Readers of my blog may recall that last summer I posted an entry about a DKU student trip I co-led to Zhangjiajie, the famous mountain tourist area in Hunan Province. This past weekend I joined yet another DKU Quest trip, this time to the mountainous region of nearby Zhejiang Province known as Siming Mountain 四明山. We had sixteen students on the trip, roughly half of them freshmen and half sophomores. Our student affairs assistant dean Damian led the trip along with our guide Feng. We used a bus to take us to the mountain village where we stayed for two nights and a full day before returning to Kunshan on Sunday
Some students hanging out on the balcony of our other guesthouse
The four-hour bus ride from Kunshan to Siming Mountain took a bit longer due to traffic. The last hour of our bus ride was a steady climb into the mountains, so that by the time we arrived we were ensconced in a village near the mountaintops. It was a quaint and picturesque little village, which reminded me a bit of Moganshan, though without the bamboo forests and old colonial stone buildings. We lodged in two separate guest houses, which offered comfortable rooms with their own bathrooms and showers with hot water. The mountain air got very chilly at night, but the rooms were equipped with heaters that kept them comfortable, and the beds were fitted with clean quilts.
Deadheads around the world would appreciate the skills that our guide Feng brings to tie-dying
Our guide Feng, who arranged the trip for DKU, gave us a curated experience far from the typical tourist-oriented one. After our arrival at Siming Mountain’s “Big Mountain Village” 大山村 on Friday evening, she broke out a set of equipment for dying cloth, and taught us how to use natural materials such as leaves, bark, and plants to do so. Pretty soon the group was cutting white cloth into kerchief-sized pieces and dipping, twisting, and dying the cloth pieces in different colored basins that Feng had prepared. This was just the warmup, and we continued to do the tie-dying on the final day.
Feng is prepping the group for the tie-dye experience
On Saturday morning, we had a big home-cooked breakfast in the guest house at 8 am, dining on rice gruel known as zhou 粥 in Chinese, flavored with the usual pickled mustard slices 榨菜, salted egg 咸蛋, and fermented tofu known as furu 腐乳, only this was home-made not store-bought.
Deep into our journey into the mountains
We then embarked on a hike into the mountains, following the guesthouse owner, Mr. Zhou, along forest paths down into a valley, and up again along a dirt road back to the village. Altogether the hike took around six hours and at the end of the day, my watch indicated we’d walked around nine miles or 15 kilometers and 18000 steps for me. The hike took us into many different environments with different kinds of trees, some turning fall colors, and was quite beautiful, with some vistas of the mountains towards the end of the hike. We stopped on a hillock for lunch, as Feng and Damian cut up and doled out lettuce, tomatoes and slices of ham for sandwiches.
Stopping for a quick lunch at a convenient hillock
Each evening after dinner the guesthouse owners made up a small campfire in front of the guesthouse, and we gathered in a big circle sitting on wicker chairs to warm our feet by the fire and roast marshmallows. Feng told us some engaging stories about other tours she has led into the mountains. Damian told some Texas tales.
Collecting some items on Saturday’s hike for the tie-dye session on Sunday
While we were on the day hike on Saturday, we gathered various leaves and plants for the next tie-dye session on Sunday. That morning, everyone except me was busy hammering plant matter and leaves into their cloths, then twisting them and fixing them with rubber bands and dying them in different colored basins. Pretty soon we saw the results—an astounding range of colors and designs that showcased the artistic talents of our students, and of our trip leader Damian. Throughout the trip, I served as the photographer, taking photos with my Canon 60D and the telephoto lens I bought a couple summers ago in Tokyo.
Showcasing the creative skills of our DKU students—the results of the tie-dye session on Sunday
Altogether this was a very fine DKU Quest trip, and one that I would gladly take again. The only complaint I heard from students was that we didn’t get to spend enough time in the mountains before heading back to DKU on Sunday afternoon.
On the way down the mountain, the bus had to navigate the narrow mountain road. The driver was very proficient and experienced, and pretty soon we were coasting with motorcycles and cyclists heading up and down the mountain road, and with views of mountain peaks cascading all around us.
All in all, I highly recommend this trip to Siming Mountain, which is a lovely spot to vacate, decompress, and get into the rhythms of village life. At this point and time it doesn’t seem very popular with tourists, although that might change as word gets out about this well kept secret in mid-Zhejiang.