ANJI

Last Thursday I got to travel to Anji with my friends Yu Ling, Shelly, and Kang. It took an hour bus ride to get out of the city. From there we took a taxi to the famous bamboo forest, where Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed. It was beautiful! Then we took another taxi up into the mountains to a tiny little village with narrow roads and cute little shops. We had a delicious lunch of bamboo root and rice. (I LOVE the food here!) We planned to hike a mountain that was lined with waterfalls and had the "Long Dragon" waterfall at the top. A little ways into the hike we found out it was much more difficult than we had been told, but Kang and I were determined to reach the top! Yu Ling and Shelly found a bench and Kang and I headed up the steep steps without them. The hike was actually just like doing the stair master work out machine for 3 hours, it kicked my butt! But the scenery was beautiful! Kang was feeling sick to his stomach and my legs were shaking like crazy but we made it! When we reached the top I thought I was seeing things, it looked just like the bottom! There were a bunch of little houses and even a resturaunt. We came across an old chinese woman who told Kang that all of her ancestors had lived up there, she was born there and plans to live there the rest of her life. I could not believe it! It was such a great experience (and work out) I hope I can go back before I leave! After making it back down the mountain Kang and I were pretty beat so we decided to head back to Hangzhou to get massages. It was the perfect way to end a perfect day!

BAMBOO FOREST

LONG DRAGON MOUNTAIN

AFTER THE HIKE