Today we went on a hike in the mountains, and since I love hiking, and I love the mountains, I was pretty excited about our adventure for the day. Unfortunately, when we woke up, it was rainy and cloudy—not the best weather for either hiking or enjoying mountain views.
Since I was up early, I decided to go get breakfast earlier than we had planned to meet so I could run back upstairs before we left. At this hostel, the way breakfast worked was we found the chef and told her that we wanted breakfast, then she gave us some 馒头 (man tou; steamed buns) and some eggs. After I finished, I asked for some more since I was pretty hungry, and I also asked her for an egg for the road. Hard-boiled eggs are nice traveling companions since they give quick protein!
Our hotel name was 山屿・溪私汤民宿 (Shan yu — Xi si tang minsu), and I strongly recommend it if you are staying near Si Guniang Shan.
After everyone got breakfast, we headed out pretty close to our planned leaving time. On the way to the hiking trail at 四姑娘山 (Si gu niang shan; Four Beautiful Women Mountain—that’s the literal translation at least, haha), we stopped at a convenience store to get more snacks and food. They had instant cooking rice, and I was pretty excited because that’s another of my favorite hiking foods. I like it because it feels like an actual meal with rice and sauce and preserved meat and vegetables. To be sure, it’s not the healthiest thing, but it seems better than instant noodles.
We found a place to park and tried to go through the ticket check to get on a bus that would take us to the start of the trail. Unfortunately, we had some problems at the ticket check because since Jessica and I were foreigners, we had to go to the ticket office to pick up our tickets first. We finally got all of our tickets and loaded onto the bus.
By the time we got to the start of the trail (长坪沟; Changping gou; the name of the hike we had chosen), it was later than we had planned, and it was drizzling. The trail also started by going down some stairs. I was not thrilled about this—going down at the beginning means that you have to come up at the end. But, we didn’t have any choice, so down we went. Down and down and down. I thought this was supposed to be a mountain hike?
As we walked, I looked around us at the forest. Sometimes I could see the sides of mountains drifting past through the fog and mist, but mostly it just seemed wet and foggy. We got to one look-out place, and I stood in the spot that was marked as having the best view. All I could see was a river, some nearby trees and then fog and clouds. I was pretty disappointed. Here we were in this beautiful place, and I couldn’t see any of it. Plus, it’s not like I got to come here every day—who knows when I would be able to come back to this place.
I spent quite a lot of time talking to God about it. I knew that He was in control of the weather, and I knew that He had the ability to blow all of those clouds away, but I also knew that for some reason He didn’t, and I wasn’t sure why.
As I thought about it and fought against my disappointment, I tried to enjoy the beauty of the drippy, wet, dreary day. The fog over the mountains was a little bit magical, and I realized that it looked like a Chinese painting. When I first saw Chinese paintings, I didn’t really appreciate them. I didn’t understand the point of the vague outlines of mountains with lots of empty white space. Now I wondered if perhaps many Chinese paintings had lots of white space because there were lots of clouds and fog in the mountains here in China.
I thought back to when I climbed 黄山 (Huang Shan; Yellow Mountain) with Shirley, Jaye, and Jeff (Jaye’s husband) the summer before. It took us two days to climb (we stayed in a hotel at the top of the mountain), and my knees were in quite a lot of pain. But we made it to the top of the mountain and what was supposed to be an incredible view, and we couldn’t see anything. We were literally inside the clouds. Every once in a while the clouds would break and we would get a glimpse of the mountains and valleys below, but most of the time our pictures just looked like people surrounded by fog and wisps of mist.
I also remembered back to the river cruise that I took earlier in my trip. The area was famous for lots of poets who wrote about the beauty of the mists and fog in the mountains along the river, and I realized that many Chinese poets and painters had figured out how to enjoy the beauty of the fog.
I looked back at the mist drifting through the trees. Ok, God, it is kind of pretty, but I would still rather see the majesty and beauty of the mountains. How do I know they’re even there if I can’t see them?
Here I was, talking to a God that I couldn’t see, begging Him to show me the mountains that I also couldn’t see. It reminded me of a quote on a mug that my friend gave me years ago: “Good friends are like stars, you can’t always see them, but you know that they are always there.” Since the friend who gave me that mug lives in America, I only get to see her every couple of years now, but I know that every time we spend time together, we are going to have such a wonderful and encouraging time talking with each other. We will lift up and encourage each other, and I know that even though we don’t stay in touch much, she’s still there.
God used those mountains to remind me that even though I can’t see the mountains, they are still there just like even though I can’t see God, He is still with me every moment. What a wonderful truth to meditate on as I walked through the rain and mist.
I changed my prayer a bit, “God, thank You for giving me this beautiful weather that is exactly what You wanted me to have for today. It’s not what I would have chosen, but it’s exactly what You wanted for me today, and I thank You for knowing what I need even if it’s not what I want.”
Hmm, I can think of some other areas of my life where God does not give me what I want. But as I looked at the river rushing beside us and the mist in the trees, I knew that even when God doesn’t give me what I want, even in those other areas, He always gives me what I need.
“God,” I prayed, “I trust You to give me what is best for me even if it’s not what I think I want.”
I thought back to the semester before when God had finally given me something that I had prayed for over and over again. It was a disaster. What I thought I wanted turned out not to be God’s best for me. I don’t regret that experience, and I know that God used it for good, but I’m also thankful that God showed me that sometimes what I want is not the best.
Throughout the hike, I kept talking to God about these things and mulling them over as we walked along. I continued to surrender these things to God as we walked. We had stopped going down so much, and the stairs went up sometimes or sometimes the boardwalk was flat. I had lots of time for thinking.
I’m not sure what my friends were thinking about as we walked along, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time walking and thinking and chatting with my God.
We got to one of the first scenic spots around lunch time. The sky was still dripping a bit, but we took our pictures of the beautiful waterfall with some bits of mountain visible through the fog in the background. The river was quite full—I think it must have been the rainy season, and it was nice to enjoy the beauty of the small waterfall.
There was a rest area with benches and hot water and trash cans, and since it was around 12:30, we stopped for lunch. I had quite the feast with my instant cooking rice, my egg, an apple (from the lady yesterday) and some other nuts and snacks. We rested, enjoyed the scenery, and chatted.
Timothy and Jessica decided to turn back at this point, so after lunch, Shirley, Jaye, and I continued on by ourselves. The trail going one direction was about 25 kilometers, and we really wanted to finish the whole thing (50 km. total; around 31 miles). We weren’t sure we would be able to since we had been slower in the morning than we planned, but we decided we would just do as much as we could.
The next section of the trail was much flatter, and the wooden path also ended and the path was now mud. This was also the same path that the horses used, so we had to watch our steps. Lots of locals came by asking us if we wanted to rent their horses, but we were really enjoying our hike, so we declined all of them.
And, at this point, it finally stopped raining! We enjoyed our walk through the forest. We found some wild berries that were safe to eat (we asked AI and the locals, and they all agreed that they were safe). I didn’t eat them because I’d had enough stomach troubles recently, and I didn’t feel like I needed to eat random berries in the woods to test if my stomach was doing better. But Shirley and Jaye both tried them and enjoyed them.
We started to see some mountain peaks as the lower clouds disappeared, but we still hadn’t seen any blue sky. I talked to God about it, though, and I knew that He would give me His very best, and whatever He gave me to enjoy would be beautiful.
At this point, we found that we were getting closer to the ending point of this section of the hike, but if we wanted to get to that last view before 3 p.m. (that was when people were encouraged to turn around), we would have to hurry.
“Hello, would you like a horse?” A local man asked us as we walked along.
“No, thanks!” We replied, walking around a muddy patch of the trail.
“But if you don’t take a horse, you won’t be able to reach the end,” he said, still trying to persuade us.
“Do you think we can make it?” I asked Shirley and Jaye who had access to a map—or at least I thought they did.
“Yeah, let’s try to do it—at least as much as we can.”
I recognized someone coming back that I had seen before we got our tickets back at the entrance. He had quite a bit of a head start, but if we were running into him now, then we must be getting close–or at least closer!
We picked up our pace, eager now to reach the destination. We were so close, we really wanted to get there now.
As we got closer and closer, the trail started to go up again. We had been walking on a flat trail for so long that I had forgotten how high we were. I think it was somewhere around 3,000 meters. Since we had been at higher altitudes for around a week now, walking on flat ground was ok, but when we started to go up again, I started to feel the altitude. I slowed down and plodded forward. Thankfully, we didn’t have too far to go on the uphill stretch before we got to the top of a ridge and looked out into a beautiful meadow surrounded by mountains. By now, the low-hanging clouds had fully cleared and we had an incredible view of the mountains in the distance.
Wow. It was incredible. I forgot about all tiredness and all of the huffing and puffing up that last section as we gazed out at the incredible beauty of God’s creation. After taking a few pictures together, we headed into the meadow to explore a bit more.
Shirley found a log and started playing her harmonica. The sharp tones of a worship song broke through the clear air, and I felt my heart welling up with praise to my God. He had brought us to this incredible place and given us wonderful weather to enjoy it.
I reached a stream with green grass on either side that flowed toward me from the mountains in the distance. It was such a perfect picture of Psalm 23, that as Jaye and I walked along, I started reciting it.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Sometimes the beautiful places are even more beautiful after walking through darkness, or in my case through the rain and mist and fog. God had never left us and when His timing was perfect, He cleared away the mist and the rain and gave us that glimpse of the majestic mountains that I had been longing for.
I knew that God would give me His best for me even if it wasn’t what I wanted, but I was so thankful that when we reached the meadow, He also allowed us to see the mountains. I can always trust my God. And sometimes He won’t give me those things that I long for, but I know that even then I can still trust Him.
We enjoyed the beauty for a while. Pretty soon, Jaye and I joined Shirley on her log and she continued to play some worship songs together. One of the ones that I remember is when she played “Still” and Jaye and I sang along. It was beautiful. A few other people were in the meadow behind us, but we had the view to ourselves, and it was still and perfectly peaceful.
It was a bit past 3 p.m. by the time we left, and we knew that we needed to hurry so that we could be back in time to catch a bus back. Locals still kept trying to lend us their horses. Once Shirley asked the price and found out that it was quite expensive at this point. We declined. By now we were full of energy and looking forward to the hike back.
As we walked back, the clouds continued to clear, and we got to enjoy some beautiful blue skies above the mountains. My heart felt filled to overflowing at the beauty all around us. We took more pictures and enjoyed the beauty of the trail through the mountains and the forest. On the way back, we talked a bit more and I enjoyed our fellowship.
We had to hurry a bit on our way back especially because all of the bathrooms that we passed were now closed. There were enough cameras that we didn’t really want to use the trees, but the situation was becoming a bit urgent. So we walked quickly.
Eventually, we did get back to that long staircase that I remembered from the morning. It was long, but I wasn’t as tired as I expected, and we made it back without any problems. At the bus stop, there was a restroom that was open and we had time to use it before the bus left!
Shirley had arranged for us to have dinner at her hostel. The owner agreed to cook for us, and we were looking forward to dinner. She had bought the food especially for us because she didn’t exactly have a restaurant at her hostel (unlike ours that had a regular restaurant with mushroom hot pot).
She had the food ready shortly after we arrived, and we sat at the wooden table in her stone entry area. We invited her to join us, and I’m glad she did because it was wonderful to chat with her and hear about her life.
Her Mandarin was a bit hard for us to understand, but Shirley could follow it a bit better so she would translate into English or clearer Mandarin for the rest of us. The food was delicious. She had some yak meat (which was very common in this area of Sichuan) and lots of homegrown vegetables. In fact, she told us that she never (if I remember right) bought food anywhere—everything was homegrown by themselves or neighbors or friends. The yak was from their local herd. I was amazed at that. She also told us that she almost never got sick. Even though we were still up in the mountains and it got quite cold, they weren’t exposed to many of the colds that we encounter by being around other people all the time.
When she found out how much we liked hiking, she told us that next time we would have to come back so that she could take us on another hiking trail. She showed us videos of guides dragging people through snow. I wasn’t quite as excited about that, but Jaye really wants to hike a snow mountain. We’ll see how soon that happens.
The dinner was a wonderful end to an incredible day of fellowship with friends and God. And I’ll end my summer travel adventures here because on the next day we returned to Chengdu and then after a relaxing morning of walking around the river near our hotel, we came back to Guangzhou. We had so many adventures on this trip, and I’m so thankful for all of the people that I met and all of the friends that I got to spend time with and all of the beautiful places I saw and the wonderful things I experienced. Western Sichuan is a beautiful place, and I can’t wait to go back!