Day 5 - Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

The whole trip had originally been conceived of as a skiing trip. The trouble is Chinese people aren't really all the enamored with skiing. Skiing is pretty much an upper middle class sport. It's expensive you have ski, poles, boots, and all manner of other equipment to rent plus lift tickets and what not. China also, despite containing Mount Everest, is mostly flat, or at least it is in the heavily populated areas. Finally, Chinese people just don't really want to ski. Australians are really outdoorsy people so despite having basically no snow in the whole country just go to the one ski area they have which they refer to as "the snow." All the Chinese people I talked to noted how dangerous skiing is and had a sort of attitude of, "Why would you possibly waste your time with that?" So China has fairly minimal options for skiing. They have one fairly famous place but Dave read a lot of bad reviews of it online that said the cost was just way too high for what you got. Beidahu a small place near Jilin.

The first problem was getting there. Beidahu is close to Jilin but not public transportation close. We were able to get a good price on a taxi, about 150 from a cab we waved down. The road there theoretically two lanes in both directions But the road had only been plowed one lane wide both ways. This isn't to say that the unploughed parts were inches deep in snow, though they did look pretty slippery in the freezing air. The driver stuck to the plowed parts unless he was passing someone, which when traveling roughly double the 60km speed limit is pretty often. I sat in the front, which is always the most terrifying place to sit in a car in China since you have a first hand view of all the near fatalities. Mostly I'm fairly desensitized to the reckless driving by now, but there are still moments that make me gasp. Dave likes to quote a statistic saying that traffic fatalities are the number one killer of Chinese men between 18 and 41. The worst moment came when we had just finished passing someone and had pulled back into the plowed section, which there was near the edge of the road, when from out of the bushes a heard of cows and, what I think were, water buffalo emerged onto the road. The driver avoided them while only having to swerve a little, but we missed the lead cow by about two feet. If the driver hadn't been on his game we would have slammed head long into these buffalo, we'd be dead, the car would be ruined, and the beef would be over tender.

We finally made it to the ski resort, which well looks like any other ski resort. I rented equipment, put stuff in lockers, and just generally prepared myself for the unbelievable cold. In fact the only thing remarkable about it was how little it looked like any place in China. China has plenty of stores and things like America, but usually there is some perceivable Chinese difference. In fact once people had their face masks and goggles on you couldn't even tell who was Chinese. I'd been skiing a number of times in the past but the most recent one was probably six years ago, and what I didn't remember until later was six years ago I was a little rusty. All in all I greatly overestimate my skill before getting up on the mountain. The mountain had something like six lifts and six runs total spread across three difficulty levels. The main problem was that there was only one beginner run and it was pretty much straight down hill. At first I was completely useless and couldn't even remember how to turn. That much came back to me after a few falls but anything more advanced continued to elude me. It took me so long to get down the hill that I did a grand total of about six or seven runs all day.

It was also much harder than I remember it being. I didn't remember it was so tiring to turn back and forth along the mountain. After a while I called it quits for lunch and Ken and Lynn followed a little while later. There were several options for lunch but one section had dumplings and some other stuff so we ended up there. The problem was unless you basically grabbed the servers around the collier it was impossible to get their attention. They were much happier just serving all the Chinese people their and ignoring us. Ken in particular had to wait about 15 minutes before they would even take his order and was getting pretty angry. In all the confusion me and Lynn ordered way too many dumplings and we had to get another doggy bag, though this time I'm pretty sure there was no dog in it. We skied some more in the afternoon. I had to go to the bathroom at one point which, thank God, included a sit toilet. I've seen a lot of strange things in China, and I've gotten to the point where I'll believe almost anything, but I refuse to believe it's possible to use a squat toilet while wearing ski boots. I came in first but Ken was out on the mountain until they pretty much closed it down. By the time we got everything turned in the whole place was closing for the night.

We asked some one where we could get a cab and they just gestured outside. When we got outside though there wasn't a soul to be seen. Luckily for us there were some girls who worked in the ski resort leaving. We talked to them and they got some one they knew to give us a ride back to town for about what we paid to get there. The girls worked at the ski resort in the winter. They probably worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 800 RMB, less than 1/4th of what I make, a month. They were happy to have the job though since, like all Chinese people, they could live for free in dorms near the job. The guy who drove us back was the complete opposite of the one who drove us there. He drove about half the speed limit, though that was probably necessary on the unlit highways. When we reached a toll both he just rolled down his window and waved for the guy to let him through. He just pulled up and talked to the toll both person a little and they let him through without paying. I'm not sure what kind of taxi driver drives around without paying fees, but he's the kind I like. We had asked the hotel to hold our bags since we weren't sure when we'd be back. When we came back they were a little confused but copied down all our information again diligently, about a 20 minute process. I don't know how many rouge American illegal immigrants there are in China, but the hotels in freezing cold Jilin are apparently the first line of defense.