2005trip to Linzhou by Macelo |
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story I: story 2: Daniel's words about flying in Beijing story 3: flying the great wall of china A Paragliding trip to Linzhou
by Marcelo Spina Hering *
A Paragliding trip to Linzhou by Marcelo Spina Hering * Every minute spent on the 8-hour trip from Beijing to Linzhou was compensated with some of the most spectacular views of those mountains in the Northern edge of the Henan Province. Give the right proportions, and those formations will remind you something of the Grand Canyon. And for us, paraglider pilots, the reward can be even higher - after climbing the ridge and the thermals 2,000 meters up, some of us had orgasmic views: valleys, waterfalls, lakes, forest and already some signs of the fall colors. That's close to paradise. Local residents, farmers who build their stone houses and grow hilltop crops, live from their own maize, fruits (lots of persimmon) and some livestock. They stared at us with admiration and most showed with smiles that we were welcome to their highlands. The long Chinese holiday in October was the opportunity for many to take the long trip - in total, we were about 20 pilots there, half from China and the others from different countries (but most residing in China). We had a true United Nations: Jukka from Finland, Stefan, Philippe and Coleen from Switzerland, Joachim from Germany, Garth from Australia, Levent from Turkey, Daniel and friends from Colombia, Lennart from Sweden, Richard from England and Marcelo from Brazil (that's me!). And a nice crowd from China, from which I must at least mention Howard, a really nice fellow who first told me about Linzhou on a previous flying week in Mangshan Beijing. Each one of us had a different level of experience, but all with the same objective of getting to the top of the 800 meter mountain and let the glider fly. The ride up was already part of the adventure -it normally takes almost 2 hours from the hotel to the top, but our bus took 5 on the first day after the recent rains. We got stuck so many times in the muddy narrow road, we had to push the bus, dig, push more, carry rocks, and even jack it up so it wouldn't fall down the precipice. Nowadays some companies develop some sorts of adventure programs to exercise team spirit - so, we had that as part of the trip at no additional cost! And all for a first flight of no more than 15 minutes, since the sun and the wind were not strong enough that first day. But did anyone complain? No, the straight down flight was just the beginning. We had other days ahead of us and the weather forecast was on our side!
It's worth mentioning there is the local Linzhou Great Valley Paragliding club that, along with Beijing's Flying Man club, helped us with hotel and local transportation arrangement. What a pleasant fellow is that Cheng Guang Yu, one of the local club's guys, who without a word of English would make us feel so welcome and taken care of. Cheng Guang was always the first out of the bus and would rush to put up the flag to show us the wind conditions. Ok, good, very good, excellent¡! And, always smiling, there he was watching and photographing every take off. At the end of the trip, we were asked for a contribution to keep the club running, which was fair enough. Each gave about 100 RMB and additional 40 RMB for each ride up with the bus. We were just sad to hear that some of the Chinese pilots left a bit earlier without paying their dues. Paragliders are the attraction for the locals in Linzhou, and even more if there is a foreigner below it. Actually, we were carefully observed day and night, when we would gather to have dinner in one of the many local restaurants. It was good to talk (normally about paragliding, of course), watch DVDs (such as "Never Ending Thermals" and some DHV tests), exchange some of the day's experience, and eat, eat, eat¡. Tsingtao beers and food would never stop coming, especially when our Chinese friends were taking care of the orders. In every restaurant we went, the most disputed dish was always the delicious lamb meat. And we would find every excuse for another toast- endless kampais. And the talk sometimes ended in the hotel corridor, where we could joke a bit with the girls who work at the KTV next door - it happened that several of them live in one of the rooms in our floor. But nothing more than just jokes, no serious business. Personally, I decided to go for a foot massage in the hotel's "well being center" (which I call the "human being center"). We needed to be in good shape for the next day's flights. Some of the foreign pilots were still students - mainly the Flying Man guys with Levent - and the conditions provided for them really good training on take-off, landing and some had their first soaring delights. Garth, the Australian mate who was on the fifth flight of his lifetime, did some amazing progress after he experienced how it is not to fly only downwards, but use the lifting forces of nature and gain some extra meters from the take-off. And for a few of us, the experience went much beyond. One of the days I went with a Swiss couple flying a tandem glider for 15 kilometers along the ridge. Our communication was visual and through yells, since they carry no radio. The previous day we landed in a corn field in the middle of nowhere (in Brazil that's what we call Marlboro land) and had to fight transportation back to town - I hitch a ride in a motorcycle, an experience more scary than most flights. Therefore, the next day we decided to fly back to the take-off after reaching those same 15 kilometers, which seemed to be a hard ridge to pass. What to us 3 hours to gain going South, now it took only less than 30 minutes coming back. Phillipe and Collen went on flying, while I had to make a quick "pee stop", performing a top landing where Levent's students were getting ready for the second take-off of the day. This was all so perfect: climbing the ridges, exploring valleys, soaring and catching thermals of up to 6 m/s, top landing, resting for half an hour and still fly to meet all my friend in the traditional landing, which is the road that leads to the city. At first, I found it looked a bit scary to land there with the flowing traffic and trees on both sides, but most cars would stop just to see what those crazy human with wings were planning. The trees, however, were still there and, with strong wind, after the last flight it felt safer to land in the neighboring fields. There were never ending maize plantations, most already harvested and farmers were working hard preparing now for wheat. The trip was shortened after a weather change on Thursday - we drove up to the take off site, but the rain started earlier thane expected. It was time to return to Beijing, but for most of us there is no doubt that we had discovered the best flight in China and that it would not be ever forgotten. We shall be back!
* Marcelo Spina Hering is a Brazilian paraglider pilot, who works for the United Nations World Food Programme, currently based in North Korea. He flies a Sol Ellus DHV 1-2 glider. marcelospina@hotmail.com
Here are another album containing some photos take at Linzhou where 2004's comptation |
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