Pavilions, Castles, Parks, and...Heaven?

The Nonexistent Joy of Being Sick in China

Right now, I wish I could say I were climbing a faraway mountain or walking on The Great Wall of China.

But I can’t.

First, because I’m not doing either of those things, and second, because I am sick with who knows what. Whatever it is, it includes a colorful collage of symptoms such as achy legs, heavy head, razor throat, goopy eyes, clogged ears, and the uncomfortable feeling that someone is stuffing cotton balls up my nose so I can’t breathe properly. Blah.

Can I just say being sick in China is no fun? Granted, being sick anywhere is no fun, but it’s even less fun when Chinese people think that hard beds are the solution to back problems. BUT I have actually been very blessed during this past week with new thoughts and exciting experiences from my first vacation to Danxiashan Park!

Let me share some of my latest adventures with you. (Which will be easy for me since I’m laid up in bed with Kleenex and a nose that comes with free refills.)

Hiking to Heaven

Don’t let that heading above fool you. I have not died. But I did get to take a short hike this last weekend up to Heaven’s Pavilion, which is found in Danxiashan Global Geo Park in Shaoguan, China! The park was absolutely beautiful. It was like hiking in a Chinese jungle with LOTS of stairs. I love the outdoors in China! Here is a picture of me on the entry bridge into the park. *Please take note of the awesome pirate ship in the background with the painted-on shark face.

Every hiker knows that you should start out small and work your way up to the harder hikes, so naturally, we chose the steepest hike all the way to the top of the mountain. At first, it was easy. It was pretty much all wooden stairs traveling up and up and up. I kept getting left behind because I was so obsessed with taking pictures of all the stairs. They seemed to be symbolic in my life somehow, but I was too busy taking pictures and climbing up them to decide what they meant.

Then we came to a detour. “Heavens Pavilion” a wooden sign read, pointing up a long flight of wooden steps.

(I overlooked the grammar error on the sign with the missing apostrophe. Well, not really, but you can’t go fixing every Chinese sign.) Anyway, as I climbed the stairs to the pavilion, I thought to myself, “Well, what do you know? I am hiking to Heaven!” It was supposed to be a clever, little whatnot in my brain, but then I realized that I am hiking to heaven. Every single day. I wanted to explore that idea in my head more, but I decided to take pictures instead and think later.

And then, before I knew it…

We had made it to Heaven’s Pavilion! *Note the proper apostrophe. *And please note the “No smoking” sign right next to the pavilion. “No smoking in heaven, please!” 

Trails among the Cloud

Let’s be honest. They probably meant “Trail among the Clouds” since that whole trail couldn’t have possibly fit into one, single cloud. But maybe they didn’t. In any case, the trail we went up next was appropriately named because it did feel like you were hiking among the clouds, going up and up  so far that you felt you might bump your head on the roof of the sky and have to get stitches.

Of course, to get up that far in China, one must have stairs. Lots of them. They soon turned into a steep slope of steps so that at times you had to use your hands to climb up, just like you do when rock climbing. I felt like Spider-man crawling up the side of a mountain. Speaking of Spider-man, I found him later at the front of a little Chinese shop!

*Insert Chinese lady’s voice singing off-key: “Spider-man, Spider-man. Does whatever a spider can. Spins a WEEEB…”

The Pavilion and the Castle

After we had made it to the top of “Trails among the Cloud,” we found a fabulous lookout point at Jiadun Pavilion. The view made us feel like we were on top of the world! So of course, we turned on “I’m on Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons and jammed to that for a bit.

We also stumbled upon the ancient Ximei Castle that no one had set foot in for two thousand years!

Actually, it was more like two minutes. But it was still very cool and ancient-looking!

The Most Amazing View

The next day, we climbed up to a point called Elder Peak. And you will never guess… there were MORE stairs! So many, that I’m pretty sure if you stacked them all sideways across the ocean, I could get back to the United States. Well… maybe. I’m not very good with numbers.

Some stairs had railings…

Some wound their way up…

Some were incredibly steep…

Some were beautiful with light shining down on them…

And there was one special set of stairs that had the most amazing view of all. Even better than the one we would see when we got to the top of Elder Peak. This is what I saw from the staircase:

This, by far, is my favorite sight I have seen since coming to China. And I could have missed it quite easily.

You see, this view isn’t seen from a pavilion or a castle. You do not see this landscape from a grandiose area that is marked plainly with a signpost. You see it while you are either climbing or going down a long, steep, narrow staircase that is usually congested with people.

Now, look at the people in this photo more closely. Where are they looking?

Almost every single one of them is looking down. Down is NOT in the direction of the gorgeous view. But the stairs are so narrow that you have to look down or you could fall and knock down everyone behind you as you slip unceremoniously all the way back to the bottom of the staircase.

So the only safe way up is to look down, right?

Well, that is a safe way, but it’s not the only way. I still saw the view and didn’t fall. Another safe way up is to stop and then look out. You don’t have to sacrifice the horizons you could see to make it to your destination. You just have to take the time to stop and look around.

What I Learned from the Stairs

I remember feeling bad for the people who didn’t get to look at the beautiful view I saw because they were looking down. I was sad that they didn’t get to stop and appreciate what I saw as one of the most amazing sights in the park.

And then I realized that, at times, I had been doing the exact same thing. I had been taking pictures of stairs and focusing on them rather than what was going on around me.

I think that’s the way it is in life too. On our hike up to Heaven, we might become very focused on overcoming the challenges (or stairs) we face to the point that they are all we see. We can become so focused on getting up to the next checkpoint that we miss all the lovely trees, rocks, and streams along the way. We can also become exhausted from the trials we face—after all, the way to Heaven is a climb.

But I believe it can be beautiful along the way, if we take the time to look around us.

“On earth, there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.” –Jules Renard

How Did I End Up in China?

My Traveling Inexperience

As of February 21^st, the farthest I had ever traveled was Arizona. Now, that might be far if you are from Australia or Antarctica, but I am from Idaho. So in other words, I had been to a grand total of nowhere.

Did I mention that I am almost 25? I told myself for years and years that I loved to travel, but in the end, I had to face it. The most exotic place I had ever been to was Disneyland.

In a way, I think I was scared to travel. I kept making up excuses as to why I couldn’t go. I told myself I was too busy with school or that I needed to save money. But the biggest reason of all was that my friends were either married or in a tight place with finances, so I didn’t have anyone to go with. And I didn’t want to go alone. “Oh, how nice it would be to have a husband to travel with,” I thought. Maybe I would just have to wait until I got married to see the world.

But I didn’t have to wait.

Making My Move

At the beginning of this year, I knew I needed to start making things happen in my life. I felt very stuck, and I was tired of feeling that way. It was like my life was one, big quicksand pit. I couldn’t move, and I was sinking further and further. Not a good feeling. (I’ve been fighting that “stuck” feeling ever since I graduated with my bachelor’s degree two years ago.)

Anyway, I knew that things needed to start happening. So I got online and started looking at humanitarian and teaching programs that were international. I remembered ILP (the International Language Program) from a meeting I had gone to when I was nineteen where they had talked about their program and given us ice cream sundaes. I will admit, the main reason I went was for the sundaes, but I didn’t forget about ILP.

I found out from my roommate that two girls I knew were going to China through ILP. Hadn’t I always said that the only reason why I didn’t travel was because I had no one to go with? Now, here were two people I knew who were going to China. “BUT,” I told myself, “There’s no way that there are any more spots available in their program since they are leaving in a month. AND I don’t want to go to China anyway.” It was true. I wanted to go somewhere exotic like Thailand. To be honest, the idea of going to China had never appealed to me.

And then things suddenly changed.

One of the girls I knew who was going to China (Kim) Facebook messaged me and told me that a spot had opened up in their program. If I jumped on it fast enough, I could snag the spot. Suddenly, what had previously just been an idea became something that could actually happen—if I really wanted it.

Just Going for It

So I had two choices. I could either ponder about the decision to go to China and possibly forfeit my opportunity to go if I took too long deciding, or I could just go for it. I am usually the person who stands in the grocery aisle for ten minutes, trying to decide whether it’s better to get the less expensive enchilada sauce or the one without MSG, but this time, I didn’t think about it. I jumped.

And things started working. I got my passport overnighted and expedited, and it came right when I needed it to. I got both referral letters for the program in less than a week and managed to get all my vaccinations and doctor appointments done in only a few days. It was amazing how things just worked.

I kept doing everything I needed to do in order to go, but in all honesty, I still didn’t know if I really wanted to go. That might sound crazy, seeing as how I was putting time, money, and energy into going to China, but I had never really decided that I wanted to go. I was just doing everything I needed to do so I could have the chance to go.

Making My Decision

On the day my passport came, I went in to the ILP office to give them some of my documents. And then they told me something I wasn’t expecting to hear right at that moment. “You’re in,” they told me. “You just have to pay the deposit.”

This was it. The moment of decision. If I paid that deposit, I wasn’t getting out unless I paid a hefty fee. It was at that moment that I realized I hadn’t really decided if I wanted to go to China or not. I needed a moment to myself. So I pretended that I left my checkbook out in my car and escaped outside to think. I sat in my car and thought. I prayed, I read a scripture or two, and just looked outside. And then a thought came to me: I needed to have courage.

So I got out of my car with my checkbook in hand (which had been in my purse the whole time) and paid the deposit. I would like to say that as I left I felt empowered, excited, and happy, but I just felt…numbly shocked. Is that even possible? It was an interesting feeling…sort of surreal. I looked out at the sky and thought about seeing the sky in China for four months. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. But I knew I had made my decision. And that decision was China.

So…Why Did I Even Write This Part?

If you are someone who is close to me, then you know that I followed through with my decision. I am now in China! It has been wonderful so far. I have been here for…almost three weeks now! Crazy! I’m excited to write about all of my experiences here in China!

So, why did I take the time writing about my experience before I came to China if this blog is supposed to be about being in China? Well, it’s because I learned a lot from making the decision to come. I learned that sometimes you just have to jump and build your wings on the way down. Did I know for sure if coming to China was the “right” decision for me? Did I know for sure if that was what I really wanted?

No. I really had no idea. But I knew that I didn’t want a good opportunity to slip by. And in order for good opportunities to not slip by, we sometimes just have to take a leap of faith and go for it, even if we are unsure and afraid. We have to make decisions and do something if we want something to happen.

I made a decision, and I did something. And guess what? Something is happening! It’s called living, teaching, and exploring in China for four months.

I’m glad that my “something” is China. And I am excited to share my experiences with you!

Zaijian! (Goodbye!)