Meagan's World: Fragrant Hills Park

I went to Fragrant Hills Park with my classmate Lucy and her boy friend Liam. Also, Liam's language partner, April, came along. We had heard that Fragrant Hills Park was one of the sights that you must see in Beijing in the Fall because of all the red leaves on the trees. Ha! There were about three trees that has red leaves, but plenty of people selling red leaves picked from trees at the entrance to the park.

I would like to say that I had a wonderful cultural experience that left me feeling in tune with and excited about China. That was not the case at all! It was an experience that left me feeling very frustrated and disheartened.

First, when we were walking up to the entrance of the park, we were involved in a horrendous mob situation. The road up to the entrance is old and narrow and lined with stalls selling fruits, candies, food, tourist knick knacks and other stuff. There were a ton of people heading to the park and two geniuses decided to drive their cars down the line in the opposite direction of the flow of traffic. WHY did they think they could or should do that? WHY? The cars would barely fit even without people there. Anyway, people started to bottle neck around the cars and then people started pushing and shoving, and rocking the cars from side to side. They wee handing babies and small children over the cars and some people were actually climbing over them. Other people were throwing trash at the cars. People were pushing eachother and yelling. It was horrible. I adopted the "limp noodle" method of getting through a crowd. I made myself relax and go with the flow...that was the only way to maintain sanity!

Inside the park was almost as crowded as outside. To climb the mountain, we had to inch along a tiny cement staircase with walls on either side. People were literally pressing me on all sides at all times. It took us five hours. When we got to the top, there was a nice view of Beijing, and even more people. We took a side trail to get down, which was longer and not paved and much more pleasant. I don't think it was a real trail. I wish I would have known about it for the way up! We did manage to see three trees with red leaves on our way down. Hallelujah! I would say that the park was not very scenic, even if there weren't alot of people there. It looked like Battle Mountain. (Battle Mountain is next to Grandma Hardy's old house in Rancho Bernardo. It is really just a hill with scrub brush on it.)

In the end, I had a good time despite the crowds because I had good company and the whole thing was just too ridiculous...I had to laugh. By the time we were down the hill, it was dark and we ate a huge Chinese meal. We ate ravenously because we were so hungry and it tasted really good!

I have come to the conclusion that what I like about China is NOT the sights or the tourist attractions. Those are not so pleasant, as I have repeatedly found out. The best part about China is the how nice the people are when you meet them one on one, and the things that happen in daily life. After the day of the hike, I was so frustrated with all the pushing and shoving and shouting and throwing trash all around. But then I went to get a foot massage at the place in my apartment complex and they are so nice there...They know me by my Chinese name and they ask me all sorts of questions about my life and the US. I get great practice speaking Chinese! They really try to understand what I am saying, and that is great. Chinese people are SO nice when you are with them one on one, but get a crowd together and it is a different story. They turn into pushing, shoving maniacs! (I guess maybe Americans would be that way too if we were on such close quarters...)