Luo Fu Shan

So we are back again to another blog entry. This one being the last one for a couple of weeks, as come Tuesday I am flying out to Nepal for a couple of weeks, I shall not be taking my laptop so there will be a small break.

This weeks entry is focused on a place called Luo Fu Shan (Lwor foo shan) ; Shan meaning mountain in Chinese. As I mentioned a few weeks back, I have been doing some summer work for a friend here and yesterday was the last full day of the summer camp. So we took some of the children to this mountain, we managed to get the children about half way up through blood, a lot of sweat and many…many…MANY tears!  Here in Huizhou at the moment the temperatures are regularly reaching the high 30’s with around a 90% humidity, so as you can imagine it can get pretty uncomfortable! Well climbing a mountain that is covered in forest most of the way is quite the challenge, but in no way was it not enjoyable! And the animals I managed to see just on a brief visit and with a large group of loud children leaves me itching to get back on my own and for a couple of days!

If you can avoid national holidays then coming to this place is truly special. This is my second visit to the mountain, the first being during a holiday and that is something I do not wish to repeat. There were huge crowds and there was masses of litter everywhere. It saddens me to say that the Chinese have very little respect for their environment. But yesterday was a different story, it was relatively quiet there, we saw only one or two other parties on our way up, the trails were relatively clear of litter by Chinese standards and it was very peaceful!

It is really nice being able to get out of the city and get in to the relative quiet of the countryside; I have always been a person who is at his happiest when surrounded by nature, peace and quiet. Sometimes I wonder why I chose to come to China when its pretty much the exact opposite of that. When going to places like Luo Fu Shan it makes you realise that China does have some truly beautiful places, and it fuels me with the thirst to try and see as many of them as I can before they disappear forever. In my few hours I saw a large array of beautiful butterflies, some interesting spiders, literally thousands of dragonflies, beautiful grasshoppers, toads and my students even saw a praying mantis, which I unfortunately arrived too late to get a photo of. The highlight for me was seeing a stunning little Kingfisher just after we arrived. Walking along the side of a large lake, this beautiful little bird perched briefly right in front of me, unfortunately when I lifted my camera to take a photo it flew off. The one that got away!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the photos.

This is apparently one of the oldest temples in the province of Guangdong. And it looks genuinely old.

It hadn’t rained at all, this just shows you how humid it is there!

The weather wasn’t too great for landscapes, high pollution levels, hence the horrible haze.

Empty wasp nests, none of us knew why it was there, but i thought it looked interesting.

The pleasant view from half way up the mountain.

Directly below!

Hazy Pollution

This baby does not look impressed!

All these red ribbons on the trees signify wishes that people have made. It could be a wish for love, happiness, courage…anything.

Feeding the fish!

Taking these last two photos was a challenge, the shop owner kept telling me to stop taking photos and was trying to block me, perseverance however rewarded me. Selling this is illegal and hence the fact that they did not want me photographing this. This is just a very small and minor part of the HUGE illegal animal trade in South East Asia.

 

I hope you enjoyed this weeks post.

Check back in in 2-3 weeks after I get back from Nepal.

 

–Themanabroad–