Hiking

This was the sweatiest I've ever been in my entire. life. Not even conditioning at fencing practice could compare to this. Consequently, it was also the best shower of my entire life, even though the water was either really hot or really cold. Good water pressure, though. Feichang hao!
So I went to go hiking at 9am this morning. We went to a place called the fragrant hills. Should I Capitalize That? We went to a place called the Fragrant Hills. The combination of hiking up an extremely steep slope on very shallow steps with zero breaks since one guy pretty much sprinted up the entire mountain was what made it so unpleasant on the way up. The scenery was beautiful though, despite not being able to see that far due to the smog. Here's an overload of photos.

 This was the easier bit. I didn't take my camera out for the steep parts because I was pretty exhausted and just wanted to make it to the top.

 Finally made up! There was one family up there having a picnic. Cannot imagine lugging food for so many people up to the top of a mountain.

 On the way down now

This was the restaurant we had lunch at afterwards! It was FANTASTIC. Easily the best food I've had in China so far. I will definitely go back. I failed to take good pictures of all the food, but here are some...

 Fish made out of cheese.

 Lotus root with jelly at the top, I don't know on the left, something with vegetables, and pear soup at the bottom.

 I honestly can't remember everything there was. There was a LOT of food. Highlights were the tomato and egg stew thing, eggplant/green beans/garlic, goose, deep fried pear, and chicken.

They had these really cool lights! They were all shaped like little people doing different things. 

I forgot about this! Last night somebody brought in this instrument, called a qin I think, and my roommate showed me how to play it! She said it is like the piano of China, and basically everybody takes qin lessons when they are young. Wu Nan has been playing the qin for ten years!

Until next time!