How to narrow your vision and expand your worldview

I believe that OutdoorUkraine's services are well worth the cost. Well, judge for yourself, firstly, this is just a mega-intensive program, and secondly, you are literally “led by the hand”, not in the sense that they drag you wherever you don’t want, but in the sense that you don’t worry about anything, where to go, what transport to order, where to stay, etc. In order to remember all the geographical names that I mentioned, I had to rewrite our route, otherwise I would have forgotten. The main thing is not the name of the place, but the feeling from it. Here. Come to China!!!

-Well, what do you say, Stas? They say you went to China? How is it there? Tell me... What new did you learn, who did you meet, what did you discover?

-Oh, I think, my friend, you are asking too many questions at once. One answer cannot contain all of China. Now I’m not even talking about a billion-dollar population and a vast territory. China is first and foremost a feeling. This is a mysterious and completely unknowable Asian country, filled with mountains, rivers, unusual people and the wisdom of centuries.

-Are you really so sure that China is unknowable? Maybe it is still possible to understand China? I agree that people live there different from us, but they still have the same two arms and two legs. Their eyes may be narrowed, but I am sure that their aspirations are in many ways similar to ours.

-You may be right, but since ancient times people from all over the world have been coming here in the hope of finding themselves, learning their way, or simply limiting themselves to tourism, enjoying extraterrestrial landscapes and the delights of local cuisine. China is different for everyone.

-And yet, what is China exactly for you?

-Well, it seems to me that I was looking for the answer to this question during my entire stay in China.

-Okay, let's simplify the situation a little. Tell us in order, how you prepared for the trip, how it was carried out, what did you visit?

- To be honest, the preparation for the trip was not original for me. The experience of the previous Nepalese trek, as well as the content of the Outdorukraine website, kindly provided me with all the required information. Simple equipment, a backpack, things, documents, money, that’s basically all.

-But not everyone had a chance to go to Nepal. What should you pay attention to first?

-Like what? Of course, for yourself, your mood and the purpose of the trip. You are not going to just go from point A to point B. Think about what super goals you set for yourself, what you expect from the trip. As for everyday issues, be sure to pay attention to your relationship with the bank. By the way, this is exactly what was a small dropper of tar in the general honey drink, which I intensively absorbed throughout the two weeks of the trip. Before leaving, be sure to check with the bank whether its cards will work in China (it is better to give preference to Platinum and Gold cards; I do not recommend Maestro). The situation is similar with communications. As it turned out, for example, in China you can communicate using a megaphone only if extended roaming is activated (to turn it on, you need to come to the megaphone office with your passport). In general, everything can be solved, the main thing is to hurry up in time. The visa issue, which I was more worried about, turned out to be easily resolved: 2,500 rubles, a week of waiting, that’s all (just keep in mind that if you are going to Hong Kong, there is a visa-free regime, but when entering the rest of China you still need a visa, in general, this is for travel agencies and the embassy website). An important point is also an offline translator (easy to find in Android or Apple), preferably with a hieroglyph recognizer from a photo (costs about 50 rubles, but will help immensely). Again, in China there are problems with paying through the Android market, so download paid applications at home.

- Great, that's something already. Let's start with the flight from Moscow then.

- In general, I got ready to go to the airport almost fully armed. Unlike my previous trip with Outdoor to Nepal, I flew from Moscow not alone, but with part of the tourist group, as well as a bear, a hare and a leopard.

We flew through Kyiv, where everyone else joined, incl. and Kirill himself. The route, of course, is ridiculous - first move away from Beijing, fly to Kyiv, and then make a detour, but it’s more fun together))) But the flight time to Kyiv is like 3 hours, and then another 9-10 hours to Beijing. It's worth stocking up on tablets with movies, audiobooks, ideas for reflection and the like. Spoiled by Aeroflot, I expected that Aerosvit would have screens on the backs of the seats to watch movies. There really were screens, but they didn’t work. Positive communication, optimism in life and duty-free saved me. The Chinese seatmate taught us various obscene Chinese gestures, which turned out to be just numbers, which the Chinese show in a completely different way, for example like this (see picture below). True, I find it difficult to answer what it was. Like eight or nine. For the seven, it was necessary to bend the index finger in a completely unusual way, although there they also depend on the region. In general, if we talk about the language in general, then in the regions the pronunciation can differ so much that they even invite translators to broadcast from Chinese to Chinese.

When landing in Beijing, the plane began to shake quite a bit, but now, after five more flights in two weeks (or maybe 6), it seems that this shaking did not occur (this is compared to our landing in the mountains). The route itself interested me, but not particularly much. They said there would be cities, mountains, interesting places, but what else do you need? Memorizing the Chinese names xin tun tun xian (and naturally, they sound completely different from how they can be written in transliteration) may be interesting to some, but it is not absolutely necessary. Although, nevertheless, I recorded the key places, but only after the end of the trip. I also knew that from Beijing we would move south.

-So it all started in Beijing?

-In general, yes, we are flying to Beijing. From the porthole you can see a night city full of bright lights. A large airport, everyday issues related to ATMs and currency exchange immediately arise in your head. In order not to poison the further story too much, I will say that you can change currency only at the Bank of China (the process takes about 40 minutes!!!), and it is better to withdraw money from ATMs of the same name. Local money is yuan, one yuan is 5 rubles, it’s easy to count. And it’s even easier for Ukrainians, because it’s about one hryvnia.

-Everyday questions, as you said, are of course great. But before that, you yourself spoke about a super goal. What was your ultimate goal?

-It's hard to say. I think it's the feeling. I wanted to turn everything upside down, look at life from a different angle, understand, appreciate. I was expecting new ideas for life and creativity.

-Where did you stay in Beijing?

-You know, it’s just a question that “brings me down to earth.” Before this, you asked about ideas and creativity, but here again the practical aspect. We headed to the Beijing hostel and took a taxi (the metro was closed). By the way, all taxis in China are strictly state-owned, which means that the prices according to the meter will not differ, although some hucksters like to overcharge or refuse to go according to the meter if the journey is not long. Although I almost immediately noticed that it is much easier to bargain with the Chinese than, say, with the Turks or Azerbaijanis. It is much easier to move in price, and there is no pressure with burning eyes, which is so annoying in representatives of the southern diaspora. For example, if a Chinese person tells you that the price is 100 yuan, then with a calm expression on your face you say that it is 50, you can even get ready to leave, after that, the price will most likely be reduced. Here, however, we are not talking about Chinese attractions and fixed prices.

-But what impression does Beijing make?

-It may be that many of you reading this post associate Beijing with narrow streets, crowds of Chinese people sitting on each other’s heads, and kilometers of noodles and spices hanging from everywhere. For some reason, just such images came to mind for me personally. But China is indeed very different. Allegories like mine have their place, and yet Beijing is, first and foremost, one of the centers of Chinese ideology. I think you understand: Uncle Mao Tse Tung, red flag, tendency to gigantomania in everything, etc. Watching the Chinese, one notices a large number of uniforms: police officers, conductors, bus drivers, tour guides; the social status of many of them is emphasized by formal clothing. Drivers, for example, wear white gloves. But our status was also quite clear to those around us: brightly colored hiking jackets, trekking boots, and most importantly, backpacks on our backs, and on top of everything, European appearance. For many Chinese, we are like monkeys with whom we definitely need to take a photo. It seems to me that in peripheral Russia, blacks, exotics, after all, cause such a stir. Although, in large cities like Beijing, this interest is less, but in the provinces there is still some. And most of the Chinese are short and have a shuffling gait, sometimes it’s very funny to watch them.

- In general, you are going in a taxi...

- We’re taking a taxi, it’s night outside, the time differs from Moscow by 4 hours. Apart from the road surface, you can’t really see anything outside the window. If I didn’t know that we were in China and didn’t pay attention to the inscriptions with hieroglyphs, I would have thought that we were driving through Spain at night, or maybe the unusual time schedule and unusual surroundings had muffled my perception of the surrounding reality. In a country with a population of billions, the streets are deserted. The next morning, a crowd of people with narrow eyes will have to shuffle along city paths again, but for this they need a good sleep. But we have an obvious overdose of the joy hormone, so we will sleep a little later in the hostel. By the way, here he is. I mean, a hostel. The entrance is located on a street with parked bicycles and a vintage car reminiscent of the old Volga. By the way, most entrance doors in China are designed in the form of pagodas in the traditional Chinese style. The building itself may not be so hot, but the entrance arch should be 100% perfect. Then there was a dream, and then the beginning of getting to know the country.

-Stas, I understand perfectly well that you are unlikely to remember every centimeter of your journey. Can you tell us about the key attractions?

-I'll try. Let's start with the metro, which we went down to the next morning: decent, modern, similar to London.

The carriages are spacious and have ventilation. At each station there is a screen with an X-ray machine for checking large luggage. By the way, if you compare it with Moscow, these devices are not there for show. Luggage is actually checked, just like at the airport. I have never seen anyone use our detector frames installed in the subway. We got out of the metro and found a place with Chinese cuisine, which is what I really wanted. My stomach demanded >Chinese, and I was not going to contradict it. The first thing I met was Chinese manti with some kind of spicy sauce, boiled green eggs, and with them salads made from unknown herbs. The taste is completely unexpected, but I liked it.

After breakfast we went to the famous Beijing Square. My dad at home, as soon as he saw the photo, immediately unmistakably said the name Tian An > Men. There is a huge portrait of Mao Tse Tung hanging there. China is dominated by an ideology similar to the Soviet one, and there are many points of agreement. Looking ahead a little, I will say that our grandfather played Katyusha with Chinese words for us in the mountains, so when dad said the name of the square, I was not very surprised; there was an exchange of cultural experience between our countries. On the main square there was either a procession or a celebration, in general there was a crowd of people, even some kind of cordon. True, they let us through everywhere without any problems.

Passing the square, we found ourselves in the Forbidden City of Emperors. The place is, of course, iconic. However, if we describe it, then it is a cascade like two peas in a pod of squares similar to each other with identical pagodas. An ideal platform for Chinese open airs)) We watched and took photographs. Although at the seventh pagoda I was already tired of taking the same shots. The Forbidden City is big, we didn’t go around it all, although I think we got a general idea.

Honestly speaking, the impressions were already overwhelming, but one way or another, this was only the beginning of our great Chinese journey.

Of course, we also tasted Peking duck. This is generally a separate story. The Chinese don’t really eat it, it’s just like the face of Chinese cuisine. It is offered in many places, but the most pathetic thing is to eat it in the central multi-story restaurant. I completely forgot what it’s called, but there are rotating tables and they do the duck “correctly” - they divide it into shares before your eyes and put each one on a separate plate, with its own seasonings. The price is high, but worth it. Duck goes well with white or red wine.

-What else do you remember, like the Great Wall of China? Have you seen her?

- Of course, but it’s close to Beijing. We also got there. The area we were on was called Mu tian O.

By the way, I don’t know how you can surpass China in productivity. It seems to me that all the Sochi objects taken together, in comparison with the Chinese wall, seem like a small thing)) And ours will not be able to handle such work now, they will build a couple of kilometers, and they will cut the rest of the budget.

Newlyweds climb the Great Wall of China. We had a very successful photo shoot, I was wondering if they needed the services of a host)) Here is the bride in a red dress.

- Wasn’t it scary to go up and down the wall?

-To be honest, she's not too tall. Its main feature is its length. And the descent was generally fun, we took a ride on the local bobsled. True, for some reason the instructor tried to hug everyone, just as he did with the rest of the crowd.

After such impressions, I wanted some kind of freshness, otherwise there were too many stones. But I already mentioned that China is different, even within Beijing. Next we went to the summer imperial palace. I’m unlikely to remember exactly which dynasty this residence was, but I can definitely say that the park is incredibly beautiful. We just happened to be there in the late afternoon, so we were able to see the sunset rays reflected in the mirror of the water. We split up, fortunately we had walkie-talkies with us. Chinese families walked in the park and there were tourists. I walked along the lake, took a boat ride, and went up to a Buddhist stupa. In China, Buddhism is a widespread teaching, but this is a separate topic, and not everything in it is as smooth as it could be. Again, I remembered Nepal, the pinwheels with prayers and the Dharma path. In general, incredibly beautiful and peaceful. Here it is for clarity.

-But, as you already mentioned, China is not only Beijing and its environs, from what other sides did China open to you?

-I think this is about the next point of our journey, then we went to Huashan. If you try to briefly describe Huashan, then these are rocks. There are mountains where everything is smooth, but here, on the contrary, there were many sharp cliffs, and my fear of heights came into play. The coolest feeling is when you begin to overcome this fear. Huashan had everything necessary for this. We climbed all four peaks of Huashan, plus there was a wonderful path on the edge of the cliff. Imagine, they attach a belay to you, and you begin your movement, holding on to a chain installed on the edge of a rock. Accordingly, on one edge there is a solid rock, and on the other there is an endless cliff. Your heart skips a beat, skips some more somewhere below your belt, and you frantically cling to the chain. Moreover, sometimes it was necessary to separate from other tourists who were already returning from this trail, it was a lot of fun))) I asked Kirill, our guide, to take a couple of photos, it turned out very cool.

By the way, not everyone from our group dared to make such a transition. The space relative to the rock where I could stand took up about 30 cm, so my fun knew no bounds. When it got dark, we spent the night there on Huashan. It was cold, of course, but we had warm bags with us. At night we were accompanied by sounds similar to the sounds of vomiting. It turned out that it was the Chinese locals who coughed up like that. We have encountered this many times before. Spicy food and smog were to blame (smog rather refers to cities). But then, during the overnight stay, fears arose that someone was really unwell. I even went outside specifically to check. When morning came, we drove on, continuing to appreciate the Chinese diversity.

-Great, what happened then?

- And then there was a train heading to Xi’an, as it seems to me, the cradle of Chinese culture. By the way, on the train I foolishly took a chicken leg with my beer. Just not the one everyone was thinking about, but a chicken foot)) What was in the package, of course, was not clear, but when I opened it, I was horrified! But I thought, the Chinese eat this, I need to try it too... The dish turned out to be terribly spicy and, in general, not the best example of the Chinese food industry.

- In general, everyone had butterflies in their stomachs with joy, but do you have chicken-sharp feet?

- Well, approximately like that. We also met a sociable Chinese man on the train, and with him I learned the difference in pronunciation of words: bed linen, chicken leg and paiza (such a weapon). To the ear they all sounded something like “>paiji.” Although, a bottle of beer and a chicken leg added to my predisposition to the Chinese language, so I eventually learned to pronounce all these three words correctly, although the next morning I forgot them again... Except for the word “beer”, in Chinese it is “pizhu”)))

-I sympathize with you that you had to get acquainted with exotic parts of the chicken body. Now tell me about Xi'an.

->Xi'an is a beautiful Chinese city, something like a cultural capital. There are a lot of pagodas there. In my opinion, there are four main ones, each with its own name. These are gigantic structures in Xi'an squares. And from the station there is a view of the city wall of Xi'an, which stretches across the entire city center. At the top of the wall you can rent a bike and ride. By the way, there is also a Muslim quarter in Xi’an (the Chinese are Muslim, it’s hard to believe) and calligraphy tools are available in abundance (brushes, paints, special paper). In the Muslim quarter there is a huge market where you can find a lot of different interesting food. There are two questions about food: what is it made from, and why do you expect the taste to be one, but it is completely different. I ate something there, but it’s hard to remember what exactly. There are also a lot of souvenirs here; I personally bought myself a small thermos and a hat with earflaps. In communist China there are many paraphernalia similar to the Soviet one.

From Xi'an we went to see the Terracotta Army, and that was great too!

-Which army?

-Terracotta, meaning made of clay. In general, the Chinese emperors had a lot of problems related to the afterlife. Unlike our Ilyich, who modestly rested in the mausoleum, the Chinese emperor went much further. Before the reign of this emperor, the Chinese did not worry too much and buried living people along with the emperors, built them into walls, etc. So, Emperor Qin Shi Huang turned out to be more humane and ordered that he be buried along with clay statues. But adding to this request of his the Chinese gigantomania, which I have already mentioned, they churned out these warriors, amounting to the size of the active Chinese army. And so, you go into the pavilion, and there are heaps and heaps of these statues in the excavated underground corridors. The imagination strikes instantly. They also had different faces, plus there were statues of horses. In general, my understanding is that in order to create the Terracotta Army, in the intervals between the increase in the Chinese population, millions of Chinese sublimated their energy. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to imagine it; you have to see for yourself. At the entrance to the park, by the way, there are many copies of terracottas, with which you are offered to take pictures; this is not worth doing, because There is a special photo corner inside where the shots turn out much more epic. They say that once a man who was a fan of the Terracottas put on make-up and stood among the soldiers for several hours until he was noticed.

At the exit from the Terracotta Army Museum, Chinese cafes awaited us. I remember the men who were hammering noodle dough into metal vats, I asked them for a piece of dough, I tried to hammer it myself, it turned out to be a lot of fun. In the cafe we ​​ordered portions, but someone didn’t get the spiciness (it was sooooo spicy), and I didn’t get the portion size (it was sooooo huge), but for some reason Chinese food is eaten quite easily, even large portions. And so, we take a taxi back to Xi'an. The driver overtakes through a double line without any problems, but the speed does not exceed, apparently, these are features of Chinese traffic regulations. By the way, due to tensions with tickets, we spent an extra day in Xi’an, but we were accommodated in a very cool hotel at the airport and all this was free. It turned out that the flight we booked was canceled a month before, so it's not just Russia that has problems. How long or short, from Xi'an we had to fly to Sichuan province.

- What’s there?

- And there >Jiuzhaigou, a divine park with blue lakes. This is a must-visit place (like all the previous ones I described).

During the flight to Sichuan, our plane shook quite a bit, but everything was compensated for when we visited Jiuzhaigou. This is a place where you just walk and get high. The park is also protected by UNESCO. I must say that we couldn’t resist and dipped our feet into one of the lakes, the water was too attractive, a bunch of people immediately rushed in, let’s drive us away. And the water was ice-cold and very pleasant. We were in Jiuzhaigou for two days. After a quick chat with the taxi driver, we found a very cheap and no less cold hostel, although the rooms were quite decent. By the way, in Jiuzhaigou we came across crowds of Chinese women wearing panda hats who were very greedy for photographs with Europeans; of course, it was difficult to refuse them.

This friend then wrote to me very actively, gave me her contacts from the Chinese social network qq (Facebook is blocked), so I urgently needed to look for a Chinese SIM card. I searched and searched, no communication shops, no cell phone stores. Then I found a SIM card in a hardware store, but the sellers didn’t understand English. Here I strained everything: my phone, pantomime and the desire to quickly get to the telephone connection. I established a connection, but I couldn’t connect to international roaming. But the spectacle itself was funny: the phone goes dead, the saleswoman and the seller are trying to explain something to me, I answer in Chinese either “yes” or “no”, I don’t know any other words. Then, when they connected a SIM card to me, to celebrate, I also bought a charger from them, but only then unconnected roaming popped up. Chinese students who spoke English passed by. There were two students. As a result, the five of us puzzled over the phone, I told the students, they translated, the sellers called the service. And then they gave me the phone, and the girl from the service addressed me in Chinese. I explain that I don’t understand, five minutes later a girl with knowledge of English called, she said that they would call me the next day regarding roaming. By the way, they called again in Chinese. As a result, I froze, learned from the students which strong Chinese drinks were worth trying, discussed the characteristics and brands of Russian vodka, and, overcome with mixed feelings, went to bed. At least the Internet worked from the phone, although only for a couple of days, then the traffic ended. A Chinese friend wrote to me very actively, but I couldn’t even answer her. In addition, I spent about 1000 rubles on a SIM card. Chinese cat down the drain.

- Well, the dog and them, where did you fly next?

-Here I may be confusing something, as in the previous story, but it seems we flew to Chengdu.

-Why are you swearing?

-Yes, this is the city. We flew, we thought it was a provincial town. As a result, this “town” turned out to be almost larger than Moscow. One airport, the size of Luxembourg. At the airport we managed to almost lose Max’s backpack (Max was with us, and he had a backpack). But everything was settled.

-So how about >Chengda?

- Chengdu, not Chengda! Well, if New York were made of identical houses, and in the center there was a statue of Mao. In Chengdu we stayed at the lazy bones hostel. In the evening we went looking for local flavor, found a small eatery, the size of a “Kroshka Potato”, and there was a man with trays containing all sorts of sundries and stew. We took a portion, the guys from the group said that they wanted it spicy, but I, having already been trained in the school of spicy food, said that I didn’t want it spicy. As a result, they gave me a plate with a spicy portion, and they were given a very spicy dish. Max even cried. I think I was the only one who finished mine. Pamelo also helped us; we ate our stew with this exotic fruit.

- But if girls were going to China, where would you advise them to go first?

-Well, if these are the kind of girls who like to say “Tyuyuyu” when they see furry creatures, then definitely go to Panda Park! By the way, that’s where we went from Chengdu (I think). Here, I think, photos will be enough...

And below is a photo of Firefoxes (red pandas), they, it turns out, are also from the same family. By the way, it was these animals that became the symbol of the famous browser from Mozilla. The very charm)))

And for dessert, figuratively speaking, of course, there’s this pond, teeming with swans and goldfish.

After the pandas, we went to have a snack, the driver showed us a wonderful local Chinese canteen, where we ate noodles, rice and other local dishes for a penny.

-Well, what would you advise those who are interested in Buddhism to watch?

-This is not a simple question. More precisely, there are many interesting places, but in China not everything is going smoothly, as I already mentioned. The political system of China, as far as I understand, cannot get along with the values ​​of Buddhism. Those. there are temples and monks, everything is there, but the temples are headed by Chinese officials, imposing certain rules. A very sad story of Tibetan independence. There were public burnings and many other bad things. But of course, as I said, there are many Buddhist sites in China. Just look at the stone Buddha, which is the size of a 20-story building, and maybe even higher.

This miracle is located near the city of Lishan. Again, gigantism and entire generations who invested their strength in this Buddhist creation.

We stayed in the small town of Yemei near Lishan. The town, by the way, is also very remarkable. You go there in the evening, there are almost no people, but there are huge shopping arcades with heaps and heaps of food, souvenirs, etc. on the counters. Do they really waste it all later? In general, when we walked around Emey, we had the impression that all this was prepared just for us. In Emey we stayed in a small hostel Teddy Bear, everything there had the appropriate symbols.

In Emey, by the way, there are very decent centers of medical and massage services. There they will massage your heels with fish and smear them with all sorts of Chinese herbs.

Continuing the theme of Buddhism, we visited another huge (what else are there in China?) gilded statue of Buddha standing on elephants. The statue is located on top of a mountain and it is said that in any weather there is a clear sky around it. But when we got up there, the sky was not entirely clear; apparently, Buddha was not ready to reveal all his secrets to us. But at the approaches we were met by a monkey who tried to take away bags of food from passers-by.

There I also drank a decoction of some local mushrooms; the sellers claimed that the mushrooms were psychedelic, but the green albatross, patting me on the shoulder, said that it was all fiction. Among the adventures of that day: we walked along the monorail over the abyss, measured the water level at the dam and spent a long time going down a very long staircase.

From Yemei we again went to Chengdu, where we did not miss the opportunity to take a photo with the statue of Mao (unfortunately, the photo was touched somewhere). Back in Starbugs, I took some local tea, which was a thick, milky slurry from a swamp. I doubt that the Chinese themselves drink it.

After that, the city of Lijiang was waiting for us with its attractions - Tiger Leaping Gorge and Dragon Mountain. You can walk and enjoy all day. By the way, on the way to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, trekking finally awaited us. We could stretch our legs and take a leisurely walk in the mountains. Of course, this is not Nepal, where you spend two weeks trudging up and down stairs with a backpack, the program was easy, but the views were magnificent. I would rank Tiger Leaping Gorge as one of the most scenic places in China. According to legend, this tiger jumped over a river somewhere there, but I find it hard to believe that he was so crazy as to jump over the craziest Yangtze, which is so seething there that it’s scary to even approach. Tiger Leaping Gorge is very deep, in my opinion, one of the deepest in China.

We stayed in a small Tigerhostel. One to one Nepalese lodges. In principle, this is not surprising, because... this is the same Tibet. One of the most memorable moments of the trip for me was when we reached the crossing of the Yangtze, boarded the ferry, and there... BEAUTY. I can only describe it with obscenities, but in a good way))) On the other side of the Yangtze there was a wonderful village, very clean, sunny, it was warm and somehow homely. But at the same time, even in the village we found a hostel. The photo below is a local Chinese girl - a resident of the village.

The village was called Do ju. The owner of the hostel was Grandfather Puyo, as we called him. In Chinese, "puyo" means "no" (meaning absent). So we ask Grandfather Puyo if this is on the menu (naturally, he didn’t understand English, we pointed at the piece of paper), and he “puyooo” and spreads his hands. A funny moment was when Kirill explained to him that we needed transport. A small, a car, a medium and a large were drawn sequentially in the notebook. In the evening we sat on the veranda and enjoyed the massive mountains and wonderful views.

Oddly enough, the next day suitable transport arrived. We rode it to Mount Dragon. We drove up to the barrier enclosing the territory, an aunt entered the bus and asked to pay for the tickets. And then, lo and behold, my student ID came in handy!!! I saved around 150 rubles!!! Recovered half the price. For the future, I recommend taking not iytc, but isic. The first one is also good, but there are more discounts for the ISIC, for example, Kirill, for example, by some miracle had an ISIC, so he was given a discount at the next object, but I was not. Even a mature person can get an ISIK, just a certificate stating that you are studying in a course lasting 10 months is enough (it’s not for me to teach how to get these certificates).

-Let's talk about the Dragon.

- What about Dragon? Dragon, this is very cool! The height is 4680 m, we climbed higher than in Nepal. On the cable car it was no longer scary, because... We had enough of these cable cars before this. We didn’t climb to the height for long, so the “miner” didn’t have time to stick in. Oxygen cylinders were sold at the foot of the mountain. We climbed this mountain, I walk as if I had donated 15 liters of blood, but I know the tactics of the climb, I walk slowly but confidently, next to me there are poor Chinese people touching oxygen cylinders on every step. In fact, if we had spent several hours there, I would have been seriously affected by altitude sickness, but otherwise, nothing special. Well, I went a little crazy, we went up to the observation tower, it was warm there, I decided to undress, took off my jacket, T-shirt and with my torso bare began to take pictures in all poses.

Thus, Kirill added an informational reason for what to write about in his blog. The sensations, however, were enchanting. Then they quickly drove us down the mountain; there seemed to be a storm or something like that.

- In general, you rode a Dragon with a naked torso?

- Well, approximately like that. A flight to Kunming was on the agenda. >Kunming is a beautiful city, there are many authentic buildings, huge markets, restaurants, in general, everything your heart desires. I picked up commemorative consumer goods there and went through a small Chinese tea ceremony, got “wind chimes” and some other little things for a pittance. There I also tried the worm salad. It costs a lot of money, but the taste is like last year’s buckwheat, or like seeds, in short, nothing special.

- Wasn’t it disgusting to eat?

-Well, after the chicken legs I didn’t care anymore. In short, we went from Kunming to see the stone forest.

Another extravaganza. It may not be as bright as our previous places of visit, but it certainly deserves attention. This is a labyrinth of stones formed naturally as a result of the leaching of limestone. You can walk there for hours.

-Well, this was the last point of your journey, further to Beijing?

- No such luck, at the end of it all Kirill decided to hit us with another “atomic bomb of attractions” and brought us to the caves. It seems they were called Jiu Xian, but I’m not sure exactly. These are very famous caves where “Armor of God” and many other films were filmed. It was just AWESOME. Imagine a cave illuminated by a million colored spotlights, like in a nightclub. There are stalactites, stalagmites all around, and at the end there is a cable car. At this point my phone died and I couldn’t take a photo, but the caves were very cool. In my opinion, the question was still being decided whether it was worth going there at all. It’s good that the decision was positive after all. Well, now, Beijing... We spent a day there, by the way, you can buy most of the souvenirs in Beijing, there is no need to carry them all the way. The only exception is, perhaps, calligraphy tools (this is in Xi'an). We visited Russian shopping centers “hello, 90s”, where the Chinese understand Russian, funny distorted inscriptions (Yabaolo shopping center). It’s best to buy tea there (the cheapest), so I bought about five thin ties of different colors for 30 rubles each, then I safely lost them. Otherwise, there's nothing special there.

- What about the technology? Are there tablets, etc.?

-Well, there were tablets there, but the prices were the same as ours, and you still need to bother with Russification. Technology, this is in Guangzhou, etc., we have not been to these cities. I kept dreaming of buying myself a chocolate fountain, but never mind... If you want equipment from China, the most adequate option is to order it online on websites, where the delivery price is a pittance, but they will deliver it to Moscow and everything is ok. In branded stores, prices there are the same as ours. You can also take porcelain, silk, as I already said, tea and bells and whistles for it. We wanted to finally try Peking duck for the second time, but we didn’t have enough desire and money, but we had enough for panda hats, magnets and other crap. Well, for dessert, fresh >scorpion meat)))

The return flight passed without any special incidents, except for the fact that cheerful Russian guys from the 90s were standing in line with us; time has not changed them at all. And the flight was still terribly >looooong. On the plane I tasted the diet breakfast, which was quite good. Back we brought impressions, photographs, souvenirs and new turns in the spirals of our lives.

-Good story... Well, can you somehow summarize what has been said, how do you like the organization of the trip, by the way?

-I believe that Outdoor’s services, represented by the services of Kirill Yasko, are well worth the costs. Well, judge for yourself, firstly, this is just a mega-intensive program, and secondly, you are literally “led by the hand”, not in the sense that they drag you wherever you don’t want, but in the sense that you don’t worry about anything, where to go, what transport to order, where to stay, etc. In order to remember all the geographical names that I mentioned, I had to rewrite our route, otherwise I would have forgotten. The main thing is not the name of the place, but the feeling from it. Here. Come to China!!!

-Do you think China understood?

-I think so, but still, not completely...)))

PS: Well, a little praise for Megafon - I lost their SIM card on a trip, but at the airport I restored it in 5 minutes. That's it)))