Wugong Shan tent festival

Last weekend we were invited to go to nearby Wugong Mountain for a tent festival. As expected, it was a load of Chinese people (and three foreigners) all camping on the mountain. Not such a strange thing you might say, but it was a tent festival with Chinese characteristics for sure:
1. Many people looked as though their rucksacks, tents etc were having their first ever outing.
2. Camping is still not a big thing in China, so for so many people to be doing it at once is unusual.
3. Some people found the whole experience of heading up a mountain with a big rucksack a bit too much and soon gave their bags to a handy porter to carry (see photo). [Some also used porters to carry their bags back down again...]
4. I must've written so many time about the amount of litter that is casually dropped here in China. Wugong Mountain is a prime example. A beautiful place that people go to to escape from the city, but which is being ruined by litter (see photo).
5. A tent festival in China requires a stage and evening entertainment - mostly singing and some dancing and also a bit of flag-waving.
6. Tents were pitched soooooooo close together - I felt a bit claustrophobic!
7. The 'squawking' went on until quite late and started up again at about 4.30am. Sadly, we had forgotten our earplugs.

It was interesting, but not sure how enjoyable we really found it. I like to go to the countryside for peace and quiet. There was none of that! We met a couple of young Chinese people who spoke good English - one had studied in Britain for a while. We also met another foreign teacher who'd been taken there by his students.

We spoke to a middle school teacher, who was from near Lu Shan, and who thought Wugong Mountain was very dirty! We also met another teacher in a restaurant on the way back. She was also an English teacher, but it took her a while to summon up the courage to speak to us.

We had many many 'halllooo's and 'laowai's during the weekend, and these have continued a bit back on campus with the new first years being let loose from their army training. Ah well, it'll pass...