Blog posting #2. Sunday 31st:


Grey morning light, very hopeful that the fog will “rise” from the valley below. I am quite delighted with what I am seeing. I just wish that Huangshan wasn’t so far away.

This evening, Leping and I were invited to a “VIP” New Years eve diner in a special dining room that adjoins the main dining hall in the hotel. Six of us had another 30 courses brought to the table over a period of an hour. Each dish, big or small counts as a course. At the start of the meal the lights went out, and I was quite worried that I couldn’t see the dishes as they were brought to the table. I really need to first see the dish, then politely ask “ wow, what’s this?" Then I help myself to small quantity. If it’s good I will have some more. The lights returned and I was relieved to be able to see what I was on the table.

Platters for hot pot

Seeing the food can also work against you if you have the wrong attitude. For instance, the lung beans are surprising. They appear to be a brown pile of intertwined worms. Yet, they are delicious. Mandarin fish is prepared in way that was described by the locals as “stinky.” Yet it is sweet and tender (The best thing I had in China). But when you look at the fish braised in a dark sauce whole ––with head and tail intact, it can look unappealing.

If you have a negative mindset, it looks like a fish that you encounter in a state of decomposition, where the flesh is falling from the skeleton. My daughter Lily and I once found a tiger shark washed upon the shore at Coyote Point. This looked far worse. The Mandarin fish was delicious. A positive attitude is paramount. I spotted something that looks like an agate. It looked like a polished rock with white circular rings inside. I was told that it a sliced pig ear. Boiled then salted for weeks before consumption. Not so good.

In a nutshell, the food in this province is diet borne of poverty and necessity. And they do a great job of cooking things that affluent Americans would never consider eating. I have learned that I don't like chicken stomachs, pork fat stews, but do love noodles, breakfast dim sum and hot beef in dark sauce over white rice, bamboo shoots, Mandarin fish and lamb stew. Even with all this great food to eat, I am sure that with the hiking and climbing, I am burning more calories that I am consuming. The hikes are insane.


Monday 1st. New Years day. Slept poorly and got perhaps an hour of sleep between 4:30 and 5:30 am. A light drizzle started at 3:00 am. By 8:30 the fog began to rise. And what a show! I spent all day in a light drizzle watching the dense fog ebb and flow around the peaks. I climbed until my legs were so sore that I could barely make it back to the hotel for a hot shower. What a great feeling. I photographed five locations and used ten rolls of film. I am including some updated pictures of the mountain in fog, and some shots of the dining hall in the hotel.