If there’s one thing in western society that I feel there's absolutely no need for its the necessity to sue people when an accident occurs. The whole business of suing really grinds my gears, from the “Have you been injured at work because your stupid enough to climb a broken ladder” adverts to the practise of health and safety. Don’t get me wrong, I think there should be consequences for people who are grossly negligent and drive blindfolded for example, but no matter how many hi-vis vests you wear, accidents will always happen. A little bit of common sense goes a long way and I’ve noticed throughout my travels that other cultures seem to have far more of it than the western world.
The other day Rory and I decided to climb Mount Hua, a large mountainous range which is particularly symbolic and a site of pilgrimage for the Taoist religion. We heard before we started the climb that there were three paths to the top. The first a gentle 6 hour ramble up a mild slope to the summit, the second the cheats cable car that took about 10 minutes and required no calories to be burnt and finally the soldiers path which ran under the cable car and guarantee 2 hours of hard work with great views.
The cheats cable car was out of the question as James Peel is no cheat, may I add it’s purely coincidental that I’ve never lost at Monopoly when playing as the banker. The gentle track sounded a little long and by my own admission, 6 hours of one man Disney film re-enactments can be a little tedious and I wasn’t sure if Rory could handle another sitting of my highly contrived 101 Dalmatians musical. So we got ourselves a couple of bottles of water and headed for the soldiers track.
The first kilometre or so was pretty easy going, but then things got exciting. The steepness became extremely apparent when the steps were no longer wide enough to fit a shoe, resulting in a crab-like-walk assent method. The track then continued vertically along a 50m stretch of shear mountain face with nothing but foot holes carved into the rock and a chain either side to pull yourself up. Finally there were narrow paths along cliff faces with chains more commonly seen in garden centres to stop you plummeting to your death. By the end I was so tired I felt like I’d completed an entire pre-seasons training in one sitting. The most fascinating thing about all this was that we were doing it with people who could have been claiming their pensions. 80 year old men and women were happily dangling themselves over cliffs and pottering along mountain sides. Now in England I can safely say mount Hau would be shut down in an instance, health and safety would never allow half the things up there. But since they started keeping records not a single person has ever died, they’ve not even had a serious injury. I’d guess that statistically someone should have accidentally had a little trip by now, but luckily they haven't so it can be enjoyed by thousands of people everyday without a single need for a harness. We got the cable car back down, we heard it supplied really good views.
In addition to this little story I thought I’d enlighten you with a few English translations of Chinese notices or signs that are about. I’ll let you try and work them out:
1. Please slip carefully
2. A be seated defecate
3. The green shards are afraid of your foot
4. Disabled elevator
5. Be careful not to be stolen
6. Don’t stroke the works
7. Cash recycling system
8. Unrecycling
9. Fire in safe hand people
10. No tossing
The other day Rory and I decided to climb Mount Hua, a large mountainous range which is particularly symbolic and a site of pilgrimage for the Taoist religion. We heard before we started the climb that there were three paths to the top. The first a gentle 6 hour ramble up a mild slope to the summit, the second the cheats cable car that took about 10 minutes and required no calories to be burnt and finally the soldiers path which ran under the cable car and guarantee 2 hours of hard work with great views.
The cheats cable car was out of the question as James Peel is no cheat, may I add it’s purely coincidental that I’ve never lost at Monopoly when playing as the banker. The gentle track sounded a little long and by my own admission, 6 hours of one man Disney film re-enactments can be a little tedious and I wasn’t sure if Rory could handle another sitting of my highly contrived 101 Dalmatians musical. So we got ourselves a couple of bottles of water and headed for the soldiers track.
The first kilometre or so was pretty easy going, but then things got exciting. The steepness became extremely apparent when the steps were no longer wide enough to fit a shoe, resulting in a crab-like-walk assent method. The track then continued vertically along a 50m stretch of shear mountain face with nothing but foot holes carved into the rock and a chain either side to pull yourself up. Finally there were narrow paths along cliff faces with chains more commonly seen in garden centres to stop you plummeting to your death. By the end I was so tired I felt like I’d completed an entire pre-seasons training in one sitting. The most fascinating thing about all this was that we were doing it with people who could have been claiming their pensions. 80 year old men and women were happily dangling themselves over cliffs and pottering along mountain sides. Now in England I can safely say mount Hau would be shut down in an instance, health and safety would never allow half the things up there. But since they started keeping records not a single person has ever died, they’ve not even had a serious injury. I’d guess that statistically someone should have accidentally had a little trip by now, but luckily they haven't so it can be enjoyed by thousands of people everyday without a single need for a harness. We got the cable car back down, we heard it supplied really good views.
In addition to this little story I thought I’d enlighten you with a few English translations of Chinese notices or signs that are about. I’ll let you try and work them out:
1. Please slip carefully
2. A be seated defecate
3. The green shards are afraid of your foot
4. Disabled elevator
5. Be careful not to be stolen
6. Don’t stroke the works
7. Cash recycling system
8. Unrecycling
9. Fire in safe hand people
10. No tossing
