

Although in some ways China is at a stage of industrialization characterized by “growth at any cost”, there is a clear sense of concern about pollution.

This is not the place to go into great detail about life in China. But since it is night time here I want to mention the garish light displays that awaken after the sun goes down. Modern high-rise building become colorful canvases for messaging or just artistic light shows. Businesses lure customers with bright lights.

All of this comes at a cost. Light-pollution is itself a disruption to the tranquility of the night. And all those lights require electricity. Generating electricity almost always involved pollution of one sort or another.

Some subway systems here project bright messaging or advertisements on the walls of the underground tunnels so they can be seen by passengers.

Jinan is the “Spring City”- Here “spring” is not the name of a season… but rather rather the meaning of “spring” referring to water coming up from the ground. (This recognizes Jinan as a town with an abundance of water that springs up from beneath the ground.)

My hotel is a short walk from a number of popular springs, which tend to be wrapped in extended gardens and park areas.

I visited the “Five Dragon Pond” site, and “Baotu Spring”.

Enclosing the old part of Jinan is a somewhat rectangular, spring-fed canal. One tourist brochure uses the word “moat” to describe it.

Next, I visited a neighborhood that includes a large Confucian temple complex and a series of old residential alleys that have been mostly converted to shops. To get there, I rode in a tiny three wheeled contraption (In America we call these “tuk-tuks”, using their Thai name). This bone-jarring ride involved careening from street to street in a vehicle that seemed to ignore all traffic flow rules.