Tang Ling Park Visit

Ping and Tang Ling

Ping’s companion, Mary, suggested hiking instead of yoga today for their exercise. So, an on-line search found http://www.everytrail.com/guide/hiking-tang-lang-hill-country-park-shenzhen-prchina-?1356933370 and the adventure began! Off on a gentle hike up the “hill” as the hotel concierge called it. Man, oh China Man, was she wrong! The taxi ride was much more expensive on the way to the destination (Sorry, Mary- she paid that part) than upon returning. (Ping’s part:) We could see the mountain looming above as we departed our taxi and began climbing the fifty or so stone steps to the entry of the park. The area was covered in Bougainvillea (the flower of Shenzhen) and there were warning signs placed all around putting us on notice about pythons and stinging insects. And you can believe Mary did not want to stand in the groundcover near the sign so Ping could shoot her picture!

And so began the “little trail-hike up a hill.” Hah! Turns out that the preconceived notion of a pleasantly sloping dirt path winding up the rolling hill was in reality very bumpy stairs made of stone steps cut straight up the mountain’s side! Some clever soul even marked the Arabic numbers on each rock step. Getting to step 143 was pretty easy, 400 required some pacing and step 1000 needed superhuman strength!!!

“As Ping saw there was an 80 year old woman coming down from this mountain Ping decided he was pushing on!” There were little doggies on the stairs, youngsters and even men in business suits tackling this trek. What we presumed was a fairly secluded spot was actually a very active place for the Chinese. Later we found out that hiking is one of the citizen’s favorite activities. At one point the steps became only rocks and poor Ping lost his webbed footing.

Luckily, he was given aide by a friendly fellow in purple. Encouraged, especially after finding a short cut, our little crew progressed to the top. We were so giddy when the white gazebo we had been pursuing was actually in sight and you know we had to take pictures. “We made it – Yay!”

The date was December 31, 2012. We had timed our arrival to coincide with the last sunset of the Year of the Snake. It was beautiful. What a great year!

Almost magically a sketchpad appeared, and quickly, a representation of the event was drawn. “Oh dear, Ping, it’s getting dark!” Mary warned. It was a long way down and walking in the dark seemed a bit malevolent and to be avoided. Cellphones to the rescue! The Cell’s light the path sporadically and by the time we were 3/4^th of the way down we were feeling much safer. Amazingly, people were still coming up, wow! What in the world? What a great hike…

Stay Tuned,

P.S. Sore little bird legs for the next two days!
Posted by EddyTour-In-Chief: Doug