Translation

Me: “why do we have to keep out of the Five Forest?” assuming China likes you to stay on the trails.

Frank “what?”

Me: “Yeah, the sign says keep out of the Five Forest” as I point at the park entrance sign.

Immediately everyone starts laughing, and more people are called over to join in.  At this point I’m used to hearing conversations I can’t understand, but what’s so funny?!

Frank: “it’s supposed to say, keep fire out of the forest”.

This weekend ten coworkers and I went up to Moganshan (Mogan is the name of the mountain, and shan means mountain).  It’s only a 3 hour (death defying drive) retreat from the city, and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  We rented a small hotel/house and hiked, ate, played mahjong in to the early morning (I followed directions), and went to a blacksmith.  Sort of.

The house

 Trail up the mountain

 I normally hate these things, but the overhang wasn't that high

 Terry doing his best old man walk

 Bamboo forest

 View from the top

Lunch halfway up the mountain

 It's hard to call this fish.  It needs some sort of prehistoric named attached to it.  You just eat it whole, bones and all, like a giant.

My attempt at learning Mahjong (I won!)

Frank: “Let’s go to the blacksmith, it’s famous history here.”

Me: “like as in swords?” thinking I’m going to see some tourist trap.

Frank: “Yes, that’s what this mountain is known for.”

Like the “five forest”, we weren't going to see a blacksmith.  Moganshan has a famous King Arthur like fable attached to it.  Supposedly a King “commissioned” a legendary blacksmith to build a sword for him.  The blacksmith knew the King would kill him when it was completed to ensure only he had the best sword.  The blacksmith and his wife built two swords; one for the king, and one for their son to avenge him upon his death.  It gets weird from there.  Like decapitation, ghosts, and heads boiling in stew weird.  Anyways, the hike to the waterfall of the secret sword turned out to be breathtaking.  I've never seen anything like it.  I’m pretty sure I just kept saying “wow”.  Thankfully the hike back up was so grueling we stayed down to soak up the sights as long as possible. 

The blacksmith and his wife

Views from the waterfall 

This weekend was a blast.  It was fun to hang out with everyone outside of work, and it couldn't have been a better location.  

The next blog: silk; on the way back from Moganshan I got to see how it’s made, and the story of how Rachel got chased out of a building over it.