At Chang Bai Shan--China I

Few Americans have had the privilege of visiting the largest nature preserve in the People's Republic of China. Nestled in the NE corner of that huge land, abutting North Korea, is the Chang Bai Shan ("broad white mountain"--"CBS") preserve, consisting of thousands of acres of forests, a few lakes, hiking trails and a pristine river that runs from the heavenly pool (Tian Che) down to the valley below. In my recent 18-day trip to China, my friend Gil and I decided to visit CBS. This decision was easier made than put into effect. The purpose of this and the next essay is to describe both the problems/process of getting to and from CBS and the sights and sounds of that magnificent and alluring place.

Getting to the Sacred Mountain and Pool

My friend Gil, who teaches at the law school where I formerly taught, had a brief gig in Shanghai this summer at the East China University of Politics and Law. So, he invited me to Shanghai to travel with him after he finished his teaching. Normally I wouldn't have accepted his invitation. Traveling to China, I knew, would be a daunting experience, especially because we had to "make it happen" on our own (no English-speaking tour guides, air-conditioned busses and five-star hotels to soften the blow of entering this confusing, inspiring and rapidly-developing country). I didn't know if I could afford the time and money for such a trip but I finally decided to go. After all, last time I checked I realized I wasn't getting any younger; fortunately, I managed to get a free ticket (actually $35.70) because I had enough "miles" to qualify; and Gil made some arrangements for my housing in Shanghai that would save me some money. I began working on my Chinese in February, and I ended up being able to communicate with most people in the way I wanted. We experienced some difficulties when technical communications were required, but somehow an English-speaking person just happened to show up at the right time to extricate us from some difficult circumstances.

In any case, Gil and I decided that our trip wasn't just going to be "run of the mill." After staying a few days in Shanghai (June 30-July 5), visiting the Shanghai Museum and the World Expo, which sandwiched a pleasant but blisteringly-hot two day trip to one of the garden capitals of China, Hangzhou, we headed out to Beijing on the express train on July 6. We were fortunate enough to get "soft" seats, which meant that we were pretty comfortable for that 11-hour ride. But the highlight of our trip would be to make it to Chang Bai Shan, the great nature preserve. We decided to get to CBS from Beijing, rather than trying to make it there from Shanghai. We were in for quite an adventure, but we finally made it. I want to go through some details on how to get there, since no English-language guide has it right, and Lonely Planet, which is the best guide to China, is confusing on crucial details.

Ways of Getting to CBS

If you try to get to CBS from Beijing, you can do it three ways: by train and taxi; by plane and bus and taxi; or by plane and taxi. Let me give you three ways to do it--the two traditional ways and a new way that is just opening up. 1.The cheapest, but hardest, way is by train and taxi. You can take a four-hour bullet train from Beijing to Shenyang and then a 13-hour train from Shenyang to Erdao Baihe, which allows you entrance from the northern part of the park by a cab ride of about 25 km. We decided not to take his grueling two-three day journey for several reasons, one of which was that we didn't want to spend most of our trip in trains. 2. Then, there is the way we took--flying from Beijing to Yanji, on the North Korean border, and then, the next day, taking a four-hour local bus from Yanji to Erdao Baihe. We then took the 150 RMB cab ride (about $23) from Baihe to the main gate of the park. 3. The third method might be the most popular in the future because an airport near Chang Bai Shan, appropriately called the CBS Airport, opened just a few months ago, and there are a handful of flights per week (note that the service isn't very often) from Beijing to this airport, which is about 75-90 minutes by cab, if you could find one, from the entrance gate to Chang Bai Shan. The flight to CBS from Beijing doesn't get you in until late at night; you really have very few options for staying anywhere at that hour of the night. In addition, most of the locals don't yet know that the CBS airport exists. It is very hard to find information about it online, but we ultimately booked tickets to fly back to Beijing from the CBS airport through elong.com. Thus, it is currently very difficult to get to CBS by plane and taxi; it isn't difficult to get back to Beijing from CBS by taxi to the CBS airport and then a flight to Beijing

Our Way of Getting There

Well, as I mentioned above, we decided to get to CBS through a flight to Yanji. The flight was at a reasonable time--late morning from Beijing, and we arrived about 2:00 p.m. July 7 in this small (500,000 person) city. At first we heaved a sigh of relief because we heard that everyone in Yanji was bilingual--until we realized that the two languages they spoke were Chinese and Korean! In addition, we soon realized that the city was completely unequipped for tourists. The cab driver genially told us that the hotel we thought we made reservations at no longer existed (we got it from Lonely Planet); so we had to trust him to take us to another hotel, the Sungbo, which actually turned out to be very nice. It is a 20 story hotel, currently undergoing considerable renovation, in the downtown area of this city. It only cost us a total of 280 RMB, about $42, for the night--and this included breakfast for both of us in the a.m.

But then the fun started. We knew we had to get a bus from Yanji to Erdao Baihe the next day, so I innocently stopped in at the travel bureau inside the hotel for help and was told that they didn't know of any bus that went to Erdao Baihe. The theme of the so-called professionals not knowing basic things was a common theme in China. We would find, for example, that our hotel clerk in CBS, when we actually got there, denied the existence of the CBS Airport, from where we actually were to fly out back to Beijing on July 10. We would repeatedly get into cabs in Beijing where the cab driver didn't know our destination and, in fact, often took us around the block many times before declaring, in frustration, that he couldn't get us to our destination.

Well, back to Yanji and the travel agent. I had recalled the detailed bus schedule printed in Lonely Planet for the bus from Yanji to Erdao Baihe. Finally, someone in the agency found that schedule and admitted that there was, in fact, a bus that left Yanji for Baihe. But, confusingly, the Lonely Planet directed us to the train station for this departure point, while, in fact, you had to go to the "Dong Bei Ya"--or "Northeast (bus) Substation" to get bus tickets and to depart. To make matters a little more confusing, there is also a daily bus from Dong Bei Ya to CBS itself, but this bus leaves about 4:00 a.m. and returns late in the afternoon. However, we wanted to take the bus leaving at 10:10 a.m., a more humane time, which would arriving in Baihe about four hours later.

The travel agent was quite proud of herself that she finally found the schedule which said that the bus I wanted actually did exist. But I knew I had a problem. How to get bus tickets? Finally, out of the goodness of their hearts, they dispatched one of the agents with me in a cab (I paid for it, of course) to go to the Dong Bei Ya, where we bought two bus tickets, for Gil and me. The tickets were only about 40 RMB each ($6).

I had no idea what kind of bus to expect. I knew from previous traveling in a third-world country (Honduras) that local busses can be something of the "chicken-bus" variety--where people bring all sorts of things onto the bus and the driver often drives precariously close to yawning cliffs until you reach your destination, often hours behind schedule. So, Gil and I showed up at Dong Bei Ya (after being confused on how to pay for the hotel bill--no one spoke a word in English, and the Chinese only took credit cards where you could type in your "mima" or "password," which is not the way that most American credit cards are set up)...

We arrived at the Dong Bei Ya at 9:45 for our 10:10 bus. We got into the line with great anticipation, only to be told that our bus was cancelled. Why? Mechanical failure--another issue that was often faced in China. Well, what to do? We were assured that we could just hang around for the next bus (12:20 p.m.) and all would be well. But I was a bit leery of this kind of promise, so I made the clerk change our tickets so that we were assured seats on the 12:20 bus; we actually got seats 1 and 2, directly behind the driver. This was important to know because I had to kick out some people from our seats who had entered the bus before us...

Well, finally, we made it onto the bus, which left on time and took the strikingly scenic trip towards CBS. The road was well-paved; the passengers were well-behaved; all things were going well. We took a smoke/pee break about 2 hours into the trip. The difference between the men and women's bathroom was that each group got to pee on a different slope of a hill running down to the river. We were separated by a makeshift wall. In any case, we clambered back onto the bus and made it to Baihe by about 3:45 p.m. The bus was running well.

Finally, Geting to the Mountain

When the bus dropped us off at Erdao Baihe, it left us in the middle of the highway, outside of town, with no services or any kind of conveniences. Luckily a few cab drivers were waiting, waiting to overcharge us for the ride up the hill. We were actually almost assaulted by the most aggressive individual I can imagine immediately after we departed from the bus. He was trying to tell us about how he could help us, but I didn't really understand what he was saying. We soon got rid of him and made our way to a taxi driver who was just watching the scene calmly. 150 RMB got us a ride up to the entry gate of the preserve.

It is here that Lonely Planet needs to be corrected/clarified a bit. As I mentioned the bus stop at Baihe is in the middle of the highway. In order to get to a hotel on the mountain (I would recommend you try to get a reservation there--we stayed at the "International Hotel"-or the Guoji Binguan. It was overpriced--about $140 per night, which included two meals a day, but we were on the mountain), the cab driver takes you to the main gate of the park. He cannot take you to your hotel, whether it is the Athlete's Village or International Hotel, inside the park.

So, you pay 150 RMB for a cab from Baihe to the main gate. But you have to make sure that you get to the main gate before about 5:30 p.m., for when the park closes for the night, it closes and there is no way you can get to your hotel inside the park. As I mentioned with respect to Yanji, above, China hasn't yet really developed a "tourist consciousness." Shutting the gates at Chang Bai Shan at 5:30 or 6:00, when it takes considerable effort to get to the park during the day, is just one more example of it. It also indicates that the Chinese are most comfortable with group tours of CBS; we as individuals were a quite rare occurrence.

Well, once you are at the main gate (and we arrived there about 5:00 p.m.), you have to pay additional amounts. Each person must pay 100 RMB to enter the park and another 68 RMB for bus service within the park. That means that the total bill for two people, once dropped off at Erdao Baihe, is about 486 RMB (150 + 200 + 136) or about $75. Well, to get to the hotels, you have to take either one or two busses from the front gate. The first bus takes you about 12 or so KM to Athlete's Village (which was full when we called the week prior for reservations). Then, a second bus takes you to a small restaurant about 3 or 4 KM further up the mountain. It is from here that we were required to walk the 400 or so meters more to the International Hotel.

Thus, we finally got to our Hotel about 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8. The International Hotel again reflects the spirit of Chinese hotels--extremely friendly but not very aware of what we might call the "tourist" business. For one thing, they don't staff the main desk very often during the day; thus, the phone can go unattended for hours without anyone answering it. This was a problem for us in making reservations, but the person who made them for us in Shanghai perservered and got the room. It also helps explain why on the second night of our stay we were the only two guests in the hotel! It just hasn't yet dawned on them that there might be a connection between manning the phones and getting guests.

We arrived at 5:45 p.m. and were asked when we wanted dinner. We were pleased with the options and said that perhaps at about 7:00 p.m., after we had a chance to relax and shower up after a long day travelling. We were then informed by the pleasant host, who spoke passable English, that dinner actually would be served at 6:00 and that there would be a performance with the dinner. We had no idea what this meant, but we quickly dropped our luggage off in the room and headed to dinner, where we, along with about 15 guests, were entertained by some enchanting Korean dancers and a skillful acrobat. Thus, as we sat back enjoying our meal, we mused on the fact that here we were, in the midst of now a Korean-Chinese community enjoying the fruits of their culture--after a very busy, almost harrowing, day of travel.

The Room with a View

We asked for a room at the hotel with the "waterfall" view. Indeed, we got room 319--which had the most stupendous sight of the cascading waterfall, containing the runoff from Heaven Pool. Thus, we both felt we were transformed, in a way, from the sardine-like existence on the bus and the uncertainties of actually getting to the hotel, to favored creatures who were supping on fine Chinese/Korean food in the presence of a Korean dance/acrobat troupe. We also discovered, to our delight, that the hotel had a hot springs, and so Gil and I spent the evening under the stars in 50 degree weather (Shanghai was about 95 degrees with 75 % humidity!) soaking in the gurgling hot springs. We were disappointed, however, that the next day the hot springs were closed for cleaning and, on our getaway day (the 10th), the water was so scalding that we couldn't use the springs. Yet, we enjoyed a memorable evening of July 8 on the mountain. We also had a chance, before we doused ourselves in the hot springs, to visit "Little Heaven Pool," which was only about 300 meters from the International Hotel. it was a quiet pool, with places for meditation and reflection.

July 9--and Visiting the Mountain/Pool

Friday July 9 was our one day for visiting the mountain and the Heaven Lake. Again, the description in Lonely Planet doesn't tell the story well. Here is what we learned. There are basically three things you can do on the mountain, if you feel inclined to "see the sights." First, you can stay at the base of the mountain, walk through the Underground Forest and take a hike around that Forest. That forest is located about halfway between the Athlete's Village and the gate to the park. Second, you can take a shuttle bus from the small restaurant about 400 meters down from the International Hotel to the waterfall--the same waterfall we could see from our room. Gil and I took this bus but then took a side trip/hik, on a plank road, with about 950 steps, which winds through the woods near the waterfall. Several signs along the way tell about the botanical features in the preserve; it was very informative for me to see Linnaean names, alongside of Chinese characters, describing some of the plants in the forest. When we got to the waterfall, we wanted to continue our walk on the plank road until the end of it--about 3 KM up the mountain. The plank road ultimately goes to the top of the mountain and intersects with the path that overlooks the Heaven Lake or Pool. But we were told in no uncertain terms that this 3 KM path was closed. We could see it winding its way up next to the waterfall. It was a covered path, covered because it abutted the side of the cliff and rockslides, no doubt, frequently would have blocked the path had it not been covered. But we were told that there were rockslides that closed the path; hence we couldn't go along it. My friend Gil, ever an intrepid explorer, decided anyway to launch out beyong the roped-off area on the path--only to be told to come back and not to continue on the path.

The only option (the third thing) to get up to the Heaven Pool was to retrace our steps by bus to the Athlete's Village and then pay 80 RMB each (about $12) for a 4 Wheel-Drive ride up the mountain by another road, a serpiginous, heavily guard-railed, steep mountain road. We took this road and arrived late in the morning at the peak of the mountain. The view of Heaven Pool was breathtaking; indeed, it reminded me of Oregon's Crater Lake, only Heaven Pool is much smaller than Crater Lake. In any case, it was quite crowded on the top of the mountain, and we were the only Westerners in the crowd. Some people stopped us to photograph us (I guess we were a novelty); one young guy, a 13 year-old boy named Brian, told us that he "loved our country." As I scanned the precipitous cliffs going down to the volcanic lake (and many of the Chinese and Korean people had climbed beyond the barriers to get good pictures of the Lake), I noted that only about a mile away was a thick fence on the mountain, with a few houses/huts at lakeside. It was, obviously, the border fence between China and North Korea, with the houses being North Korean watch stations. I could easily have walked over to the fence, but since I didn't want to become acquainted with the North Koreans, nor did I want to create an international incident that might pull Bill Clinton back into action to rescue me, I stayed safely within the confines of China.

We finished our tour of the mountain in the early afternoon, and then we headed down to the Underground Forest, where a rainstorm hit and I, drenched as I was, beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel.

Leaving the Mountain

After our "American breakfast" on July 10 (since we were the only hotel guests, they tried to fix us a breakfast that they imagined was a good American one. The milk, however, was heated almost to the boiling point and given to us to drink. It was a splendid gesture, however), we packed and left. Because the hotel clerk was still denying the existence of the CBS airport, we decided to get a cab at 11:00 a.m. from the front gate of the park, even though our plane wasn't until 6:00 p.m. After questioning a cab driver in my best Chinese, and getting him to say three or four times that he knew exactly where the airport was, we clambered into the cab, taking the 75-90 minute cab ride to the airport and arriving there about 12:30 p.m. When we arrived we were the only people at the airport, except for a security guard. We found an upstairs lounge, got some food when the restaurant personnel returned, and generally had a great time studying Chinese (me) or finalizing a book (Gil) until our plane back to Beijing. The plane left at 6:00 p.m. and arrived in Beijing at 7:45 p.m. We decided to splurge for two nights and stay in a five-star hotel near the airport (the Crown Plaza), which even sent a van to pick us up at the airport. We luxuriated in the sumptuous accommodations for two days before taking on our most grueling physical activity of the trip--a walk along the Great Wall, which is the subject of my next essay...

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