Nike says: Just Do It; I say: Just Did It.

 I can’t say I have ever really had a huge desire to go bungee jumping. I guess I never put ‘falling from exuberating heights’ (with nothing but a cord around your feet) in the same category as ‘fun’.  This morning though, all that changed. “Today is the first day of National Week, the second largest holiday in China. There were people everywhere, many subway stations were completely closed. Buses and roads were abnormally crowded.” (Tina’s blog)

“Finding our bus number 919 wasn’t too hard; it was finding the end of the line that was difficult.” (Josh’s Blog) Arriving at the bus station this morning, hundreds of people were crowding in line, impatiently pushing towards the front. I have never seen anything like it in America. Standing there in line we knew it was going to be at least a two hour wait, and figured that with the addition of the bus ride itself, we wouldn’t get to the park in time. While the other 8 people in our group were determined to wait in line for a chance, Josh, Tina, Abby, and I decided that we would just go another day.

 As we are getting out of line, we see one of these buses pull up out of nowhere. In the chaos we were forced in the direction of the bus by the crowd of people. “The tape helping with crowd control for buses had been cut up ahead and a massive wave of people was attempting to cut onto the bus. Josh was the first to realize where we were headed, and he turned around, ‘I think I'm gonna bungee jumping!’ I've seen people push to get on the subway, but never anything like this.” (Tina’s Blog)

In this chaos we pushed our way through the crowds of people towards the door of this bus. There was lots of shouting and shoving. The mob of people storming this bus was like a scene from an old movie. As we pushed our way along the side of the bus, I couldn’t help but think how I could have never done this in the United States, but it is just a part of daily life here.  “I look up and realize no one is moving anymore; the reason for which is a hefty looking woman swinging her weight around at the mouth of the bus yelling, “haizi, haizi, haizi!!!” Child, child, child!!! No one was getting on until she had that child. After the baby somewhat crowd-surfed into the lady’s arms, the pushing and shoving resumed to get onto the bus.” (Josh’s Blog)

I thought that once we reached the doorway, all our troubles would be over. I was wrong. It’s not often I get into shouting matches with people, but the bus driver and I were going at it. She was demanding that we get off; there was no room on the bus and that it wasn’t going where we wanted to go. All this time I am insisting that I wouldn’t get off, this was the right bus, and I would sit on the ground if I had too. She was stubborn, but I was obnoxious. The next thing you know (along with a few dozen other chinese people), we are cramming into the aisle of this bus. “Before, we'd been watching the buses leave and there had only been enough people allowed on the bus to fill the seats, and none more. Of course, if the waiguoren are willing to go without a seat though, everyone else wanted to get on too, so we ended up leaving with a bus full of people standing.” (Tina’s Blog)

The funny thing about us getting on this bus, was that we had no idea where we were going. We didn’t even know the name of the place, let alone on which buses we needed to transfer. Asking the other passengers around us, we were at least able to get a general idea of where we needed to go. It kind of reminded me of my mission, and how I loved to ask chinese people questions regarding directions or time. Even if they don’t have a clue, they try to be helpful and just make something up.

“Are you sure we’ll be there in 20 minutes?”

“Yeah… probably over 20 minutes.” (What does that even mean??)

Two hours later we are still on that same bus riding down the highway. I couldn’t be too surprised. 

“So the four of us spent the bus ride sitting on the ground. Adam sat in the aisle next to the cutest little Chinese girl who spent a lot of time talking to him in her broken English. She even sang songs for him and Abby, they sang songs to her... it was adorable. I, on the other hand, got stuck in the aisle next to a mom and her little boy who were both throwing up the entire time. Yaaaaaay. Every time they got out a new plastic bag, I barrelled my head into Josh's shoulder.” (Tina’s Blog)

龙庆峡 (Long Qing Gorge) is a beautiful place! To arrive at the location where we would bungee jump, we had to take a boat ride through the most beautiful gorge I have seen in my entire life. Pictures of these cliffs covered in foliage couldn’t possible do this place justice. The air was crisp and the sky was blue. What a perfect day! I believe Tina put it up well, when she said: “With a view like that, the price of the boat ride would still have been worth it, bungee at the end or not.” Coming around a bend in the river we saw the bungee platform protruding from the cliffs face, hanging out over the water. My heart skipped a beat. It was exciting and scary all at once, just thinking that in minutes I would be free-falling through the air with nothing but a cord tied around my feet.

While standing up on the platform, I looked around at the anxious looks and scared expressions of those around me. I watched as they pushed each individual off the platform, and decided that I wanted to jump myself. Before I knew it, I was having bungee cords velcro-ed around my legs, and then standing over the edge. The fall only lasted seconds, but it felt much longer. Finally I felt the cord tightening around my feet, and I was heading back upwards. What an adrenaline rush! Before I knew it, it was all over, and I was being lowered down into a boat. "Please sit, sit, sit, sit," the men in the boat demanded, which was absurd because my feet were still suspended above my head.” (Tina’s Blog) I remember as the boat skidded along the water back towards shore, it was one of those moments when you think:

Nike says: Just Do It.

I say: Just Did It.

While we were there, we also took the opportunity to visit a cave. Wow, it was not what I expected, and you will certainly not find one of these anyway in America. It was certainly not what I expected. “As we set off inside this cave, I start to realize, as does everyone else with me, that it is a fake. We start walking down this “cave” and see that everything has been created and when I say everything I mean everything; the water, the plants, the birds, the miniature people, the grass and trees, and even the rocks on the wall were probably fake.” (Josh’s Blog) At first I thought we had just wasted ¥10 and twenty minutes of our life, but then the place began to grow on me. I remarked to Josh that it reminded me of a chinese version of “It’s A Small World” ride at Disney Land; all it needed was animatronics. I’m embarrassed to write this, but the next thing anyone knew, Josh and I were climbing over the railing and putting on a decent imitation. We were an instant hit, and dozens of chinese tourists stopped to take pictures of us. What a great day! It just amazed me how the entire trip, transportation and all, was less than $50. You won’t find a deal like that in America.