16-09-2007
Beach Camping
With a bus packed full of girls, food, beer and booze, we set off to Qing Huang Dao to camp on the beach. The fact that guys weren't fighting to get in on the trip baffled me, but Vinny and I had the fortune to be alone with 8 girls on a nice secluded beach.
We got to the beach shortly before nightfall ... the intention was to get there earlier, but traffic was rough and with a lot of road construction happing everywhere it was actually tough to find the place, but when we did it was worth it. We chilled out, swam, drank copious amounts of alcohol and were in great spirits.
Tine showed great form, by oversleeping when we were going there, but hen proceeding to catch a train and cab to find us. Thumbs up.
The next day we enjoyed the fresh air and even squeezed in a game of ultimate Frisbee before our bus picked us up again. The trip back was actually equally memorable, but in a negative way. On the road we passed no less than 10 serious car crashes involving, trucks, busses and cars. In at lest 3 of them it was obvious that several people had been killed. So much for road safety in China!
Our beach trip had been a success, but the next time, we'll grab the train!
04-08-2007
Steffi and I hit Bai He
In June 2007 a busload of us headed to Bai He to recapture the glory of the camping trip we had in May 2006. Needless to say we didn't find Bai He that time. Yes, it is possible not to find it, if you're driver takes the wrong way. Steffi and I set out to rediscover Bai He. We utilized public transportation with great success. I was more than a little relieved when we stood at the right entrance to Bai He. Ahead of us we had about an hour hike down to the river, where we were ferried across, by a Speedo clad Chinese man.
At the other side of the river we walked for another 10 minutes before we set up camp. We were halfway through our first beer and a game of badminton, when a couple of fishermen stopped by to say hi. They were amused of the tiny pile of wood I'd gathered to make dinner with. I gave them a couple of beers and then one of them gave me enough wood to keep us going for hours. He even lit it for us. Good man!
Darkness crept in and we were happy to have the fire, because it got a bit cooler. It also enabled us to make some awesome bacon hot dogs.
There was no danger of us going to bed hungry. We spent the rest of the evening drinking beers, telling stories and enjoying being away from Beijing.
The next morning, we decided to walk out of the valley at the opposite side of where we walked in. This was new territory, because neither of us had ever gone that way before. We had to wade across a deep river twice and had to do quite a hike to get out, but it was nice. Exhausting, but nice.
When we finally got down to civilization we hitched a ride with a car, that drove us to the nearest town, where we caught a bus back to Beijing. It had been a short, but excellent trip and now I know the way back for future camping trips.
12-08-2006
Bei Dai He Camping Trip
After spending all of July on the soaring Tibetan plateau it took exactly 2 weeks before it was time to head out on a new adventure. Since any mountain around Beijing would feel a bit bland with Everest so fresh in my memory, we decided to head to the beach. Cory, Steffie and me stuffed our backpacks with food and alcohol, and topped them off with tents and sleeping bags, before we boarded the train bound for Bei Dai He. This supposedly very popular beach spot for Chinese is only 2 hours away from Beijing by train.
When we got there, we grabbed a taxi and headed to a relatively secluded part of the beach to avoid the tourist crowds. The spot was excellent and only the occasional person came by to say hi ... in addition to a herd of cows and some unwanted guests while we were sleeping, but more about that later.
It was really nice to get away from the city. We sucked in the fresh air and enjoyed nice walks on the beach, along with refreshing swims in the sea. The temperature was good and the water seemed surprisingly clean. The beers we had brought disappeared quickly and though we had brought a bottle of whiskey as well, warning flags started rising when we finished the last beer before 4 p.m. Since we were on a beach far away from the tourist machine, we figured it would be tough to get more beer. Wrong! A lady renting out beach chairs came by and quickly understood our predicament. She offered to remedy the situation and soon we had enough beers to last the entire evening ... well ... sort of.
When darkness fell, Cory and me started making food. We fired up the burner and cooked up a delicious pasta dish. Having polished off the food, we did the same to our beers.
Further down the beach flames were licking the sky, so we decided to head over to join the group behind the bonfire. We were quickly invited to join them. I think it was more because of Steffie and her blond hair than
Cory or my Chinese. We nevertheless enjoyed their hospitality ... and beer. Before soon we were challenged to a wrestling match, not because we had polished off their beers as well, but because one of their guys was supposed to be good. Cory and me were equally crap and he beat both of us with one hand on his back. We later found out he had been an Olympic wrestler... No wonder everyone was so confident that we would loose.
I restored some semblance of manliness by walking/jumping through the fire a few times (intentionally) and when we were given some fireworks Cory and me made the skies unsafe. Steffie had quickly become a sweetheart for all the Chinese guys
... I suspect that's why they were so quick to invite us over when they saw her in the first place. They all wanted pictures with her and I think the Chinese girls there felt a bit snubbed. In the end they had to go home to a proper bed, while we headed back to our campsite and chanced a quick skinny dip. Wet, drunk and happy we erected our tents and promptly fell asleep ... some quicker than others ...
The next morning it was obvious to me that unwanted visitors had used the cover of night to sneak up on me. I must have had 60 mosquito bites just in my face. I was a sight only my mother could love. Since we had eaten all the food for dinner, we packed our gear and grabbed a bus into town, where we enjoyed an all you can eat pizza buffet. The food hit the spot and instead of waiting for our return train, we jumped on the first bus with available seats and headed back to Beijing.
The trip had been awesome and we swore to return ... we also learned that Chinese mosquitoes are malicious little bastards, so when we return we'll bring the mosquito repellent Cory left on the dining room table when he was packing for the trip.
11-06-2006
Bai He Camping Trip
Having just come back from my trip to Norway I was happy to hear that Vinnie was organizing a trip to Bai He. Vinne was the only one going that knew what we had in store and as soon as we got there I knew why he was so excited about it. To get there we shared the cost of renting a bus with a driver and to be honest spending 100 RMB to get there and back was a bargain. 
It was a 3 hours drive to the parking lot and another hour or so of walking along a scenic path before we got to Bai He. Bai He is a beautiful river that winds through the mountains north of Beijing and ends up in a water reservoir.
We were 18 happy souls that found ourselves at a river crossing, with Vinnie promising us excellent camping on the other side, just a little bit downriver. Normally when people say that it means that you have a Hellish hike ahead of you, but in this case it was actually only 5 minutes of easy walking from the crossing. 
Our campsite was simply where we dumped our gear. I had decided to bring beer and not being particularly intelligent decided to bring glass bottles of beer (don’t worry we didn’t break any or leave any behind) … but there was a slight weight issue. When you bring glass bottled beers with 18 people in mind it weights “a little bit”. It got there and was appreciated by all. To my joy it was still cold.
The daytime was basically spent swimming in the river and … 
well, enjoying the various drinks we had brought … Without lying I think I can say that most of us were severely "tipsy" by 6pm. 
We collected firewood and made a nice campfire and once the sun set everyone had to do something creative in front of the others. Some acted, others played music and some read stories or quotes from the day. It was very nice. At around midnight, people started dropping off one by one, from a mixture of fresh air and alcohol. Almost everyone spent the night in their sleeping bags under the stars ... some even shared their sleeping bags.
The next morning it was time for some creative pictures, before we packed our bags and returned to the bus.
