What a name! Fairy Goddess Mountain. I was thankful that Wendy helped me to find and plan pretty much our entire adventure outside of Chongqing. Getting out of the city and into the mountains was wonderful even though it was a bit of a long trip.

We left our hotel early to take the metro to the train station. The train was pretty short—only about 45 minutes, then we hopped on a bus to take us to the tourist center. Then from the tourist center, we took another bus to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain, our hotel sent a car out to meet us and took us up to the hotel.

This was the most expensive hotel I stayed at during the entire trip, and it was pretty nice although also a little bit old. After lunch in the hotel restaurant (there weren’t a lot of other options nearby), we headed out to see the big green grassland （大草园；da cao yuan) that was supposed to be near our hotel.

On the way, we stopped to explore a little forest just outside our hotel window. Maple trees with bright red leaves reminded me of fall. Oh, I have missed fall, and the cooler air was exactly what I needed to feel more refreshed and energized.

The big grassland was exactly what it sounds like, if you add about a hundred tourists taking pictures and recording videos on that big grassland. Rather than heading over to the area with all of the other tourists, Wendy and I veered away towards a hilly field. Someone sat in a hammock and we walked along a little path around a few trees and bushes. Wendy stopped to take pictures and videos—she especially wanted videos of herself walking through the grass with no one else around.

Once we got over a hill and out of sight of all the people, I felt a lot more relaxed. It felt sort of like a big cow pasture. We saw some cows in a nearby pasture, separated from us by a fence. It was a big cow pasture. For a Kansas girl, this wasn’t so special, but since I’m a Kansas girl who lives in Guangzhou, it felt nice. I’m not sure if the fence was to keep the cows in or us out. Probably both. The grass was damp from all of the recent rain and my shoes were starting to get wet, but the sun was out a bit and it was a bit warm with my jacket on.

Sometimes I joined in Wendy’s pictures and videos, and sometimes I just stared at the big empty places with no other people. That was refreshing.

Our next stop was Fairy Road—allegedly the most beautiful road ever. The receptionist at the hotel had advised us to pay 25 kuai to ride the touristy train thing from one place to the other because it was a 10 km hike if we wanted to walk. As we neared the stop for the train, I started to feel some anxiety. All of those hundreds of tourists that we had seen in the big grassland were also heading to the next stop, and there was a long line of tourists with lots of loud kids and little personal space. Standing in that line sounded a lot more tiring to me than a 10 km hike.

“Do you wanna just walk?” Wendy asked, pointing in the direction of a wooden boardwalk along the road with not another person on it.

“That sounds great!”

We headed down the boardwalk, and with every step that we took away from the crowd, I felt better. Our path stuck close to the road, but the only vehicles passing us were the tourist trains (which were quite noisy) and an occasional bus. We passed forests and hills and more grasslands. I enjoyed these grasslands quite a bit more since they were free of people. Most of the walk was downhill, but Wendy and I told ourselves that we could take the train back up if we wanted to.

When we got tired, we stopped for snacks, and we also stopped for pictures a few times. I really enjoyed this hike.

At the end of our walk, we reached the most beautiful highway ever. It was quite nice, the road followed the hills up and down with grass and trees lining the side. I’m not sure it was the most beautiful road in the world, but it was a very photogenic piece of asphalt. We took some more pictures, and the road posed nicely with us. Actually, taking pictures here was a bit of a challenge. One of the challenges was finding a spot without too many people. The train stop was a bit ahead, but many tourists managed to find their way back to this lovely road. The other challenge was the trains that kept bringing more and more tourists our way.

Photographers would keep taking pictures of kids or girls in white dresses up until the last moment before going to the side of the road so the train could pass. A couple of times, I was starting to get worried about the safety of children sitting down in the middle of the road with a train coming towards their back, but no one was hurt. Wendy and I took a few pictures on the side of the road. The trains didn’t run over our feet, so that was a relief!

We started walking toward the train stop, but by this point, it hardly seemed worth it to pay 25 kuai for just a little ride on the train. So we decided to walk back. That would have been fine, but about halfway back to our hotel, it started pouring. That would have been fine too because we both had umbrellas, but my shoes were unprotected, and I had only brought one pair of shoes and left the rest of my luggage in my suitcase in the city. These shoes were going to have to last me through tomorrow also.

Wendy and I trudged back up the mountain and then back through the big grassland, our shoes getting wetter by the minute as the rain poured down. Lots of passing tourists didn’t even have umbrellas, and I was glad that we had that at least. By the time we got back to our room, the rain had stopped and the sun came out, but my shoes were hopelessly wet and squishy.

I spent the rest of the night walking around the hotel resort grounds in the cloth slippers that the hotel provided. I felt pretty ghetto, but I wasn’t going to wear my soaked tennis shoes everywhere, so I left them in the hotel and hoped they would dry. I also spent quite a while sitting in the bathroom with the hair dryer pointed into my shoes. Those are the moments that don’t make the photo album of the trip.

After dinner, we wandered around the resort and relaxed for a while. We were walking along a path when a golf cart passed us so we stood off to the side of the road. A moment later, Wendy, who was walking behind me, started screaming.

Oh no! What’s happening? I thought.

I turned around in time to see a snake right behind me. Wendy was jumping away from it, and I let out a yelp and tried to keep my slippers on while also getting away. The snake, not to be outdone by our jumping, was himself also jumping in his effort to get away from us and off of the path. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen a snake jump. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a snake jump either, but that’s the best way that I can describe what this snake was doing. He seemed absolutely terrified as he jumped off the path.

“You walked right by it, but I only saw it because of the lights from the golf cart!” Wendy said once we had caught our breath.

But by now I was laughing, “Yes, I’m glad he didn’t bit my feet or ankles with these ridiculous slippers on, but wasn’t he funny jumping out of the way!”

Later in the evening, I told Wendy that I wanted to go back out and look at the stars. “Also, there’s supposed to be a big meteor shower tonight! Maybe we can see some shooting stars! Tonight is supposed to be the best night to see them.”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to change clothes, and I don’t want to run into any more snakes…” Wendy didn’t seem convinced.

“Ok, I’ll tell you if it’s worth coming out.”

I headed back outside our room. The hotel had several different buildings, so first I stood right outside our building, between that and the main reception center. The stars were really nice, and I could see Scorpius and the Big Dipper, but there were a couple of street lights and lights on the buildings, so it seemed a bit bright. To protect from snakes, I also turned on my phone light and pointed it at my feet. I didn’t want to feel something slimy slithering over my slippers.

I headed out to the entrance of the hotel. It was a bit darker, but also mistier. The mist drifted out from the trees and swirled around the buildings. I couldn’t see Scorpius from here, and the mist covered more of the stars than the lights had, but the stars were beautiful!

I went back to the spot outside our building and told Wendy that there was a pretty good view of the stars. She came out, and I pointed out the ones that I knew. By now, Sagittarius was high enough to see above the trees. Scorpius and Sagittarius are my favorites, so I’m glad I could see them. It reminded me of my apartment in Hainan. I could see Scorpius from my window there, right above the lights from the airport, and I loved watching it in the summer months.

As Wendy and I looked at the stars together, marveling at the beauty of God’s creation, we saw a bright meteor shoot across the sky. I might have seen a couple of others, but I had a hard time telling if they were shooting stars or just bugs flying through the beams from the lights. But this one was unmistakable, and I’m so thankful we both got to see it! A few minutes later, we went back inside, thankful that God had given us a beautiful shooting star to enjoy on this beautiful night. And no more snakes! Haha.