Longqing Gorges

On a Saturday morning at 8:30am we were supposed to load the bus. I set my alarm clock for 8:10 but kept sleeping. I finally woke up at 8:29! Ha, I made it down there at 8:35 and was just on time. I slept the whole three hours it took us to get there because of all the traffic. When we finally arrived we took a walked through the entrance which looked like an amusement park and then took a boat to the part where we could climb and have a view of the landscape. The boat ride was about 20 minutes; it was really beautiful. You might notice that in some of the pictures it looks foggy - like some type of romantic mist. Nope! That's pollution. Even a few hours outside of Beijing you still have that wonderful thing that clogs yours lungs and makes you cough like crazy called pollution... a beautiful thing really. Well, the boat ride was pleasant because the water looked turquoise and clean and I wanted to go swimming. When we finally arrived we had instant noodles and lucky us that we were under a roof eating lunch because it started to pour. We waited it out and the walked around. We actually only had two and a half hours to see the place. I walked around the area with some friends, other students actually bungee jumped. Overall, we spent more time on the bus then in the actual place. It was exhausting. I'm really glad I went though because it was nice to get out of the center of Beijing and see some nature even if it’s polluted. I couldn't see the blue sky but at least I saw the water and the mountains and thought I could breathe somewhat “fresher” air.