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Location: Ma Ren Shan, Anhui Province, Central China
Ma Ren Shan is a small, forested mountain in rural
China, located in the Anhui Province, near the centre
of the country. This little known nature reserve near the
Yangtze River is quite close to the town where I was
teaching English in 2004, but for some reason Ma Ren Shan
is on every Chinese person's 'places not to visit' list. Choosing
to ignore this advice, a friend of mine and I paid a visit
to this delightful little rural retreat.
Getting there was half the fun and our transportation that
morning included buses, taxis, three-wheeled taxis, and clinging
like girls to the back of burly Chinese men on motorbikes.
Arriving at the foot of the Ma Ren Shan we were awestruck
by the quiet beauty of the hills. Jagged yellow hunks of rock
rose at odd angles from the sides of the forested peaks, and
bamboo covered the low ground in front of the hills.
As we began our ascent we realized that we were being followed
by a small, surly lad. We couldn't quite figure out why he
kept following us so we let him tag along (as if we had a
choice). After visiting a small temple at the base of the
hills and making a donation at the shrine, the monastery gave
us a monk as a guide up to the summit. So off we set, two
foreigners, one small peasant boy and an elderly monk.
After climbing to the top of the hill, being shown the many
sights of Ma Ren Shan by our guide and admiring the scenery,
the boy decided to reveal his true colours. He was a beggar,
and a damn good one at that. He waited until we got to the
top of the hill and hit us with every trick in the 'how to
rip off foreigners' guidebook. He spent almost an hour screaming
and wailing 'wode mama! wode baba!'('my mother, my father!'),
and concocting various stories about his background, at one
stage saying he needed money for school, then for food, and
then so his father wouldn't beat him. He grabbed onto us,
blocked our path and even pretended to fall over and injure
himself. Eventually we caved in. We gave him his money and
'persuaded' him to leave (although this process took a further
20-minutes, and throwing him off the cliff was an attractive
option at the time).
This minor distraction aside, the view from the top of Ma
Ren Shan was spectacular and it's certainly worth a visit
if you find yourself in this part of the country.
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Travel Writers: Persistence Pays Off by
Robert Flawith
