Li’shan was where a friend and I ventured to last weekend. We got driven there by a car; the ride being two hours long, and the view during was well worth it. China’s countryside is simply stunning. It being such a marvelous day did help as the landscape was preen, shinning, and fluorescent. We passed a large lake that gleamed with a pale glow, stretched out endlessly with mountain tops and canyons and town etched silently under them. The road there was pretty barren which was good since our driver didn’t seem to be keen on the rules of the road, nor are any drivers here, which I will discuss later. We passed many tiny villages, saw boats docked awaiting the morning catch, and pedestrians wandering in the streets not going anywhere in particular. We then took a curving road that hugged mountain after mountain, going higher with no guardrail at the edges, nothing but a long dive into the ground. The mountains all were an ocher, shrouded by a light mist, with a bit of algae crumbling off the sides. Some of their peeks were sharp like javelins, while others sloped off like gentle waves. You couldn’t help but smile at the scene of treading through the twists and turns, sometimes having to stop to move displaced rocks that damper the road. The air was crisp, a cold gale sung as it whipped around the mountain tops, and some birds played catch overhead. We then got there.
It was more of a walk than a climb, but we didn’t mind—me especially since my ankle still ached. We started on planks down a prairie path, the thick grass grabbing our feet as we walked, and a few large boulders rested in particular points around us. We were high, noticing valleys receding below us, and more mountains obliquely, looming and sharp. We stopped now and again to just be engulfed by warbles of nature that peppers the ambiance; crows cawing, trees brushing, rocks sliding, and wings flapping. We kept walking, at first still in the open, climbing on rocks, letting our eyes vanish into this and that, then we got encompassed by trees, low at first, but then growing tall, so tall they covered the light coming in, with it cascading down like cool beams. We decided to traverse off the trail into the thicket and find a place to rest and eat. Brushing off the branches, brushing our knees on the dirt, and keeping our eyes forward we found an open spot to rest. I ate first, munching on a large piece of bread I brought and drinking some water while he slumbered behind me, I then slanted oblique on the grassy patch.
I didn’t think I slept, or, well I was in that stasis between consciousness and subconscious with my mind floating into the in-between while the noises surrounding me painted my mind. There were many nice colors, endless blues that sailed through the sky, jade greens that flowed forever at your feet, and the purple nothingness that is sprinkled with sparks that last for eternity. It’s nice being in such place alone with your thoughts since those thoughts are only beautiful, why live in the scorn and the hate, since what’s beautiful is what really matters.
We got up after an hour and kept on the trail. We reached a path that featured jagged trees curving like witch fingers and their branches spindly reach out every way. It looked like an old haunted forest with soft thin leaves that we ran down as the path lead. Our last monument was a gap between two mountains that was bridged by millions of large rocks and a rock path that lead you to the other side. And of course we jumped from rock to rock instead of taking the path. Some Chinese people met us on eventually on the other side, staring at us like all do, and began asking us the common questions are lives here have been filled with. The way back was treacherous, us not realizing how far we have gone and how far up we had to go back. When we got back we decided to walk a bit to the other peak nearby just to look out. He started to climb a boulder in the background. I merely collapsed on a rock lying below it, recollecting, admiring, and enjoying everything that has brought me to this point in my life.
