She Shan

On Friday 22/8 (8/22 for those of you in the US) Anne had a work convention at She Shan. She was told that it was a pretty tourist area. She asked one of her co-workers (in Chinese) if she thought it would be a good place for the both of us to see. This resulted in a slightly awkward moment followed by a big laugh. *Attention* here is your 1st lesson in Mandarin (Chinese). Like English there are words in Chinese that have the same spelling, but have different meanings. An English example is the word bat. It can mean the flying mammal or the baseball equipment. The Chinese solved this problem by using tones to differentiate which one of the several same spelled words they are talking about. Well, apparently the first word (She) pronounced “shuh” in the 2nd tone means mountain, but in the 4th tone, which Anne accidentally used (unaware of its meaning) means pervert. Essentially changing what I believe is (Snake) Mountain to Sex Mountain. Whoops..... Well I am sure both probably have a bunch to see, but I think we will stick to Snake Mountain.

Anne’s conference was held at the Le Mèridien Hotel (the dash on the “e” actually goes the other way, but I couldn’t figure it out on my keyboard). During which I took some pictures of the hotel. It was actually quite pretty, housing a wedding chapel on its grounds.

After the conference we went to She Shan. Though more of a big hill than a mountain it was quite pretty (and a tiring climb in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity. As I am still winded just thinking about it, I will let the pictures talk for themselves.

As it turns out simply watching the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is not enough training to duplicate their battle on the tops of a bamboo forest, but I thought I would give it a try.

Ancient and beautiful. If you look hard you might actually see the "ski lift" that takes you up to it... Unfortunately it was closed for our visit. This Hill is home to She Shan Basilica the largest Christian church building in East Asia and was at one time the destination of pilgrims from across Asia. Feel free to Google it.

With all of the physical exertion and the time contemplating our Zen like experience up on Mt. She Shan we learned 2 ultimate truths.

1. Given a camera and time both Anne and I will enjoy making idiots of ourselves through pictures.

2. Apparently, I look slightly like Adam Sandler when I am fearful for my life.