My reflection of the Hei Shui Trip

On the 13th September 2015, the whole of Year 9 and year 10 went on a school trip to Hei Shui, Sichuan. On my first day I had to get up extremely early for the bus which was much earlier than the time I was used to, as I usually wake up at 6.30 AM but on that morning I had to wake up at 5.30 AM. After about 1 hour my bus had finally arrived at Leman and all the students boarded the travel company’s bus which was the ‘Extravagant Yak’, then departed at 8.30 AM and drove to Yingxiu Earthquake museum in Wenchuan.

In the museum, we saw various reconstructions of the earthquake incident that happened in 2008 at Yingxiu. It saddened me to see a school building that was leaning at an incredibly obtuse angle threatening to collapse on its side with all the windows and doors crushed to pieces as it made me think to how it would have been like for me if I were one of the students that were inside the building at the time of the earthquake.

When we finished touring the museum, we went out for lunch at a nearby place. It was a family homemade restaurant that served local food, meaning that some of the foods were very spicy which made quite a funny scene as some students were sobbing and fanning their mouths while chugging down bottles of water as soon as they swallowed their food. It was definitely a worthy sight to see.

After lunch, we continued driving to Taoping Qiang village, where we were going to stay for the night at a guesthouse. Throughout the entire bus ride, almost all of the students slept seeing as how all of us had to wake up extremely early and if I recalled correctly, Ms Sheill, one of our teachers, took a picture of us snoring in our seats.

At about 3.30 PM we reached the guesthouse, or so we thought. Apparently, we arrived at the newly constructed guesthouse of the village whereas we were supposed to stay at the old guesthouse of the village which was conveniently located at the top of the mountain (sarcasm implied). As soon as we stepped down from the bus, we were met with dozens of Tibetan ladies that were dressed in patterned robes with decorated hairpieces speaking in Chan dialect directing us up the mountain. Therefore, all of us had to pull our heavy luggage through the intricate turns and twists that unraveled through the mountain as we half-listened to the guide translating what the local village ladies were saying.

However, the sight we were met with was definitely not what we expected. The entire guesthouse was so old that some of the wood that held the structure was practically rotten, there were bundles of dried corn were strung at the sides of the doors and windows, a skeleton of a goat’s head was attached to the top of the entrance taunting us with its eyeball-less eyes sockets, huge slabs of meat hung from the ceiling, some still bloody and coats of yak fur spread across the floors and covered wooden stools. Every step we took on the wooden planks of the guesthouse made a loud creaking noise as the ancient wood groaned in protest to support our weight, each flight of stairs narrow and steep restricting our movements to baby steps. Our rooms were no better, on the low ceiling hung a small lattern that provided a dim light onto the two insect infested beds which lead us to spending 15 minutes hitting and dusting off our beds accompanied with a small tv that probably didn’t work. In short, I was partially terrified.

When we finally settled into our rooms, we took a 10 minute walk up to the very top of the mountain where we could see the entire village. Clear blue skies (yes, there were actually clear blue skies and we were still in China) and lush green mountains surrounded us with the scenic view of the village lying below us and boy, was it a pretty awesome sight. But the only thing that dampened my mood was the wind. The cold, biting wind that made my hair whip around as if it had a life of its own, something like what Medusa had but eventually stopped when I tightened the hood of my hoodie. Mr Brian, our main teacher started to talk about the geography of the village and how the earth was formed. I learned that we could find fossils of sea creatures on the top of mountains and that the quartz in watches will always show the correct time because it is in ‘sync’ with the universe.

Along with the tour of the mountain, we were also allowed to visit the complicated underground waterways of the village with a host who was passionate villager who displayed rapid hand gestures with every sentence he said. I was surprised to how big the entire waterway system was as we passed through intricate passageways throughout the entire tour until we wound up in a room with ancient props that were used by the great great grandparents’ of the host which was also indicated the end to our waterway tour.

The next day, we continued our bus journey to Hei Shui which was about 2 hours away. Most of us slept in the 2 hours, leading to us being jolted awake by the bumpy road which signified that we had reached Hei Shui since the entire city was under construction making the road bumpy. We had to stop at the bottom of the hill that lead up to the hotel because the path was too steep for the bus so all of us had to drag over heavy luggage along the steep hill which surprisingly made us all quite out of breath seeing as it was an extremely short path. After dumping our things into our hotel rooms we went to visit a nearby river which had long strings of different colored cloth that were strung across the river. It was an amazing sight. Then we visited a Tibetan monastery that was on top of a mountain. Therefore, we had to take vans up the mountain top where we encountered breathtaking views of the entire village surrounded by enormous mountains. But the view couldn’t compare with the brilliantly colorful monastery that was outlined with gold paired with the clear blue sky as a stunning backdrop.

The outside of the monastery was beautiful but the inside was jaw dropping. The entire inside of the monastery shined with gold and color.  Large golden plated statues stood at the end of one wall, each portraying a different meaning and purpose but all equally magnificent. We slowly went through the entire monastery with the guides explaining to us what each statue was and all the activities and rules that the monks carried out in their daily lives. After the tour we played Frisbee in the monastery’s grass field, most of us getting hit in some parts of our bodies from having never played Frisbee in our lives.

On our second last day, we went to visit a glacier that was 4064m above ground. We drove to the glacier station where a real dead yak greeted us with its stuffed beady eyes then we had to take buses to the cable car station which then took us in groups of 8 up the mountain to the glacier. When we arrived, first thing I felt was the lack of oxygen and the difficulty of breathing which lead some of us to temporarily collapse on to the floor needing oxygen sprays. Some of us slept at the sight because we were bored (including me) and some of us went to explore. After that all of us went into the rest stop to get some food and warm our bodies with hot chocolate that was provided by the tour guides, which were a tad too sweet for my taste but it was still good. Later in the afternoon, all of us went to the nearby park where all the villagers were gathered to dance with them. It was really hard at first for us to catch up but then e slowly got used to the movements as they were repetitive.

The next day, in the early morning we started our journey back home to Leman International school. It took us 7 hours to reach Leman. This was one of the most memorable experiences in my life, I discovered so many great new things like Yak meat and so many beautiful sceneries. I look forward to my next trip to Hei Shui.

 

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