Friday, April 30, 2010

April 16 Volcano Park:

We visited a large park that had several extinct volcanoes. It was a short climb to the top and then we walked around the rim. We skipped the larger volcano since the stairs went up forever. I found a friendly driver who volunteered to take us on a tour of the park road, which meanders 12 km through the park. He was driving a decrepit motorcycle with a wagon, which held 4 midgets or 2 of us. He polluted the environment going uphill and turned the engine off going downhill. At the end of the road there are stairs leading down into a river valley and a scenic spot called the “Columnar Joint”. We walked down about 600 steps and along the river to the “Joint”.

After a lunch of green boiled eggs we walked along the river to the next parking lot. At this point we realized our friendly driver had stranded us, miles from nowhere. The parking lot attendant flagged down a car, which took us halfway home. Then while we were trying to figure out the second half a Chinese tourist, who spoke English, took us back to Tengcheng in his personal car. In the middle of China he was driving a chevrolet.

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