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September 3, 2000
At 6:20 AM this morning I finally began to explore Yuelu Mountain, which rises steeply behind the GuestHouse. I climbed up steep and muddy red clay trails past what I assume are gravesites. They are circular depressions I the ground with vertical stones at the back of the depression against a wall of rock. Some of them have entrances to the circle.
I hiked under a cable car, which was not running, and alongside a sled run of some kind. I eventually got to a road, and joined dozens of Chinese on the walk up the mountain. I found a site with 19 statues with explanations on Chinese with dates on the pedestal. Represented there were 7 people in eastern clothes and 12 in Western clothes. The earliest statue was of a Chinese man, dated ? - 121. The only woman was dressed in eastern clothes holding a sheaf of wheat. Her dates were 1867-1934. The last statue to represent Eastern culture was dated 1867 - 1934. Every statue after that bore Western clothing. The last three were: a man in a western suit holding the Periodic Tables, with the title written in English; Darwin who I could recognize by his pose studying a skull, and Einstein, who I could recognize by his hair. (If someone will email me the name of the man who created the Periodic Table I will put it in this journal entry. I should know his name, I did once, but I don't remember.)
The humidity this morning rivals St. Louis's. It isn't hot, but I was soaking wet in a matter of minutes. I found a teahouse high on the mountain. No one is around but a solitary man and me although I've seen hundreds of Chinese on the mountain this morning. I'm looking down the green mountainside to a valley filled with shaking rivers, small lakes, and green fields. The valley curves away to my left to join a larger valley, which disappears, behind green hills. A cityscape peers out of the fog, floating in and out of my vision.
Yesterday it rained all day and Kathy and Nancy and I crossed the river in a cab to shop at a large department store. During our shopping we went to the basement, in which water was slowly spreading across the floor. When our cab took us back to HNU many city streets were flooded and peoples street side stalls were filled with water. Manhole covers had been shoved off the holes and water was pouring out of the sewer system into the streets. Our cab driver became very creative to find a way home.
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