Article by: Elisa Ma
Okdeal Anji Fun River Trackking Trip in 29 June 2019
I’m what most people would call an ABC, also known as an American Born Chinese, not to be confused with an ABG, Asian Baby Girl. Having parents who are both from Beijing, I’ve been to China countless times. However, I never really ventured the country on my own. Well, what better time to explore than when you’ve been thrown into Shanghai for 2 months with a very bipolar Wifi connection?
Something you should know about me is that I am not a morning person; for reference, I usually sleep until 3PM if I don’t set an alarm. I’m also not the most athletic person (haha but surprise I ended up signing up for a river hiking trip that starts at 7AM in the morning)!
It’s okay, I survived. I went into the trip not knowing anyone else, but lucky for me I was blessed with the opportunity to trap 2 other girls into being my friends! Shout out to Tracy and Mollie if you guys read this, y’all the realest!
Our entire one-day trip was centered on hiking along the Anji River. Although the tour began with a light rain, this weather helped create a view that looked almost as if the clouds were hugging the mountains. Along the way we passed by countless locals and adorable dogs; the cutest one was definitely thelittle puppy that followed us up to the mountain!
We started off by walking through bamboo forests: a journey that makes you feel like you’re going back through time (cheesy, I know, but you’ll understand once you experience it). Sadly, no pandas reside there anymore.
After walking through the bamboo forest, we reached water! Not wearing water shoes, I wanted to try to keep my beautiful Adidas sneakers as dry as possible. Buuuuut as you can probably guess, that didn’t last long on my RIVER hike.
With that being said, the experience was very much worth. It was fun choosing how to travel through the river: hike through the currents of the water or try to jump across the stones? Knowing that one wrong move could potentially result in a fall into the water made everything riskier and more fun.
Even though I was pitifully sore the morning after, the views from the top of the mountains and the bottom of the waterfalls were 100% worth the trek. Thanks to OK, Deal! Travel for planning this trip! And as what we would say from The University of Texas at Austin –Hook ‘em.
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