Moon Hill sits just outside the town and is famous due to the round hole sitting towards the peak of the mountain. We decided to bike out to it and give it a climb. I haven't ridden a bike in I don't know how long, and while it may be true that you never forget how, this old body sure wishes I would have and just gotten a taxi. Besides the aches and pains of biking up and down hills there was the real fear of death on that ride. Like everywhere we've been in China, the traffic was insane and full of danger.

Cars, buses, and trucks all whipped here and there and everywhere, passing whoever they wanted, stopping for no reason, and generally scaring the bejesus out of me. The other bike riders were no better, they weaved in and out of the road and the bike lane and nearly knocked me down any number of times. I tried to play along and did a little weaving myself, but not without saying a prayer for my pour soul all the while.

There were stairs up the hill and we climbed. And climbed. And climbed. I reached the top first, panted for my life, and took a few pictures. There was a small path winding around to the side and I imagined it went straight around the small mountain and decided to walk it before the girls came up. There were no stairs this time and instead of going around it went up. Way up. It had rained recently so I was treading up mud and rock. Falling was painful death. Climbing was muddy pain. I guess I should have just climbed down after a few minutes, but I really did think I was circling around until I realize it was nothing but climb and by then it was too late. I made it okay and the view was stunning, but I called the wife and told her not to even try. The way down was worse as it felt like I was falling the entire time and my legs were already caked in mud.

We spent the rest of the time shopping for trinkets and enjoying the view. Our flight out was Sunday night and we took an afternoon taxi to the airport. The taxi took longer than we imagined and we didn't make it to the airport until about 90 minutes before our flight. Signs warned us that if we weren't through customs at an hour before takeoff we wouldn't be taking off at all. Lines stretched long throughout the airport. We stood for our boarding pass and hoped things would go quickly. Ten, then twenty minutes passed. Finally we got our passes but now had to wait in line for security.