10,000 Steps Later

so this adventure recently took me on an impulsive journey with a few new friends to HuangShan (Yellow Mountain), which is known for it YunHai (Sea of Clouds) and its natural scenic beauty. the evolution of this trip mainly consisted of a drunken agreement made two days before the departure...a mad dash to catch our train...a 10-hour train ride...a last-minute hop onto a tour group...and nearly 7 hours and a dozen kilometers (sorry folks, my residence in china has turned me to the metric system. here, i'll help u: 1 mi = 1.6 km) of the most grueling treks (okay, okay...a majority of the climb may have been spent on a cable car)...an evening of bad buffet and a bottle of "BaiJio"...and a 5 hour layover for another 10-hour return train home. all in all, the trip was a success and fairly enjoyable.

BUT...this will be where i unintelligibly connect my trip to one of the political hot topics of the moment, global warming. how, you ask, will i achieve such a task? to tell u the truth, this might not come off as eloquently as it played in my head. but hell, no one reads this thing anyways so who really cares?

for those who have been following the news at all, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released a report last week stating with 90% certainty that man (meaning mankind...didn't want to confuse you with the idea that men worldwide are producing flatulence at epic rates) is causing global warming. now the IPCC consists of hundreds of scientists and skeptics from numerous countries, thereby giving the best chance of a non-partisan report.

now i'm not one to overly criticize, as i drive the v8 engine suv that i love and power the heater when my nipples start to poke through my shirt. but i'm still socially aware enough (though maybe not personally dedicated enough) to know that major change needs to be done to slow down (not halt, as the process has already passed its critical mass) the effects of global warming. but what i don't understand is how long it has taken this administration to come around to address this issue and how major corporations can still rail against the scientific evidence of its existence. its has been reported that such big-oil interests groups (AEI) has started to bribe IPCC scientists to put out their own reports downsizing or entirely eliminating the claim that we, the energy hungry and environmentally unconscious, are ruining the planet.

so as the entire world heats up, i bring us back to the inspiration of this post: my trip to HuangShan. our uber friendly tour guide has mentioned that the seasons have been increasingly warm lately, resulting in less rain and snow and clouds that HuangShan is famous for in the winter. so after enduring the endless amount of stairs and the virtual carrying of Theresa up the mountain, we reached a peak without the gratification i was promised. HuangShan is supposed to look like the magnificence you see to the below.












instead, we caught the significantly duller image to the right. don't get me wrong, the sites we saw and the magnificence of the mountain are still amazing and worth the trip, but my fellow travelers and i were slightly disappointed by the lack of 'normal' weather.

but fret not fellow readers, i have changed my ways. to play my part in the curbing of global warming, i have cut down on my public flatulents in hopes of sparing the atmosphere any more poisonous gases. now...what will you do?