We Made it to Heaven

Our last day arrived sooner than we thought it would.  We met at the lobby at 7:00AM and went to...yup! McDonalds!  After breakfast we walked to the cable cars which was about a ten minute walk. We got in line to buy tickets and we tried using our drivers license for our student ID so we could get it cheaper. Mine, Amanda's and Cynthia's worked and it was like 100 yuan cheaper. We were pretty happy about that. The other girls weren't so happy. We got on line to get on the cable car. Eight people could fit and there were already four in one so the lady took four of our girls and directed them to the cable car. They wanted to go with us though and said "wait, what about them." and slowly walked towards the cable car.  The lady was pushing them to go and soon enough the car passed by without them getting on it.  The four girls were like "ah dang, it's gone. Oh well!" The Chinese lady who was loading the cars wasn't so happy about it and did the little tick with her tongue. Jocelyn jokingly said "You didn't give me my discount so I'm getting my way".  The ride was about 30 minutes long but it only felt like 10. It was beautiful the whole way up.

When we got to the top we took busses to the Stairway to Heaven.  It was about a 20 minute, very curvy bus ride to the top.  We got off and right in front of us was the stair way.  It was like a gazillion steps!

(I'm going to be all religious for a second)
The Parable of the Stairway:  I can see why it's called the stairway to Heaven, it's A LOT of work!  It was easy when we first started, we weren't tired yet, we were confident, and  the stairs weren't that steep. We then came to a section of really steep, skinny stairs that were hard and made us wonder what we got ourselves into. After struggling and taking a few breaks we made it to the next section of easier steps again.  They weren't as steep and were wider. It was still hard, but it was easier. Sometimes the friends we were walking with would leave us and we would walk alone for a while. Sometimes we met up with people and walked with them. For the most part, we had someone by our side. We hit another hard, steep section of stairs but we pushed ourselves through it. The last bit before we reached Heaven was a long, steep, difficult section of stairs. As we were almost to the top we had friends literally cheering for us and telling us that we could do it. And when we reached the top we were congratulated by those who had left us earlier. We looked back and saw friends coming hand in hand up the stairs; we congratulated them for their hard work.  Sound familiar? Sounds like life to me.

At the top we took some pictures and walked for a while. We then came to a cave with a really long escalator.  We took it up and when we reached the top we were surprised to see another one; we took that one too.  Then there was another one! There was a Chinese man and he was debating on weather or not her should go up the stairs so we told him too. Everyone cheered for him as he raced up the stairs. When we reached the top, there was another escalator with stairs.  The man decided to run up them again and this time Amanda went with him. Everyone cheered again. When we reached the top everyone was taking pictures with her.  A man came up to me and said "Me and you?" I said "mmm....okay!" so we ran up.  Holy Hannah it was a lot of stairs! When we got to the top people took pictures with me.  Thankfully we were at the top and there were no more escalators waiting for us.  We stood there for a while trying to decide which direction we should head.  The guy that Amanda raced up with came up the escalator with two women at his sides, propping him up. They sat him down and got him some water.  I'm not sure what was wrong with him, maybe he hurt his ankle or maybe he was light headed.

We walked some more (we did a lot of walking and stair climbing)

 After a while we came to the glass walk.  We walked on glass that was thousands (as Chinese would say, meters) of feet up in the air. Before we walked on it we had to put on these dirty, wet, booties to cover our shoes so we wouldn't scratch up the glass. It was so funny seeing grown up Chinese men and women who were so scared to walk on the glass.  Their friends would try to push them on the glass and they would yell and pull back.

After the glass walk we came to a section that had red ribbons tied EVERYWHERE! It was really cool and looked awesome. After that we spent a lot of time following a pathway and just admiring the view.  It was so beautiful everywhere! The pathway we were on was on the edge of the mountain so it was really cool. It was absolutely beautiful and amazing! God is good!

We came to this cool bridge so we took pictures on it.

As usual, people want pictures with us.

One last group picture in front of Mermaid Rock.  (we named it)

After a long walk we took the cable cars down the mountain.  We were starving when we got back so we ate at.....not McDonalds! We ate at a really yummy Chinese restaurant. Egg plant is our most favorite thing ever so we got that. We went back to the hostel, packed up, and headed to the train station. We were and hour early for our train and our train was delayed for another hour. So we sat there and talked.  We played the "I'll act serious and you try to make me laugh game." Jocelyn owned us. Two hours later we got on the train.  We had sleepers this time, thank goodness! There was so much room on that train because there weren't many people on it.