Long time ago the Mogan Shan was the summer resort of the rich and posh shanghainese. Long time is more specific between 1880 and the cultural revolution. Nowadays it's the more or less secret hint for nice weekend location to flee the heat and humidity in Suzhou and Shanghai. We went there to chill out.
After some dry-training we also started with real drinks. The Kids running around at the hostel had a lot of fun and made friends during keeping the adults busy.
Uups, you don't know where Mogan Shan really is? It's around 200 kilometers south west of Suzhou and the hostel, Dahliana and Massimo found is a kind of outdoor cottage, mainly for mountain biker, extreme hiker and rock climber. We found out about this quite soon after arrival and dragging our luggage uphill, steep as the Mt Everest ;-) But it was worth it, just enjoying the sun set in the bamboo forest. If somebody is interested in the homepage of the hostel, here it is: Prodigy
Beside of us there were plenty of other nationalities staying the weekend: Australian, German, American, New Zealand, Philippines and for sure Chinese.
For dinner we planned BBQ. Dahliana checked before hand, if there is a grill available and if we can bring our stuff. Only the green stuff like salad and veggies we got from the hostel. We could get used to the service here, they light up the grill for us and prepared all the side dishes, so Massimo could concentrate on roasting the meet - again, perfect.
Tori - one of the guides from the hostel, was the whole day busy looking for her cat Terry, which was lost for 2 full days. But even in the chimney he couldn't be found. There is more to tell about Terry the cat, you'll read it later.
In the middle of nowhere we found out, that there is also a free WiFi. Unbelievable, that far away from any civilisation that some of the guests got mixed up, what is a snack and what not.
After enjoying the BBQ, some wine, nice company and having a lot of fun we went to Bed not too late. Or should we say: we wanted to go to bed. There was this strange smell in our room and after investigating the bed, we found some traces of Terry the cat.
At this point the weekend was nearly over. But the crew was that fast in changing the matrasses and the linen, lighting up incense to get rid of the smell and getting Tori that we couldn't believe. Tori then found also the cat under the bed. The next morning it was already a big laugh for us all.
Today we headed to the real Mogan Shan on the top of the hill. This is the ancient posh village with all you needed, 100 years ago e.g. theater, church, club house, hotels, villas and so on. But see a couple of pictures of our direct neighborhood of our hostel first.
20 minutes car ride and 80RMB later we arrived at Mogan Shan village. Nowadays it's called national park and so you have to pay to get in. That's real communism.
The Villas are real Villas, big gardens around and the view is also hilarious. The hotels are built from some of the old houses and there is still the smell of the last century.
If the impression hits everybody in the same way, that depends on the point of view by each individual.....
Another small house in the middle of the bamboo forest. A cool breeze, a lot of shadow and you forget about the 40°C in Shanghai.
But there is not only bamboo, also other trees and azaleas. As you see, we're still so stimulated, that there are a lot of pictures in todays homepage.
It's also unbelievable, what work load the people are doing each day from dawn till dusk. And most of the work is done without any machines. But all the people are looking happy and are having a lot of fun with the "laowais". Would be really nice to know, what these people are thinking of us.
Currently the harvest of bamboo started. Not only the sprouts but also the long rods.
Back in the hostel we found out, that the BBQ the other evening was inspiring the other guests, but this is again another story.......
Dogs...
... are part of the daily outdoor life in the prodigy
hostel....
