The cradle of the revolution

18.04.2014

I got the first bus out and then bought my ticket for the day. 230 yuan! It seems to have changed since my lonely planet was published. The tickets are now all inclusive and there is a free bus that shuttles you around to all the sights. From there, I proceeded to hike down to the Five Dragon Pools waterfall, which was completely empty. It was too early for the cable car so no one was there. Even the guards were asleep. I didn't need the cable car so I went all the way down and all the way up on foot before it even started up. There really were five waterfalls, so that was a spectacular way to start my day. I got some more mountain spring water here, that was exciting also. At the end of the hike I was so sweaty and hot, I changed into the only other thing I brought, a tiny dress.

Next stop was the bunker and watch post for the communist revolution fighters at huangyangjie. Kind of cool to be up there where they were. Oh funny thing that I saw. There are troops of people always walking around with the same uniforms the soldiers wore in the 1920s. There must be some sort of tour company that provides this "authentic experience" I guess.

From there I went to "Five Fingers Peak". I thought it was going to be another sweaty hike, and I got all mentally prepared for it, but it was just a stop on the bus route where you got out, took a picture and then got back on the bus. This mountain is on the back of the old 100 yuan note. It's the highest place in the park.

Then, I still had the rest of the afternoon left, so I stopped at the revolutionary museum, full of dioramas! Asians love dioramas. I kind of got the gist of the whole war that happened and why people might be so proud of it. It basically was a bunch of starving, desperate people systematically taking over one rural area after another in China, until they could attack the cities together. That's the idea that I got from the museum anyway. So, it shows what you can do when people are upset enough to make a big change when no one has anything to lose. Most of it was in Chinese, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Then, it was kind of an ordeal getting back into the park, because I didn't understand how the buses worked. I sat down where I thought the bus would come and had a snack. I figured this would require some wait time. However, it did not. The buses came one after another, and never stopped. Even if I jumped up and down waving and shouting at them. Finally, I went to the other side, where I got off, and got on the bus. To my surprise, it went exactly where I wanted to go... the terminus.

From there, it was just one more bus that took me to the former headquarters of the revolution. Mao lived here with a bunch of other important guys from the army at the time. There was also a rock that Mao used to sit on and read all his important documents there. So people would go and sit on it and take pictures reading there also.

After all this I was exhausted. I went back to the same hotel room that I was at yesterday, had some dinner and then went to bed early.

Old 100 yuan note