Wuyi Shan Part Two

A shot of the country terrain: rows and rows of tea bushes. Greenery all around. A lot of my shots have this bleached out effect because it was actually a bit misty during the day.
The next day, we went on a hike to the 9 Dragon Waterfalls. As you climb higher and higher, the falls get larger.

To give some idea of relative height and size, look for the tiny people. My mom lay on this cool piece of rock next the the largest falls while my brother and I climbed higher. There's all this yellow caution paint because the rocks get really slippery from all the drizzle flying up from the falls. People lug bottles up to these falls to collect water for drinking and brewing tea. You can see our family friend gathering his supply down below. At the top of the climb there are teeny tea houses set up for such. The water is supposed to have excellent restorative properties, but I don't know. Chinese folk love things like that.

I had to add this adorable picture of my mom splashing her feet in the water. She was as excited as a 5-year-old girl and here I caught her unawares--if you click for a close up, you might be able to see the secret glow of satisfaction when you've discovered something you don't want to share with others. The water was super clear and fresh and perfect for cooling our tired feet. Also perfect for drinking...yum, sweet sweet feet water.

At the highest point we could climb to, you get this fantastic view--a bit like those mist-covered mountains you see in a lot of Chinese paintings. It might not look like much here, but all the drapes and folds of greenery was something I had been missing while living in the urban zoo of Puxi in Shanghai.

Afterwards we went into town to get some refreshments:

Mom bought some snake oil cream for her dry skin and for my brother's pus-filled mosquito bubble bite on his leg, not pictured for obvious reasons.