Changbaishan in Autumn － 长白山在秋天

On Monday 11 October we got up as usual and went for the morning run. There was no morning training instead we were told to get ready for our annual test day. Dan and I had decided we wouldn't sparr and avoid the risk of injuring each other and spoiling our trip and besides that we really didn't feel like it. The remainder of students had very low morale, probably due to the weather so we only had to watch four performances. The weather had gotten worse, not only was it about 8 degrees but it was also pouring down with rain.

After lunch I called a cab and we ended up getting to Siping at about 2pm, our train was scheduled at 4pm so we had some time which we used to buy snacks for our 14 hour long train ride. We got to the train station at about 3pm and because we had purchased soft sleeper tickets we were lead to the "VIP" lounge. The lounge isn't quite like a business class lounge but the leather sofas and absence of bare chested farmers spitting on the floor and starring was much appreciated. Due to the weather our train was delayed by 40 minutes. At 5pm we had boarded the train and settled into our comfy cabin, the soft sleeper cabin has four equal size beds (2bunks), a luggage storage compartment, power sockets and a door that can be locked, what more could one ask for.

In the waiting room                                                          In the cabin

The toilet "hold tight"                                         In the cabin making some noodles

At about 7pm we first had some fruit which was followed by some noodles. For dessert we had orion choco pies and chocolate milk tea. After watching Holly Rollers which is actually quite a good new release we had some more noodles. At about 9pm we fell asleep, it was pretty cold but despite that I slept well. We arrived in Baihe at 6am and it was really overcast and cold, about 3 degrees. On our short walk to the hostel we bought some snacks for the mountain. We dropped our things off in our room and had organised a Taxi to the North peak. After yet another noodle meal (at least there are  like 30 different flavours to choose from) we left the hostel at about 7:30am, the 30km road to the base of the mountain was surrounded by dense forests in beautiful red, orange and yellow autumn colours. However the slight drizzle, freezing wind and overcast skies didn't look promising especially because we were only at an elevation of about 300 meters and would be climbing at least another 2000 meters once we were in the reserve.

Baihe Trainstation                                                   In the taxi to the northern peak

Changbaishan (长白山）

 

We arrived at the North peak entrance at about 8am and the Taxi driver told us that he would be back at 4pm, this would give us about 8 hours to look at everything. We bought our tickets and managed to get student rates without any effort or negotiation. We paid 50RMB (instead of RMB100) for the entrance, 68RMB for unlimited bus rides for the day and 5RMB for insurance coverage. Dan and I were beginning to doubt our clothing because most chinese tourists had rented arctic jackets and winter boots. I had checked the weather report and it did say clear and sunny conditions by 10am so we knew we could postpone going to the peak if it looked too cold. The bus set of into the 210000 hectares of dense forest and after only 5 minutes the temperature had increased from 7 to 12 degrees, another 5 minutes later we had arrived at the 4x4 departure terminal and it was as if we had just teleported, it was 15 degrees and the skies were perfectly clear and blue, the staggering snow covered peaks could be seen in the distance. We bought tickets for 80RMB to get to the peak in a 4x4. The ride to the peak was really fast, the driver was pushing the car to the limit, squeaking tires could be heard through the S bends all the way up to the peak.

ride up to the summit

When we arrived at the peak it was truly breathtaking, an awe-inspiring feeling when you don’t know what to say or do. We were above the clouds and had left all the bad weather below, sure it was still cold and windy however the sun rays were very warm pleasant and we felt like on top of the world. After taking some pictures we walked up the slippery walk way to the lookout point. Many squeals and whines generated by other tourists could be heard, Dan and and I just stood there with huge grins on our faces. The Chinese call it Tianchi (天池) or translated Heaven lake and there is no other way of describing it. Heaven lake is a 13km wide glacier lake within and inactive volcano at 2700 meters above sea level. The average water depth is over 200 meters with the maximum depth at 380 meters. The lake borders with North Korea and there have always been battles of possession between the two nations, the North Korean can be quite clearly seen and some tourists have even be detained by Korean military for straying too far off the paths.

Above the clouds

 

Changbaishan Heaven Lake (长白山天池）

                                                        Chinese tourist wanted a photo

                                                         Korean man painting heaven lake

                                                                  Fake Mercedes Benz vans

Dan and I spent about 1:30 hours up there appreciating the beauty and silence, many other tourists just took a few photos and went back down, I found last time I did the same and this time I wanted to appreciate the beauty a bit more. Another great advantage was the fact that there were basically no tourists around because of the season.

After a high speed drive down we took the bus to the Waterfall and hot springs. The hotsprings are quite a interesting sight, hot water from 60 to 89 degrees celcius heated only by the energy of our earths core. There was even a stall selling boiled eggs and corn cobs which were boiled in the springs. We bought a corn cob for 5RMB and took a short break, after our pit stop we headed to the waterfall. Unfortuanly due to rockfall we couldn’t get too close to the waterfall and because of the time of day the sun made it quite difficult to see so we went back to the springs, the discolourations on the rocks were extremely interesting, natural colours from years of boiling minerals.

Eggs and corn being boiled in hot springs

Warm water from the hot springs                                        68 meter waterfall

Next week took the bus to the small tianchi/heaven lake (小天池) or also referred to as the silver lake. I never saw this the last time and was very staggered by the clarity of the water, it was looking into a mirror and all reflections brought back had a silver glow to them. We spent another hour here just starring at the water and listening to the stream flowing into the 200 meter wide lake.

Log bench outside the small heaven lake/silver lake

 

 

Next we went to look at the “Deep green pool” judging by the name I was expecting a horrible dark green sludge pool that looked similar to the rocks around the hot springs. However I was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of a dark green sludge pool there were two waterfalls and a crystal clear blue/green lake with fish swimming around.

It was already 2:30pm so we took a bus to the underground Dell forest and underground waterfall, which too was astounding however we couldn’t spend too much time looking at it. We got back on the bus and got back to the entrance at 4:01pm, just in time for our taxi.

When we got back to the hostel we had dinner, no not noodles but instead we had fried beef Korean style with rice. It was really delicious and while we discussed going to the western peak however we decided that wouldn’t go because it would involve over 4 hours of driving and a lot of walking, we were more than satisfied with out experience and decided to leave it at that. We went to the local shop to have a look at what we could buy and I was pretty excited that I found a chocolate that looked like Ritter Sport and if you've ever been to Europe you will know that Ritter Sport is amazing chocolate. Needless to say the only thing that the manufacturers copied was the packaging they obviously never tried the Ritter Sport chocolate because their creation simply tasted terrible, worse than even the worst baking chocolate. 

Here you can see what I am talking about, 10 points for packaging but 0 points for taste

The slogan is good too: "lets take Yong Feng as our friend for ever!"

All I can say to that is: with friends like Yong Feng who needs enemies...  

But despite the terrible chocolate we had some really amazing Changbaishan treats, because its the place of life blueberry, ginseng, cherries etc grow everywhere. So we bought fresh blueberry juice with blueberries in it, dried blueberries and some blueberry jam only pity is that there isnt any real bread in this part of China but thats fine I guess.

After a painful nights sleep, the beds were harder than my bed back at the academy and all I sleep on is a piece of wood. We got up at about 10am the following day and after breakfast we decided that we would already go back to the academy the following day, we ended up buying tickets for the 13^th at 00:44am. After buying tickets we headed into town and discovered a nice lake and just sat there enjoying the tranquility. 

 

very "safe" construction

At about 5pm we got back to the hostel and had some more Korean friend beef with rice and some delicious homemade noodles with spinach. At 12am we left the hostel and shortly after arriving at the train station we boarded our train. We went straight to bed and it was freezing, I was sleeping with thermals, long pants, a sweater, a jacket and a blanket and all this just to keep warm but my face still felt frozen.

At about 2pm the following day we arrived in Siping, we did some shopping at the supermarket and then decided to go to the Jinlihao. We both hadn’t showered in four days because the hostel had horrible showers. The Jinlihao was like paradise we showered, got a sauna and then spent about an hour in the hot bath. Afterwards we went upstairs to the recliners after setteling in we had some snacks and then at about 8pm we went back down for another sauna and hot bath, when we got back upstairs we both got a message, after wards we just fell asleep. The next morning we got another shower and sauna before heading back to the academy. The Jinlihao is the one luxury all students at the academy can look forward too once in a while and I will make a dedicated entry for it sometime so you can get a visual idea of what it’s like.

The trip to Changbaishan was my second one and all I can say is that it is a truly unique and special place on this planet, a place of life where everything grows and lives in peace. If you are ever in Northeastern China during June and October you should definitely consider visiting Changbaishan.

On our way back to the academy we had quite an interesting experience with the taxi ride back to the academy. Dan and I were sitting in the back seat with our bags and the because the boot/trunk was full of junk. When we got to Yehezhen a women wanted a lift so the cab driver let her get in, she shared his seat and he was eating while driving at about 60km/h through the village, enjoy the video. Also I have added a new feature to the blog so you can rate each post and also share the posts if you want.