Back by popular demand, and because I intended to anyway, here is another account of my travels in China. Over the course of the month I spent abroad I visited a number of fascinating places, but the one that sticks out most in my memory is the weekend trip I took to the Wudalianchi national park. Some might question this decision to favor a natural landmark over places of Chinese cultural heritage, but in my defense the park has a little of both.

The trip to Wudalianchi was not actually included in the exchange program’s cost, so I had to pay to cover travel and living expenses for the two days we would be gone. Luckily because most things in China are comparatively inexpensive, it only cost me about $40. Nearly twenty other members of the program also went, so I at least got the experience of being part of a large tour group in China.

Following a two-hour bus trip from Harbin, the city that housed the university I was studying at, we arrived at our first stop. I was a bit apprehensive when we pulled into a parking lot at the base of a small mountain, and my apprehensions were rewarded when we were told that we would be climbing this mountain.

Fortunately, locals had constructed an extensive network of staircases up and down the volcano, since it was actually dormant. However, the roughly 5000 steps pretty much ensured that, as the guide half jokingly told us, we would lose some of the group members in the attempt.

After a climb that could be best described as tortuous, most of us made it to the top, where we stopped to enjoy ice cream at a small souvenir stand and I managed to snap a few photos. My sense of accomplishment in actually climbing the volcano was somewhat muted when I learned that the elderly woman who ran the stand carried her wares here every day in a minimum of three trips from the base to the top. Twenty minutes later we started back down the volcano, which, while not as bad as the way up, was still pretty hard on fatigued legs.

Later that day we went to another memorable location, a naturally carbonated volcanic spring with drinkable water. While the spring and the water itself weren’t particularly exciting, the water tasted like a sparkling mineral water, and the potential consequences of drinking said water were a bit more exotic.

Apparently some mineral in the spring reacted with some component found in fresh fruit leading to a staining black pigment. We were warned on numerous occasions not to eat any fruit for four hours before drinking the water, or we would end up with black teeth. While many of us doubted this statement, no one was willing to attempt it. Another day of travel saw a Buddhist shrine and another spring, which is believed to improve ones eyesight, but those are stories for another time.