01-Jun-2005 -- 31 N – 117 E Anhui (安徽), China

Visit Date: June 1, 2005

This point was part of our plan as the 2nd and last “line hunting” of the day for our trip from Huangshen city to Hefei. However, our first hunt of the day – 30N-11E – turned out to be an epic struggle and it took us almost 6 hours to reach the objective after we started off within 1.1 km from that point.

By the time, we departed from the first point, which we named as “Tiger Hunting Mountain point”, it was already 5:30 pm and over 200 km from Hefei. By that time, we had already decided to forgo the second point until a later time.

The road that remained that we had to take to Hefei turned out to be easy driving. We crossed the Yangtze River at An-Qing city shortly after 6:30 pm. From this point onward, it was expressway all the way to Hefei. According to the map, this confluence point was located within 2 km from the expressway we were on, about 75 km further north, An-Qing (30 minutes away). Suddenly, it appeared feasible to reach the 2nd point of the day before dark. The key variable was finding an expressway exit that wasn’t too far from the confluence point.

As we approached the nearest point on the expressway to the confluence point by 7:10 pm, we were able to get out on an exit about 2 km passed the nearest location to the point on the expressway (1.7 km). The main problem was that we ended up on the western side of the expressway, but the confluence point was located on the eastern side. Finding a way to cross over to the other side of the expressway was the main challenge.

After wasting 15 minutes of valuable daylight, we managed to find the only passage to go over the expressway and reach the “right side” of the expressway. We found a dirt road leading toward the confluence point about 1.5 km after crossing the expressway. This bumpy dirt road passed through a couple villages, and brought us the village where the confluence point was located – 130 meters straight-line distance from where road ended.

We reached the ground zero spot a little past 7.40 pm with just enough daylight left to take the required photos. In contrast to the extremely difficult hunt we did earlier in the day which Du equated to tiger hunting, the ease of this one made it like rabbit hunting.

The confluence point located within a grove of trees within the edge of the village, about 40 meters from the nearest house, and 50 meters from a large water pond. The name of the village is Jiang-Ge-Cun. It is part of Bai-Ma Township of Tong-Cheng City.

The entire line hunting exercise took about 30 minutes from the time we left expressway. We made it to Hefei by 9.30 pm feeling mission accomplished.

A suitable name for this confluence point: “Rabbit Hunting Village” as suggested by our first-time hunter Dr. Du. It is the opposite of “tiger hunting”, implying it was a difficult task, for our first point of the day.

Rating of this hunt:

Degree of Challenge: 1– a short drive off the expressway with 130 meters of walking (1= very easy - drive to the point; to 5= a death march – glad it is over)

Scenery: 3– a clam and friendly village (Scale: 1= not interesting at all; 5= take your breath away)

Culture-social factors: 3– rural agriculture community of southern Anhui (Scale: 1=dull; 5= most stimulating)