23-Mar-2005 -- 38 N – 119 E Shandong, China

Visit Date: March 23, 2005

After two easy hunts the day before (37N 118E and 37N 119E), we were looking forward to a hunt with greater degree of challenge. The location of 38N 119E clearly will make it an interesting hunt.

On several maps this CP is located about 2-3 km off the coast north where yellow river enters the ocean. On one the more recent map this CP is located on land. It is very possible that, through the land claim process, it is now on land.

There is only one way to find out.

After concluded our meetings and obligatory lunch in Dong Yin city we headed toward the coast which is about 50 km away. The entire area of Dong Yin is China’s 2nd largest oil field known as the Shenli (Victory) oil field. This was our second line hunting in an oil field. The previous one was at the Da Qing oil field – the largest field of China (46N 125E)

Once we left the Dong Yin city area, there were few towns and villages because the wet land with high alkaline content is not suitable for agriculture. With the exception of major highway leading to the coast, the few secondary roads were build for the oil field operation.

After a few wrong turns we managed to find the right service road which brought us to the coast nearest to the CP. To our disappointment that this particular CP is located in the ocean beyond a wide span of mud flat. There was only one sunken boat in sight .

We were able to assess the CP from two directions – 1.93 km from the west and 1.86 km from the south. At the 2nd location, there were people working in the water, and we can tell that the CP is reachable by wading in less than a meter deep of water.

However tempting we did not try to go for the CP. This was a very windy day with temperature near 0 degree C; it would be suicidal to attempt the approach without proper gears. We conclude that this could be a very feasible CP to reach in the middle of summer during low tide.

Even though we did not reached the CP, but this turn out to be a far more interesting line hunting trip in contrast the two hunts we did the previous day in the flat farm land.

If a confluence point located on the mud flat during low tide can be counted as land-based CP, this would be last point of 38th N on land in China. Last time one of us visited another point on 38N was over a month ago – 38N 123W – at Point Reyes National Seashore of California which is the last western CP point on 38th N of the US – 117 degrees apart.

Rating of this hunt:

Degree of Challenge: 4 – requires 3.6 km walk in leg deep of water on mud flat (Scale: 1= very easy - drive to the point; to 5= a death march – glad it is over)

Scenery: 3– Wet land coastal area and oil field (Scale: 1= not interesting at all; 5= take your breath away)

Culture-social factors: 2– desolated area with mainly installations for oil industry (Scale: 1=dull; 5= most stimulating)