Nanshan Park

On Sunday afternoon I decided to go wander around Shekou which is the community or area that I live in. I happened upon a sign for a park so I decided to check it out. Unfortunately other than the sign for the park name nothing else was in English, so I had no clue what I was getting into!

It turned out this was a hike up three mountain peaks! What is different about going for a hike here is that the path is straight up (read: no switch backs) and it's paved with brick steps. However unlike steps we are used to their is no uniformity to them. Some are 5" high others 8". Some are 10" deep others 4". Makes for a challenge.

So I head straight up and it's not 5 minutes before I am sweating like crazy and my heart is pounding out of my chest. Thankfully I had bought a bottle of water at the start. They put red numbers on some of the steps indicating how many steps. The last one I saw was 1,000. There are a few rest stops and you will see the locals playing cards, eating oranges, taking pictures, etc. At no time did I see any westerners nor hear anyone speaking English, so I had no clue how far to keep going or where the end was. After reaching one of the peaks I decided to head back the way I came. Going down was as much of a challenge as it was so steep it killed your thighs. Plus if you don't watch where you are going you will slip and roll forever!

That bottle of water saved me for sure! I hadn't eaten all day plus had been up late the night before drinking. I guess this was a good way to get the alcohol out of my system!