Blog posting #6. Friday, Jan. 5th. This morning I hiked back to the summit, behind the group and joined the others. We walked into a weather station and climbed four stories that led to the roof. We crossed the roof and jumped over a railing onto to another “summit-like” boulder. I was less fearful of the drop-off this time. We could see that the peak of the fog was beginning to decline. Leping said that this was a great run. It was the fourth straight day of ideal conditions. He said before the trip to expect “no more than one day of fog every two weeks, and sometimes nothing will happen at all.” We had four perfect days in six, but I loved all six days. They were all productive shooting days. Some said that I am good luck.

This was our vantage point that morning.

So perhaps the color of my red parka is the lucky thing. Perhaps I am lucky. I don’t know, but these six days have been heaven.

After exposing our film, we went to a restaurant and had hot tea. Surrounding the eating area on the interior walls were 12 pictures of men from the Peoples Revolution. In English and Chinese were descriptions of these men and their highest position they attained in the government. It also described and their educational backgrounds. It might not mean anything, but about third of these men had backgrounds in art history or were painters. That seemed odd.

We continued down the mountain. My wife's brother Steve has taken a recent interest in Buddhism. He twice mentioned an interesting Buddhist story about the metaphor of “coming down from the mountain.” I thought of him, and remembered a quote: "A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top."

Since the weather was changing, and the fog was nearing the end, I knew that this might be my last journey down the mountain.

As we hiked down to Beihai, at 11:30 am we stopped at a giant rock outcropping on the edge of a high peak. This rock is believed to generate good luck. It’s said that if someone touches it once, you will be promoted. Touch it twice and you will fall in love. Touch it three times and you will conceive. It was fun watching when people stopped touching the rock. It seemed that only the women touched the rock three times. Some touched while others stroked.

We climbed up small stairs cut into the rock face, following hand rails around the back of the rock to another steep drop off. We had a view of the deep canyon below. This was the same canyon that we hiked down, and up, a few days earlier with the most terrible stairs. This time we were protected inside a railing. What a difference that railing made. We waited for the last of the fog to rise from the valley below. It was getting colder and strong winds were picking up. Our luck continued, as we shot until 4:30 pm.

Unfortunately, my camera froze up from the cold an hour before we left. My backup camera was back at the hotel room. I was glad that my camera problem happened on the last set-up of the trip. For five hours we were freezing, shivering and photographing. Leping lent me his camera and I was able to still make images. Later Mr. Yang said my face turned dark purple from the cold.

We hiked back down to the Xihai hotel for another great hot meal. We were so cold that the warm tea and hot food were needed to thaw. In a phone call I told Lily that I tried these things that looked like yellow slugs. But when chewed they were stiff. They were chicken feet. Not much meat!

Earlier a ten year-old girl shyly pointed her camera towards me. She clicked her camera and giggled. With a nudge from her parents, they photographed her next to me. Steve, who is from Beijing and is Leping’s friend, mentioned to me that I am the only “white” guy (European or American) on the mountain. I am quite a novelty. I have been getting more attention that I had ever expected. When someone looks at me I just smile! They always smile back. It’s been odd to be so noticed.