Nearing the end of my internship at the hospital, I feel a mixture of both sadness and relief. Although communication was not always smooth, I still had great time making friends with the other acupuncture students. We were able to get most of the important ideas across in words and left the rest to intuiting facial expressions and hand gestures. I’ve had conversations about travel, healthcare, religion, and popular cultural beliefs. For instance, whenever someone finds out I’m married, they always say that I’m too young to be married. When asked what is a good age to get married, they answer between 28-30. It is apparently also normal to have a baby at 35 years old. Since the one child policy is still in effect, perhaps 35 is not as late as it is often perceived in the West. According to this timeline, I’m right on time! In Shanghai, the one child policy rule is bent if you and your spouse are each only children. In this way, that one child is then not the only one responsible for both parents and two sets of grandparents.
My feelings of relief come partly from finally getting away from the moxa smoke filled rooms, partly from leaving the boredom of watching formulaic acupuncture treatment plans that don’t seem as effective as they should be considering how often they are given, and partly from not having to face the mystifying lack hospital hygiene. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely got a lot of hands-on practice of techniques that I under utilize in the student clinic like moxa, glass cupping, tuina, and e-stim. I was also exposed to procedures that are not yet legal in most states like herbal point injection and non traditional uses of bing xiang powder. Additionally, I saw patients that I probably would not see otherwise in a regular clinic in the US simply because they were so infirmed, weak, or old.
I also had quite a bit of practice needling without a guide tube and although it was more difficult with very thin needles, I found it to be much more satisfying to needle and actually less painful to receive. The key to this technique is to throw out almost all our beliefs about clean needle technique and insert the needle while holding the shaft between your first and second fingers. Other common clean needle techniques not always observed include handwashing between patients, wearing gloves when bleeding patients or doing point injections, disinfecting cupping cups between patients, changing sheets or pillow cases between patients, and using sterile three edged needles for bleeding procedures. I will say though that I was reminded to always wipe down the patients skin with alcohol before needle insertion (which was rarely allowed to dry before needling), and to always place the lid for the cotton swabs upside down so as not to contaminate the alcohol soaked swabs. (give me a break!) I do want to add though that most if not all of the students try to practice better clean needle technique than the teacher. I do recall that one patient’s needles, when they were removed, were discarded as biomedical waste rather than soaked in a bucket of water before being sent to the autoclave, because she had a history of hepatitis. I didn’t catch which type of hepatitis but it likely was Hep B which is said to affect about 10 percent of the population. It seems to me that more needles might need to be disposed of in this way, but if the patient doesn’t tell you or you don’t ask, then you don’t know. I don’t know yet if there are any studies done linking Hep B transmission by acupuncture needles but I’ll keep you posted if I find anything.
My experience of Western hospitals in the US is the practice of super hygiene, no matter what it costs. Hand washing with alcohol or soap is a must, and drying with 1-2 paper towels is standard. In China, you are hard pressed to find soap in a public bathroom, let alone paper towels. Walk into this practically brand new hospital, and still you will only find soap in some locations though not bathrooms, and certainly nothing to dry your hands on except your clothes. It may sound like I’m getting a little OC about this, but actually I’m quite astonished by how few people seem to get ill from not engaging in the most highly recommended practice of good hygiene. (I actually find it refreshing that there is not an excess of half used paper towels in the trash bin). Walking around the wards, I also haven’t seen or heard of any cases of nosocomial infections such as MRSA where patients must be kept in isolation. It’s also probably that these infections are not testsed for on a regular basis due to costs. What maybe more interesting is that these conditions are probably a common sight in most hospitals in China. In fact I was warned that clean needle technique was not a high priority before I left from my teachers and other students who have visited China.
Lastly, the practice of acupuncture in the hospital, to me, seems lacking primarily due to the unawareness of the limits of using only the TCM paradigm of acupuncture, but secondarily due to the massive amounts of patients that must be seen and treated in a short period of time. The Doctor I followed is known for doing every modality for every patient no matter what. Everyone gets acupuncture, moxa, and tuina. Some also get cupping. Many patients come 3 times a week and get treated, usually by his students. With so many patients, and plenty of students to help, he seems to get by with the standard ST36, GB34, SP9, SP6 etc. I have only heard of a couple positive results from the treatments, but patients still keep returning. One disappointing case is of a middle aged woman with sciatic pain for 3 months. She is a hospital inpatient and gets treatments 3 times a week including acupuncture, moxa, tuina, herbal point injections, and herbal decoctions to drink. Although she has had nearly 30 treatments, she has seen little to no improvement. Because she cannot move around well, her muscles are atrophying. She gets the same exact points every time she comes into the treatment room. I actually wish I could try needling her with other points, just to see if other acupuncture paradigms might be more effective, but I don’t want to interfere or offend the Doctor in anyway.
Overall, I am glad I had this opportunity to see first hand how Chinese medicine is practiced in a modern hospital. I’m especially thankful to have spent even just a short amount of time in the outpatient cancer clinic to better understand how to integrate it when I begin to practice. With the sheer number of patients that come to the hospital, many with similar ailments, it is far easier to gain a familiarity with the more common patterns, diagnosis, and treatments.
I took this post down originally because I felt I wrote a little brashly about the conditions in the hospital and I didn’t want my blog to hurt in anyway all the people that were so kind and generous with their time and energy. After some time, thought and reading some other reports on Chinese hospitals, I decided that it was still important to convey my own observations. To be fair, I have removed all the names and pictures from the blog.
The following is some web links about medicine in China:
Another blog report of the lack of handwashing in another Chinese hospital. http://creamycam.blogspot.com/2007/01/sanitation.html
Website giving an overview of public health in China. Very interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Hospital observation: Week 3
For a change, I spent Tuesday and Thursday at the internal medicine oncology department. As usual the outpatient clinics were filled with people waiting to be seen the doctor. By the time I arrived at 8 am, the doctor already seen 30+ patients and was going full steam until about 11:30 when he saw his 88th patient. Because there was also a group of Bastyr college TCM students also observing the clinic, the doctor went through a slightly more in depth descriptions of many patients’ cancer diagnosis and their treatment protocols. From his 20+ years of oncology clinical experience and journal research, he has found that patients seem to have better survival rate when both TCM and western medicine are combined. Patients are routinely prescribed chemotherapy and an herbal formula that will also treat the cancer. IV injections and infusions of hua chan su, or Chinese Toad venom are common adjunctive therapies for cancer reduction. After medical interventions have been completed (like surgery, chemo, or radiation), the patient often continues to take herbal formulations to prevent tumor reoccurance and to improve related symptoms such as weight loss, loss of appetite, abnormal bowel movements, poor sleep, and low energy to name a few. The doctor also orders follow up imaging and diagnostic blood tests to determine the efficacy of both western and TCM interventions and to evaluate for metastases to other organs.
All types of cancer patients walked through the door today but the majority seemed to be related to the digestive system ie stomach, colon, and rectum. According to another oncology doc, the incidence of these cancers has been on the rise especially in Shanghai over the last 10 years primarily due to the increase in meat consumption and reduced fiber in diet*. There is a LOT of meat as well as processed sugar and flour consumed over here. A common complaint even in the regular clinics is abdominal distention and constipation with dry stools. I even saw one young man come in with a case of gout, no doubt from his high consumption of both meat and alcohol. Being in business, he said his clients have few options besides treating him to expensive meals to gain favor and to show their appreciation. Lung cancer patients were also a large percentage of the people that came to the clinic this week. Since I’ve haven’t really encountered that many individuals with cancer, I’ve never really thought about a person’s day to day existence after the diagnosis and treatment of the cancer. Many of the patients actually look quite healthy. If the cancer was not serious and they recovered well, they often just reported problems that could be more related to the weather or aging. They return however to the oncology doctor to ensure it’s not related to their previous cancer diagnosis. A few patients, however, were indeed in serious condition with metastatic disease to multiple locations. I was amazed they still managed to get out of the house too see the doctor. Occasionally the patient was not well enough and a family member would come to the clinic instead. A common practice in China for a patient with later stage cancer is to sign over responsibility of their care to a loved one so that they don’t have to know the full extent of their disease. They may know they for instance that they have lung cancer, but they don’t know that it has metastasized to their brain and bones. Only their family knows and they don’t discuss it with the patient. When I asked the doctor why this occurs, he said he has had many patients that when faced with the reality of their prognosis, they decide to commit suicide. He thinks, perhaps, they lose hope and don’t want to burden their family any longer.
* An interesting book I read several years ago called “The China Study: The most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted” by T. Colin Campell speaks to this exact phenomenon of the increase in wealth in China and in turn the increased consumption of meat products and how it relates to the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, and cancer.
All types of cancer patients walked through the door today but the majority seemed to be related to the digestive system ie stomach, colon, and rectum. According to another oncology doc, the incidence of these cancers has been on the rise especially in Shanghai over the last 10 years primarily due to the increase in meat consumption and reduced fiber in diet*. There is a LOT of meat as well as processed sugar and flour consumed over here. A common complaint even in the regular clinics is abdominal distention and constipation with dry stools. I even saw one young man come in with a case of gout, no doubt from his high consumption of both meat and alcohol. Being in business, he said his clients have few options besides treating him to expensive meals to gain favor and to show their appreciation. Lung cancer patients were also a large percentage of the people that came to the clinic this week. Since I’ve haven’t really encountered that many individuals with cancer, I’ve never really thought about a person’s day to day existence after the diagnosis and treatment of the cancer. Many of the patients actually look quite healthy. If the cancer was not serious and they recovered well, they often just reported problems that could be more related to the weather or aging. They return however to the oncology doctor to ensure it’s not related to their previous cancer diagnosis. A few patients, however, were indeed in serious condition with metastatic disease to multiple locations. I was amazed they still managed to get out of the house too see the doctor. Occasionally the patient was not well enough and a family member would come to the clinic instead. A common practice in China for a patient with later stage cancer is to sign over responsibility of their care to a loved one so that they don’t have to know the full extent of their disease. They may know they for instance that they have lung cancer, but they don’t know that it has metastasized to their brain and bones. Only their family knows and they don’t discuss it with the patient. When I asked the doctor why this occurs, he said he has had many patients that when faced with the reality of their prognosis, they decide to commit suicide. He thinks, perhaps, they lose hope and don’t want to burden their family any longer.
* An interesting book I read several years ago called “The China Study: The most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted” by T. Colin Campell speaks to this exact phenomenon of the increase in wealth in China and in turn the increased consumption of meat products and how it relates to the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, and cancer.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
China on China: Hangzhou
pictures now, commentary to follow...
http://picasaweb.google.com/adrienne.kam/ChinaOnChinaHangzhou?authkey=5dDle81UIck
http://picasaweb.google.com/
Hospital observation: Week 2
I’ve managed to make friends with a few of the students who are able to speak a little bit of 
English which makes my experience much more interesting and enjoyable. We all mainly follow Doctor X who is a jovial and enthusiastic teacher and practitioner. What I love most about him is his easy laugh, his joy in teaching and learning, and his fearlessness in speaking English. As much as I berate myself for speaking Chinese poorly, I’ve come to understand that many if not most of the Chinese under a certain age, maybe 40, have been learning English in school since they were kids. Some started even in primary school. So while I’ve in truth just been actively learning Chinese for no more than two years total in my whole life, many students have bee
n studying for 10-12+ years. And truly, many of them cannot speak at all. Like myself in the US, they have no one around with whom to practice except each other. And like myself, many are shy and reserved, especially with foreigners, so creating the opportunities to practice is almost impossible.
Interestingly enough, Dr Y who has been arranging my observation schedule at the hospital, is also the director of international cooperation/relations in the hospital. His English is quite good and he sees the value in finding ways to engage in conversation in English. He has set up two English classes for doctors and nurses at the hospital to help them improve their oral English and asked me to join them to help with their conversation skills. This week, because their regular teacher could not make it to class, he asked me to run the class so that they would not go 2 whole weeks without speaking English. Luckily, not too many people made it to class that night so we were able to just converse as friends learning about each other’s cultures. Dr Yu attends these classes as well, and while I have a hard time piecing together his long string of ideas, he is still able to express his ideas more fully in English than I ever will Chinese. The other students are young nurses that have come from far away. I asked them to tell me about their hometown and what they usually do for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Of the three women, two were from towns near Beijing. The other grew up near Nanjing. Because they work so much, they don’t often go home except for the Chinese New Year celebration.
Actually a lot of my day is spent in translation in addition to observation of acupuncture. The students do not learn the points numbers such as SP9 and GB34 but rather as yinlingquan and yanglingquan. Most of the time, Dr Yu gives me instructions in Chinese so I’ve had to learn basic acupuncture vocabulary such as zhen jiu (acupuncture), huo guan (cupping), ai zhen (moxa), and dian zhen (e-stim). I also had to do a little cramming on body parts names in Chinese while my student friends try to fill me in other medical pathology which is just as logical and easily forgotton as medical terminology in English. I’ve already attended a couple lectures in Chinese, one on respiratory disorders and one on how to read XRAY, CT, and MRI for spinal problems which both left me oddly exhausted.
As there is a lot of down time in the afternoons when things aren’t so busy in the inpatient department, I have many opportunities to chat with the students about their education system and plans for the future. Students begin their medical university studies at about age 18 and receive their bachelors after about 4 or 5 years. Then they take an exam and prepare to intern in the hospital for another 3-4 years to receive their masters degree. It is common to study only didactics or theory for 5 years before getting any hands on experience. One student who is close to graduating said that his parents wanted him to study TCM and he actually disliked it for the first 5 years until he started interning in the hospital. In the US, we complain that one year is too long to be only learning theory before starting in the clinic. Generally the only option for work as a TCM doctor is in a hospital. There apparently aren’t many jobs available but that doesn’t seem to affect the enrollment of the University which grows more and more each year. A small percentage of the school is composed of international students, or more specifically, Korean students. What’s interesting is they are taught in separate classes from the Chinese students and of course, are charged much more money but they are also taught in Chinese. When the time comes, they all intern in the same place. Many students thought I was Korean at first because of the way I spoke Chinese. The majority of the students I’ve met are not from Shanghai and are planning to return to their home towns to practice acupuncture or herbs. After working several years, some students may elect to pursue a PhD where they will have to find a teacher to follow for another 3-5 years. Like academia in the States, doing research and getting published are important ways of getting ahead.
English which makes my experience much more interesting and enjoyable. We all mainly follow Doctor X who is a jovial and enthusiastic teacher and practitioner. What I love most about him is his easy laugh, his joy in teaching and learning, and his fearlessness in speaking English. As much as I berate myself for speaking Chinese poorly, I’ve come to understand that many if not most of the Chinese under a certain age, maybe 40, have been learning English in school since they were kids. Some started even in primary school. So while I’ve in truth just been actively learning Chinese for no more than two years total in my whole life, many students have bee
n studying for 10-12+ years. And truly, many of them cannot speak at all. Like myself in the US, they have no one around with whom to practice except each other. And like myself, many are shy and reserved, especially with foreigners, so creating the opportunities to practice is almost impossible.Interestingly enough, Dr Y who has been arranging my observation schedule at the hospital, is also the director of international cooperation/relations in the hospital. His English is quite good and he sees the value in finding ways to engage in conversation in English. He has set up two English classes for doctors and nurses at the hospital to help them improve their oral English and asked me to join them to help with their conversation skills. This week, because their regular teacher could not make it to class, he asked me to run the class so that they would not go 2 whole weeks without speaking English. Luckily, not too many people made it to class that night so we were able to just converse as friends learning about each other’s cultures. Dr Yu attends these classes as well, and while I have a hard time piecing together his long string of ideas, he is still able to express his ideas more fully in English than I ever will Chinese. The other students are young nurses that have come from far away. I asked them to tell me about their hometown and what they usually do for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Of the three women, two were from towns near Beijing. The other grew up near Nanjing. Because they work so much, they don’t often go home except for the Chinese New Year celebration.
Actually a lot of my day is spent in translation in addition to observation of acupuncture. The students do not learn the points numbers such as SP9 and GB34 but rather as yinlingquan and yanglingquan. Most of the time, Dr Yu gives me instructions in Chinese so I’ve had to learn basic acupuncture vocabulary such as zhen jiu (acupuncture), huo guan (cupping), ai zhen (moxa), and dian zhen (e-stim). I also had to do a little cramming on body parts names in Chinese while my student friends try to fill me in other medical pathology which is just as logical and easily forgotton as medical terminology in English. I’ve already attended a couple lectures in Chinese, one on respiratory disorders and one on how to read XRAY, CT, and MRI for spinal problems which both left me oddly exhausted.
As there is a lot of down time in the afternoons when things aren’t so busy in the inpatient department, I have many opportunities to chat with the students about their education system and plans for the future. Students begin their medical university studies at about age 18 and receive their bachelors after about 4 or 5 years. Then they take an exam and prepare to intern in the hospital for another 3-4 years to receive their masters degree. It is common to study only didactics or theory for 5 years before getting any hands on experience. One student who is close to graduating said that his parents wanted him to study TCM and he actually disliked it for the first 5 years until he started interning in the hospital. In the US, we complain that one year is too long to be only learning theory before starting in the clinic. Generally the only option for work as a TCM doctor is in a hospital. There apparently aren’t many jobs available but that doesn’t seem to affect the enrollment of the University which grows more and more each year. A small percentage of the school is composed of international students, or more specifically, Korean students. What’s interesting is they are taught in separate classes from the Chinese students and of course, are charged much more money but they are also taught in Chinese. When the time comes, they all intern in the same place. Many students thought I was Korean at first because of the way I spoke Chinese. The majority of the students I’ve met are not from Shanghai and are planning to return to their home towns to practice acupuncture or herbs. After working several years, some students may elect to pursue a PhD where they will have to find a teacher to follow for another 3-5 years. Like academia in the States, doing research and getting published are important ways of getting ahead.
Hospital observation: Week 1
My month of observation in a Chinese hospital has officially begun. After only a couple days, I think I’ve inhaled enough moxa smoke to consider regularly drinking green tea to hopefully offset the deleterious effects of the smoke. So far, I’m happy to say that I have lots of opportunities to practice my Chinese even though I still have difficulties understanding people.
In an inpatient ward called the TCM center where I observe, the doctors attempt to only utilize Chinese medicine to treat many types of ailments. I found out that patients in fact can decide which wards they will be admitted to depending on they kind of treatments they prefer and can afford.
In the outpatient clinics, there are famous old herbal masters with patients overflowing into the halls and flocks of students trying to glean pearls from his knowledge. Some of my time so far has been spent in the outpatient acupuncture department where chaos ensues from 7:30 am to noon. Patients arrive early to queue up and each waits patiently for their time with the doctor.
However the clinic room is nowhere close to peaceful or private. Often there are at least 4 or 5 patients standing around listening to the consultation and diagnosis and just as many are watching the treatment. The doctor saw perhaps 10 patients in 30-40 minutes, wrote herbal formulas, popped in needles, then returned to talk to more patients while his students took care of the paperwork, herbal prescription order, moxa, electro stimulation, cupping, and tuina. Just about every patient got moxa and after about 20 minutes in a room with at least 6 patients fuming, the room becomes hazy, warm, and suffocating. This doctor is a very popular doctor and is known for using many techniques for treating his patients. One of his regulars is a young man who suffers from residual facial paralysis from Bell’s palsy. He used not only needles in the face, but also electrical stimulation to initiate muscle contractions. A moxa box was put on his cheek and he laid there for at least 30 minutes. The patient then had flash cupping with glass cups on his cheek to increase blood circulation. He then had a small amount of bing pian or borneol powder placed directly on his eyeball to stimulate the trigeminal nerve. Lastly he got tuina or facial massage. Even with all these modalities, it was reported to me that there has not been much improvement. The patient continues to come at least twice a week so maybe something will change in time. Another favorite technique is bleeding from DU14 for clearing heat in the body which manifests in things like acne and restlessness. From a little plastic test tube that he carries around with him, he pulls out one of several 3 edged needles that appears to be soaking in alcohol. After cleaning the area around seventh cervical vertebrae, he quickly and deeply stabs about 10-15 times and then a vacuum sealed glass cup is placed over the skin to assist in pulling the blood out. It's painful, messy, and a lot more difficult to do correctly than you would think.
In the inpatient TCM center, the acupuncturist arranges to give
treatments 3 times a week between the hours of 8 am and noon to about 20-30 inpatients with the help of several interns. Treatments are given either in a separate room on the floor or in the patients’ rooms. Like the outpatient clinic, it does not take long for the small 5 cot room to fill up with moxa smoke and we have to step out often to gulp in the fresh air in the hallway, which ironically smells of cigarettes from the smokers in the nearby stairwell. On this ward, the most common ailments seem to be low back and neck pain, sciatica, stroke, 
and general malaise and fatigue. Besides the more familiar treatments used in the outpatient clinic, here patients are also given IV injections and infusions of Chinese herbs like dang gui or hong hua to tonify the body and strongly move stagnations. One woman received herbal injections of huang qi or astragalus directly into the muscle in acupuncture points known to tonify the body including SP6, ST36 on the lower leg, and RN4, and RN6 just below the belly button. She suffered from lassitude and coldness.
In an inpatient ward called the TCM center where I observe, the doctors attempt to only utilize Chinese medicine to treat many types of ailments. I found out that patients in fact can decide which wards they will be admitted to depending on they kind of treatments they prefer and can afford.
In the outpatient clinics, there are famous old herbal masters with patients overflowing into the halls and flocks of students trying to glean pearls from his knowledge. Some of my time so far has been spent in the outpatient acupuncture department where chaos ensues from 7:30 am to noon. Patients arrive early to queue up and each waits patiently for their time with the doctor.
However the clinic room is nowhere close to peaceful or private. Often there are at least 4 or 5 patients standing around listening to the consultation and diagnosis and just as many are watching the treatment. The doctor saw perhaps 10 patients in 30-40 minutes, wrote herbal formulas, popped in needles, then returned to talk to more patients while his students took care of the paperwork, herbal prescription order, moxa, electro stimulation, cupping, and tuina. Just about every patient got moxa and after about 20 minutes in a room with at least 6 patients fuming, the room becomes hazy, warm, and suffocating. This doctor is a very popular doctor and is known for using many techniques for treating his patients. One of his regulars is a young man who suffers from residual facial paralysis from Bell’s palsy. He used not only needles in the face, but also electrical stimulation to initiate muscle contractions. A moxa box was put on his cheek and he laid there for at least 30 minutes. The patient then had flash cupping with glass cups on his cheek to increase blood circulation. He then had a small amount of bing pian or borneol powder placed directly on his eyeball to stimulate the trigeminal nerve. Lastly he got tuina or facial massage. Even with all these modalities, it was reported to me that there has not been much improvement. The patient continues to come at least twice a week so maybe something will change in time. Another favorite technique is bleeding from DU14 for clearing heat in the body which manifests in things like acne and restlessness. From a little plastic test tube that he carries around with him, he pulls out one of several 3 edged needles that appears to be soaking in alcohol. After cleaning the area around seventh cervical vertebrae, he quickly and deeply stabs about 10-15 times and then a vacuum sealed glass cup is placed over the skin to assist in pulling the blood out. It's painful, messy, and a lot more difficult to do correctly than you would think.In the inpatient TCM center, the acupuncturist arranges to give
treatments 3 times a week between the hours of 8 am and noon to about 20-30 inpatients with the help of several interns. Treatments are given either in a separate room on the floor or in the patients’ rooms. Like the outpatient clinic, it does not take long for the small 5 cot room to fill up with moxa smoke and we have to step out often to gulp in the fresh air in the hallway, which ironically smells of cigarettes from the smokers in the nearby stairwell. On this ward, the most common ailments seem to be low back and neck pain, sciatica, stroke, 
and general malaise and fatigue. Besides the more familiar treatments used in the outpatient clinic, here patients are also given IV injections and infusions of Chinese herbs like dang gui or hong hua to tonify the body and strongly move stagnations. One woman received herbal injections of huang qi or astragalus directly into the muscle in acupuncture points known to tonify the body including SP6, ST36 on the lower leg, and RN4, and RN6 just below the belly button. She suffered from lassitude and coldness.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Night moves
Matt here, I just have to post this because I have seen it two or three times a week since I've been here and it seems totally normal to me now. At some pre-scheduled times during the week, a mob of middle-aged to not-so-middle-aged ballroom dancers claim the plaza outside of the subway stop nearest to our home and turn it into a swishing, hopping, spinning, chuckling, chatting party. Enjoy.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Misty Mountains
I took off Thursday and Friday last week and Adrienne and I ventured out of the city to go to Huangshan mountain – a national park in southern Anhui province that inspired infinite generations of poets and water-colorists. With the help of my work colleagues, I made an online reservation for some bunkbeds in a hotel on top of the mountain online through a group with the somewhat-non-hetero sounding name tourboys. When they wrote back and asked whether we were both men, I started to wonder what kind of resort this was. We took an overnight train out of Shanghai on Wednesday night and arrived at Huangshan city at the base of the mountain on Thursday morning after cruising through countless misty farming valleys and mountain tunnels. We took a gondola up into the clouds to the top of the mountain, and hiked a couple of kilometers in to our hotel, where they split us up into separate male-female bunk rooms with no locks on the doors. Just as we were wondering aloud if we might luck out and get the rooms to ourselves, the rain started to pour down and a raucous group of chainsmoking tourists came in to claim their bunks. They started turning on the TV and the shower and chatting ever louder so that they could hear each other over the noise,. I took one look at Adrienne trying to take a nap amidst the chaos, and went to the front desk for a room upgrade (good husband pat on the head). We spent the next three days in the park, which was more amazing than I expected, there were miles and miles of beautiful granite pathways with benches, pools, handrails, and even trashcans built in a naturalistic – sculpted garden sort of way. The park was so enormous that the paths didn't feel like an intrusion on the natural area, they were quite beautiful themselves, and they held up well under all of the foot traffic. Sometimes they were attached to the sheer face of rock suspended over a canyon that dropped down 500 feet below. It was amazing. There were 5 hotels and probably 10 restaurants on top of the hill, and all of their supplies were carried up the 8km of stairs by an army of porters who must be the fittest people I have ever seen. The only reason we could think of as to why they did not use the 3 gondolas to transport the goods up the mountain was perhaps to intentionally employ a ton of locals, or maybe it was all part of training for some exclusive martial arts society. I kept looking in the misty treetops to catch a glimpse of them jumping vast distances. I think my illiteracy is making my imagination run a little wild. Check out the link for pictures.
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