Mt. Jade

On Thursday, May 14, at about 8:00, we took a bus to Mt. Jade from Realtek. I wasn't really excited, and I really wanted to go home. But there was no such choice, so I was forced to go unwillingly. By the time we got to Mt. Jade, it was already midnight, so we couldn't see anything outside. Yet we were supposed to walk all the way to the sleeping area through this trail with a bunch of stones. It was really hard to get there, because first of all, it was something like 6 degrees Celcius out there, and I was walking in my shorts. Second of all, like I said before, I couldn't see anything, so I kept tripping on the stones. Finally, we arrived there. I remember very clearly that the guy who managed that sleeping area was walking like a zombie, with his eyes practically closed and holding a ring of keys, trying to find a room for our group to sleep in for the night.

The next day, at around 7:00 AM, we all took a ride on a minivan to the start of the 8.5 km trail to Paiyun Lodge. The start was somewhere around 2600 m above sea level, Paiyun at 3402, and the main peak at 3952. As we started walking the trail, we passed by Dr. Monroe's Resting Place, which was around the 1.7 km mark. He was a nature biologist that fell to his death while studying the rocks at Mt. Jade. After one more hour of walking, we stopped at a resting place for lunch. It was only around 10:00 AM, but everyone was already hungry. I ate a whole bowl of shrimp flavored instant noodles, and some beef flavored instant noodles. By the way, remind me to never eat beef again (I never really liked beef anyway). The beef noodle later made me want to throw up at Paiyun, because I smelled it while having mountain sickness, which made the sickness worse. Anyways, after we ate lunch early, we took off again. We passed by the Great Precipice, and after many hours of mountain climbing, we finally arrived at Paiyun Lodge.

It was only 1:00, but we weren't supposed to go to the main peak, because everyone was supposed to take off at 2:00 AM the next morning, so we could arrived at the peak at around 4:30 AM to see the sun rise from the clouds. Some people started off towards the West Peak, and I later regretted not going with them, because after they took off, I got sleepy and went to bed without my beanie on, not knowing that I am supposed to cover my temples as long as I am very high up. I got the mountain sickness, and I almost threw up. My temples felt like they were going to blow up, and for the first tie I experienced a real headache, which is ten times worse than normal headaches that you get when you are sick. After one hour of this torture from the mountain sickness and massaging from my parents, I was well enough to eat dinner at 5:00 PM, but only rice and vegetables. I didn't feel like eating meat for some reason, so I only ate a bowl of rice and vegetables for dinner. Everybody went to bed at around 6:00 PM, and by 6:30, there wasn't a noise to be heard, except for the talking of the Paiyun Lodge managers. The beds are VERY uncomfortable, plus the fact that you have to wear a beanie and a very thick coat when you sleep (otherwise you'd get mountain sickness and/or freeze to death) It was the WORST night I have ever experienced, because you can't stay in bed for two hours without going outside for half an hour, because you will throw up if you don't. Sleeping on the beds was even worse than sleeping on a road. Plus, I tasted beef flavored instant noodles in my breath, making me want to barf. The beds weren't even real beds. They just nailed two boards onto the walls, one on top of the other, connected them with a few poles with wood sticking out of them for steps, did the same thing with the other side of the room, and put four sleeping bags on each of the four "beds". It was torture sleeping there, and at about 11:00 PM, I finally cracked. I burst outside for fresh air, and I felt WAY better outside. I could tell that other people reached their limits too, because during the half hour I spent outside, at least thirty people came outside for a walk. I could have spent the whole night there if there wasn't an old man that kept bugging me. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep after I was back in the room, and at 1:30 AM, I woke up, relieved that I survived the torture.

I went outside with everyone, and ate "breakfast". At 2:05, we took off for the 2.4 km trail to the main peak. On the way up, I experienced my second wave of mountain sickness, but only the stomachache. This caused me to fall behind a few people, and I could tell my brother Ryan was experiencing the same thing too. This short trip up was the only time that my brother and I weren't at the very front. After an hour of endless walking t, the hardest part of the journey came. The trail started slanting more than 60 degrees upwards, and nobody could climb up without using the metal chains that were installed there. This lasted for about an hour until finally I arrived at the main peak. We have made it to the top!

 We made it just in time, because just as we sat down on the rocks, the sun started to rise. Everyone was taking pictures and videotaping the sunrise. It was such a beautiful sight. We were really lucky too. The weather wasn't too cold, and the wind wasn't too strong. But the best thing was that it wasn't raining. Everyone took pictures with the marker of the main peak, and I saw two proposals there. During the first proposal, the first boyfriend gave a HUGE diamond ring (a fake one made of glass) to his girlfriend. The second proposal wasn't so special. After relaxing over there for about an hour, we went back to Paiyun Lodge. Ryan and I followed the group leader, and we went way ahead of everyone in our group and arrived at Paiyun ten minutes earlier than them. Mom and Dad showed up last, and I asked Dad if he was all right, because someone said that Dad tripped over a low branch. He was all right, but he bent his pole. We ate noodles afterward, and at around 8:00, we left Paiyun Lodge.

Ryan and I went ahead of everyone, and we stopped to rest at several places, like the Great Precipice, the place where we ate lunch the previous day, and Dr. Monroe's Resting Place. After a few hours, we finally arrived at the start. Ryan, I, and two of Dad's friends took the first minivan down to the bus. After half an hour, the rest of the people arrived, and we all left Mt. Jade on the bus. Afterwards, we stopped at Shuilee to eat at this restaurant with a lot of flies in it. It wasn't really good, in my opinion. After that, we got back on the bus, and went home.