Rediscovering Eden
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the bright and morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart
Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are
I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
Who Am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who Am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me
Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
I am Yours
dailies
Monday, November 24, 2008
香山-250908
-6:41 PM
This day, I woke up the earliest I've ever done so since I reached Beijing-415am. Most of my friends going to 香山 also woke up around the same time cos all of us wanted to catch the first train at 545am. And yes, we need to wake up so fringging early cos the walk to the train station isnt exactly near. When we reached 西直门station, or o i think its that station, we took another bus to the location itself and the bus ride took one and a half hours I think cos all of us had a good deep sleep save for the occasional cold wind that woke us up.
We were there to catch the 红叶 cos its already late autumn, but the mountains dont look too red right? The reports say that it is only ~43% red.
There were many people from the class but this was the group I was with, or at least was with, at the start. (I seem to have a problem keeping up with the group cos I'll find something nice and wander off to take pictures.)
I thought I saw XZ's white jacket infront so I wasnt too worried, until I reached a fork and I didn know which way to walk, did i call Feng U and asked where they were. It turned out that I had walked ahead of them instead. When i finally joined the group at 清翠湖, (cos we missed each other on my way down again), XZ was like "You, stand next to me!" haha and she permanently became my nanny for the trip. I'm quite amused by her antics and she is quite amused by my blur-ness.
My fav picture but I really should have taken the bridge too. Anyway, the pond which had orange-red maple leaves had the reflection of the maple tree too!
Revealing God's Creation.
Polar Bear and Teddy Bear.
Ignore whatever I was doing (i was pointing to some cricket). The little 歌诀 is quite interesting.
2040
The leaves of one tree were golden yellow under the sun's ray while the other was still green.
YT trying to imitate Mao Zhu Xi.
This was the start of my group's very exciting adventure. Instead of walking the normal man-made pavement, we decided to climb up this steep thingy to take photo..yes climb..on all fours. Feng U refused to climb up and so was our photographer. But when we were up there, we realised we couldnt come down and so Feng U had to climb up with us. It was really a dangerous climb, one that my mum would probably scold me for climbing cos if i miss my foothold..hmm. So the five of us (the clique shrank cos the original one was too big and they wanted to go the other direction at the fork earlier..we overheard the ranger said that the direction we went had more red leaves and so we decided to take that route.)
The view when we finally climbed up that steep thingy..and no, it isnt the top of 香山 yet. (Actually there are many tops because 香山 is a range of hills/mountains. Its really just hills though the climb up looked as if we were climbing a mountain.
And we continue climbing upwards, ducking as leaves and branches came in our way, and walking in a single file when the road became too narrow. And we pasted ourselves against the wall when the PRCs who climbed up too wanted to move faster.
I love the blue sky!
Orange-red leaves against the blue sky!
Part of our track.
Red leaf.
We finally hit the pavement road again and climbed this whole flightSSSS of stairs (I felt that it was National Vertical Marathon all over again) before we decided that we should stop for lunch.
Our picnic! YT and CY had the egg mayo with them but YF who had the bread and was suppose to share the egg mayo with them, was with the other group. I had my whole loaf of bread with me, so in the end, we split the bread and egg mayo and cucumber and tomato amongst the five of us. Super yummy! The wind was really strong though! I should have worn a cap or something.
Then we continued our climb and finally met the other group. They were coming from the opposite direction! XZ and I really wanted to take the super swingy cable car ride down the mountain, NOT because we were tired but cos the wind was super strong and the cable car would be swinging in the wind...CY took such a ride before and she said that though its an experience that everyone should have, er...she rather walk down. Hee.
In the end, we decided to walk down because the ride was 60RMB and i felt that it was on a bit too ex. We went pass stalls selling food, so we bought food and shared. On the way down the pavement road, all of us were getting a bit bored. The climb earlier was really exciting cos there were red leaves growing in the wild, in areas with lesser tramplings from Man and the fact tt we could slip and fall, made us all the more careful. The pavement road down had way too many people and it was boring to be just walking down steps. In the end, we ventured off into the mud-path again. hee. The locals were commenting on why we were taking the mud-path rather than the conventional pavements.
The view from one of our mud-paths.
Our climb down.
One of the pavilions we saw.
Me on one of the stones.
On our way down another mud-path, we came along this little brook and a whole family of squirrels..look like those i saw in the Zoo before i came to BJ. I couldnt take a photo of them cos they were moving really quickly.
We came along quite a few stones which had chinese characters engraved on them. Some of the stones were destroyed by the force which attacked China. Oh btw, there was also an area inside 香山 where Mao Ze Dong stayed too..hmm..it seems as if he stayed in several places of interests..hmm.
We met other people from the class at the exit and all of us had to squeeze with the rest of the world along the streets towards the bus stop. My goodness! The crowd at Orchard road is really nothing compared to the crowd in BJ. BJ really have some nice scenic places but the rudeness of the citizens..i'm like..argh! Like if you dont force your way through, you'll nv get on the bus cos the ppl here, they rush for the bus and step on your shoes. My friend's foot got caught as the bus closed the door, and the people on the bus were just scolding her for not moving in, oblivous to the fact that she is stuck. My other friends who were erm..more polite..didnt make it onto the bus with the rest of us. The bus ride was another one and a half to two hours journey to the train station. My legs were seriously going to give way. Thank God this couple stood up and XQ pushed me to the seat and sat on the ledge next to me. I slept all the way back to the train station, I almost missed the bus stop.
Thereafter, YT, CY, YQ,YC and I went to eat at the Food Republic at a mall owned by Capital Land. We were so excited to find Food Republic but were disappointed when we failed to find our char kway tiao.
All of us shared this Ice-kachang. It costs 18RMB which is expensive by local standards but it taste super good! Finally..
My duck meat and char siew rice. It doesn taste like the one in Singapore. :(
