An unforgettable night in a tent

Three years have passed, but my amazing China experience is still fresh. Teaching English and working in a German Bar in the beautiful small town of Zhongshan in Guangdong province were great adventures and could only be topped by a semester at Nanjing’s University of Technology in Jiangsu province. Not only did I meet my Spanish boyfriend in China, but this adventure would change my life evermore.

Josephine Brauner and her boyfriend.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

It would go beyond the scope of this article to mention all those stories, funny and also dramatic, that I encountered during my time in China. Therefore, I decided to pick one story that I love to tell my friends and family back home in Germany.

Last year's springtime had been the perfect moment to finally visit the Yellow Mountain area (Huangshan) in Anhui province to go for a hike and see the beautiful scenery that attracts so many visitors every year. My boyfriend and me prepared the back bags, which turned out to be pretty heavy for the hike, and were sure to find an accommodation on top of the mountain without any problems. So we didn’t bother to reserve a hotel room beforehand and the hiking adventure in the dizzy heights of the yellow mountains could start.

The hike up to the top was one of a kind already. I am not an experienced hiker and those endless steps made me want to return to safe and comfortable grounds. But with the help of my boyfriend’s motivation: "Look, the top is coming closer and closer. We are almost there." I pulled myself together and kept going.

After a three-hour exhausting hike to the top, but with reparative spectacular views on the way, we arrived on the top and also found a hotel that looked very inviting. In the context of a HSK4 test preparation at the Nanjing University, I felt confident enough to book a hotel room for the two of us in Chinese. When the desk clerk told me that one double room would be available for 1500 Rmb that took my breath away. Quite an amount of money for a student! After asking for a cheaper version, which would have been a gender separated dormitory for 500 Rmb, I was about to lose my nerves. Especially after this exhausting hike, I was only looking forward to a relaxing bed. As a last resort, I asked for the possibility of a tent. Bingo!

The hotel's own kiosk owner sold tents for 80 Rmb. He was so friendly that he even offered to put it up for us. The location for the tent he suggested was right in front of the hotel next to the entrance. So it happened that the only foreign guests that night ended up sleeping in a tent in front of the hotel on the yellow mountains. The image of two foreigners sitting like dogs outside offered a great photo portrait for many Chinese who happened to have their cameras with them at all times (of course, we were at one of the most beautiful scenic places in China).

We spent a comfortable night in the tent and at 5 am woke up to see the incredible sunrise. Afterwards, we continued to explore the beautiful area around Huangshan and proceeded walking all the steps back down to safe grounds, which made my muscles ache even more than the climb up.

All in all, an unforgettable adventure like so many experiences I could come upon during my 3 years in China. I am now living in Spain, a country that I would have never come across if I hadn't decided to go to China. You just never know where destiny takes you. Future visits to China are already planned.

The tent became a sensation. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]