Journey To The Lonely Mountain

Today began early. I woke at 4:30, got a taxi ride to a bus stop, and directed Erik and Sarah to the bus stop (since their cab failed to get them all the way there.) We grabbed some quick baozi and red-bean sesame balls off the street for breakfast. Then it was time for a long (~2 hours) ride on bus 917 to Zhangfang. The bus was packed, with as many people as possible standing in the aisle, but Sarah, Erik and I managed to squeeze into some seats above the wheel hub.
When we arrived in Zhangfang, the entire little town attempted to get us to go in their car. It seems, especially in light of later experience, that they often take (Chinese) tourists to our destination, The Lonely Mountain. But Erik and Sarah were a bit sketched out by them, and so we kept walking until we found a less pushy lady, who ended up getting us up there in a little bus with a semi-official sign in its window, for free! And so we came out of smoggy gray Beijing to foggy, great Gushanzhai.
It seems to be quite the Chinese tourist destination. In the bottom left of the above picture, you can see a big inflatable plastic ball with openings on the side. Children crawl into them and then run like hamsters on the water. The entrance ticket was 60 rmb, which is high for China. After buying tickets, we headed over the 200 meter long rope bridge:

It was a beautiful area. The lower part had a lot of tourists, but it cleared out some as we climbed higher. I took many, many pictures.
My favorite spot by far: Chinese Petra! (Well, I don't know if anyone else has ever called it that, but...) It was cool inside this canyon, and parts of the walls were wet. You can see that it wasn't too wide. The Chinese name translates to "One Line of Sky."
We climbed out onto a nice ledge and had some lunch before heading down. After that, Sarah felt sick, whether from sun, the red bean buns, or dehydration... Whatever the case, we rested in the shade for a couple of hours. I spent my time sketching, which was surprisingly fun.
After visiting the park, we had quite an adventure getting back. After much uncertainty, we took a van to Qidu, a crank-driven relic to Zhangfang, and a bus to Beijing. I may post a picture of what I call the 'relic' in a later post. Then Erik and I walked around lost for a while before taking the a bus plus subway lines (3 of them for me, 2 for him) home.

And now, I am tired. So I rest.