Fragrant Hill (April 11)

On April 11th, we went outside Beijing to a place called Fragrant Hill, a scenic spot where you can look down on most of the Beijing area.
First, let’s get one thing straight. This place is called “Fragrant Hill.” The name is a lie. It is a mountain, not a hill.
So, on two hours of sleep (long story), I climbed up literally 1000 stairs (they had markers every 50 stairs—it was a little disheartening, but the stairs only started halfway up so I have no idea how far we actually climbed) to see just about nothing. A combination of pollution and fog made it possible to see just about nothing. I saw to bottom of the mountain and just beyond, but absolutely nothing of the actual city of Beijing. I hear on a good day, Fragrant Hill is stunning. Unfortunately, I climbed up that mountain to see more fog and dead trees. The one good thing that came out of it is that the air was a little fresher up there, so I was huffing and puffing in too much particulate matter. Here are some pictures of the view:

Once we got to the top, we had some lunch and then decided to go back down in a different direction. Bad idea. We ended up getting completely lost and had to create our own little path down the mountain through the trees. Somehow, after walking around the base of the mountain and doing a little rock climbing, we made it to the bottom. As soon as I got back, I took a very, very long nap.