Our travel here on Thursday was an interesting and hectic day - we met at CICAMS at 6:30 am, went to the airport by private car and caught a plane to Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan. On the way, Dr. Qiao had told us we would be interviewed by a reporter for the China National News, but in reality she was just coming along to get a story in Gejiu and did not ask us any formal questions. The plane was about an hour late leaving, so we arrived in Kunming around 1:30 pm. We had a hurried lunch, then rushed off so we could visit the Stone Forest on our way to Gejiu.
The Stone Forest is an impressive collection of karst stones, some little, some really big rocks with sharp, spiky edges, all piled up together. There are lines in the rock from where prehistoric ocean levels were at different times, and there are fossils to be seen if you look closely enough. There were rocks labeled as 'the Elephant' and 'Sword Stone' etc, and there was a pavilion on top of one of the formations which allowed a magnificent view of the whole park. It was really quite impressive, and apparently one of Dr. Qiao's favorite places as he wanted to take us there.
We left there around 4 pm, with the intention of arriving in Gejiu by around 6 or 7 pm. We got about an hour out of town however and hit a massive traffic jam...and sat...and crept forward 2 inches...and sat some more. The driver kept getting out of the car and back in to go look down the road, and we would pass a car, then inch back into line, then sit some more... Eventually, right before dusk, we got to a police car who said the road was closed due to a traffic accident and we had to turn around. We managed to turn around...and then hit another traffic jam going the other way. It was dark now, and cars were honking and angry. As we were pulling off the road to get on a little bypass to Kunming, another car cut us off and we had a minor scrape on the fender, much to the chagrin of our driver as it was a new car - not even license plates yet! We managed to get onto the little side road, and all had to pile out of the car to make it lighter so it could make the sharp turn onto a little bridge...only to realize that the bridge had a problem with it blocking the way as well. The driver had to back down a hill very slowly on a dirt road full of holes to get back onto the highway.
We ended up following a tour bus also going to Gejiu on a really bumpy back road for about an hour to get to another highway. By this point it was dark, and at some point we lost the tour bus, requiring many stops and asking for directions. We didn't get to Gejiu until 1 am, but we were so glad when we finally made it!
I have my old computer on this trip and I forgot that it does not have a SD card reader slot, so I'm afraid that while I can leave text posts, I won't be able to post any pictures until I return to Beijing on the 21st unless I get lucky -- sorry! More to come on our day in Gejiu.
oh my gosh, that sounds like a car ride from hell! im so glad you made it, but I'm even happier that I wasn't with you. :P Oh, the stories that China produces!
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