Dawn’s Early Light – October 12, 2005

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Today was a long day!

It started at 4:20 AM when we got our wake up call from the hotel. At precisely 4:50 the hotel bus leaves for the train station taking most of the guests up to a vantage point on Chushan where you can witness the spectacular sunrises.

I’ve mentioned this before, this seems to be a particular Chinese thing, but, I could hardly miss the opportunity. The particularly special thing about sunrises in this part is the potential for the clouds to already be settled in the valleys below, producing the desired effect of the sunrise coming over the mountains and clouds below you.

The photos I’ve seen of it are spectacular. Last time we had a perfectly clear day. A fine sunrise, but no “sea of clouds.”

This time our day didn’t get started off too well. We got the 4:20 wake up call, but we didn’t walk out of room until 4:51. When we got downstairs, the bus was long gone. Not quite willing to give up, we started walking for the train station, about a half kilometer away, up and down steep, unfamiliar roads, in the dark, lugging two sleepy kids.

Amazingly enough, we made it to the train in time, and from there it was a relatively easy task to get to the viewing point at Chushan.

Then things started to go wrong. I was getting the camcorder ready and the battery indicator was good, 99 minutes of battery power left and as I looked at it, it dropped to 0 minutes and started flashing the dead battery warning. I didn’t have a backup with me. Hoping it was a logic error in the battery, I let it run and it did manage to last past sunrise, but at that point, I wasn’t going for anything fancy and figured all the video was a write-off.

I switched to the digital camera, which had fresh batteries in it. I turned it on, and suddenly it died. I can only assume an alien spacecraft was in the area and sucking the power from my batteries. At least I had spare batteries for that camera.

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There was a slight layer of clouds filling the valleys as the sun came up, but I must say, the sunrise was a burst of fire coming directly over the peak on the mountains across the valley. They could not have positioned us in a more dramatic spot. Sadly my photographs cannot possibly do it justice. The crowd actually applauded the sun as it came up as if it were performing some clever trick for them.

At 6:50 the train goes back down the mountain and if you miss it, you have a 1.5 hour hike back to “town.” We weren’t about to miss it and didn’t.

Back in the hotel, breakfast (provided) was a western and chinese style buffet, whcih had plenty to eat. They even had “Chicken Nuts” (nuggets) but I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture of the sign.

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Rather than doing the sane thing and going back to sleep, we went for a walk instead, traveling around the same trail Irene and I hiked 7 years ago. It’s changed quite a bit, parts have been shifted and all the signs are different. Even the local legends have changed. The story of the 2 Sisters’ Ponds is now a completely different tale than it was when we were here before. That must have been one strong earthquake!

Hiking is grueling here, and the hills are insanely steep. They are nothing more than a series of stairs going either up or down. Irene, being saddled with James in the baby carrier was at a bigger disadvantage than me, dragging Michelle along. At least Michelle had bursts of energy, but James was always just extra weight on Irene.

The weather was great, and scenery fantastic so it made the burden easier, but we were glad to be back at the hotel for lunch.

Lunch was not included, so we got our choice from the menu. I chose something called “Chicken in Paprika” which turned out to be Kung Pao Chicken, but much, much better than any Kung Pao Chicken I’ve had before. It was really good, and a classic example of how food sometimes gets translated when taken to a different country. I’m going to have it again tomorrow for lunch, to be sure.

The restaurant, like most of the hotel, has picture windows all around to enjoy the view. While we ate lunch, the clouds slowly rolled in, enveloping us and the town in the characteristic afternoon blanket of white.

After lunch, Irene and James took a nap, and I hauled Michelle out for another hike. As you can imagine, hiking with a 3 year-old isn’t the most efficient means of transportation, but she was a real trooper. It helped that I offered to give her Oreos when we got back to the hotel.

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I took her down the “Giant Tree Trail” which I’d not been on. The guide said it was an elevated plank-walk the whole way. That means it was an elevated series of stairs leading down and down and down. We lost altitude at about 1 foot vertical for every 1 for horizontal. I was dreading the walk back, and almost gave up several times, but Michelle wouldn’t quit. We were walking among the old forest growth, trees 800 to 2,000 years old, standing up towards 50 meters high with trunks 6 to 8 meters across. She had to walk to every sign and read the age of the tree and wouldn’t quit till there were no more.

At the bottom, we reached the Sacred Tree of Alishan, which was one of the old growth trees. It had been killed by lightening many years ago, but kept standing with little potted plants in its branches to give the appearance of life by the locals. The earthquake put paid to that little charade and the tree is now completely dead, but still resting there for tourists to see.

Luckily, the walk back was much easier going a different path. Nonetheless Michelle was exhausted when we returned. Come to think of it, so was I.

I had business to prepare for, a teleconference at 10:00PM (I told you it was a long day) and had to go over several documents and make notes. By the time I was done, it was dinnertime.

This time dinner wasn’t so good, at least for me, a Tofu dish, a pork dish which had a sauce even Irene wasn’t too crazy about and pork that might have been covering for a football and a plate of cabbage, cooked. There’s always breakfast tomorrow.

The conference didn’t go right. The call blipped my phone once and then wasn’t there. I never got a second call and sat in the lobby area waiting till 10:30 and finally gave up.

4:20 AM to 10:30 PM, that’s a long day when you’re hiking around. I’m not getting up for the sunrise tomorrow!