Back to School

I'm back home in Jilin after a week(ish) of vacation. We headed over to Yanji, capital of Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, on the border of North Korea. The town itself was not as exciting as we had hoped but the food was great with a lot of great cheap grill-it-yourself restaurants. We took a day trip from there to the small border town of Tumen. From there we could look across a river to an eerie, dilapidated north Korean town which was pretty much darkness at nightfall. All of it was in rather conspicuous contrast to the endless construction and the more than plentiful lighting behind us in China. Borders can be really interesting.

Anyway, the main goal of the vacation was to see ChangBai Shan. Literally "long (as in "constantly") white mountain" The top of the mountain (Shared by China and North Korea) holds heaven lake, which is the largest crater lake in the world. Many who climb the mountain don't get to see the lake due to fog, and I initially thought we'd be in that boat. However, after about a half hour on the crowded mountain (everything beautiful is put up for mass tourism in China) we started to make out the closest edge of the lake. The crowd started screaming with excitement and we were suddenly afforded a good ten minute long view of the lake. The fog lifted for a second time as we made our way around to the different viewing spots after a short snowball fight we headed back down to see the rest of the ridiculously crowded attractions on the mountain range which included some views of the sweet waterfalls, a hot spring with eggs being boiled in it. There was also a little mountainside pond whose informational sign had a comical mix of highly academic words and broken grammar giving us the greatest fun in its deciphering.

After the mountain, we hung out in the nearby town of Erdao/Baihe (two towns in one, basically) for another day, walking the local sculpture park and playing cards in a tea bar. We all became rather addicted to "Red tens" a Chinese card game whose sheer number of rules makes it feel like a few games in one. We played the whole train-ride home as well.

Budget traveling in China can be an adventure at times. Last time I really traveled by ground here it was in the middle of the low season. Travelling during a national holiday however, means you join quite a large portion of China's population in doing so. Headed out we had standing room tickets on the train which emptied enough that we were able to sit after just a little while. Headed back to school (and therefore toward the largest city in the province) the train got more packed as we went. Our card-games drew a great deal of spectating, as did another Maryknoller's ramen prep, as did just about everything we did.