linyi: where i lost my voice and maybe my mind
well, here i am in linyi after a 12-hour train ride that smells vaguely like pickled garlic. my legs are jelly, my hair's a bird's nest, and i just checked and it's... 9 degrees celsius right now, hope you like that kind of thing. honestly, i'm too tired to be impressive right now.
so linyi is... enormous. like, shockingly enormous. we're talking 17,200 square kilometers of land-thirds mountains, thirds hills, thirds flat bits. someone told me that mengshan mountain is shandong's second-highest peak at 1,156 meters, but right now all i can think about is how many stairs that must be. my hotel room is bigger than my apartment, and i'm pretty sure i'm sharing it with a ghost who steals my shampoo.
yesterday i stumbled into this place called the underground grand canyon-6,100 meters of caves and river rafting. looked amazing on paper, but half the time i was bumping my head on stalactites. someone told me it's one of china's largest karst caves, but honestly? it was dark and wet and my raft guide kept singing off-key. the bamboo slips museum was cooler though-ancient war strategy texts from sun zi and sun bin, which basically means linyi birthplace of all my failed romantic plans. also, wang xizhi's calligraphy place? beautiful, but my handwriting looks like toddler scrawl next to his.
if you get bored, rizhao and lianyungang are just a short drive away, and qingdao's only 200km. but honestly, staying put might be better. the logistics here are insane-20,000 km of highways, trains to beijing for ¥200, and an airport that feels like a shopping mall. tried to take a train to junan county and ended up in junan town instead. apparently they're "distant suburbs" whatever that means. got lost for three hours.
oh and the neighbors? jiangsu province is right next door. very convenient for when you forget to buy snacks. saw tianfo mountain's buddha ridge from a distance-3,800 meters of rock shaped like a dude. impressive, but i was too busy eating peanuts to get close. speaking of food, the local stuff seems to be... peanuts? garlic? honeysuckle? i found a dried vegetable stall that smelled like regret. not bad, just... earthy.
the yi river's nice though. walked along it yesterday and almost got blown away by wind that felt like it was personally offended by my existence. saw a "sunshine beach" which is basically a riverbank with some rocks. very optimistic naming. the calligraphy park had a fountain that soaked my shoes. worth it for the giggles.
someone told me that zhuge liang-yeah, the strategist guy-was from here. his house is a museum now, which is weird because his strategies probably involved more nap time. also, 13 confucius disciples? wild. feels like the city's entire identity is "we birthed famous people." cool, but my back still hurts from the train.
anyway, i'm gonna nap now. the city's got 11 million people and i've met approximately three of them. if you come, bring snacks and a good pillow. also, ignore the ghosts. probably.
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