Baidi City

I was the only one of the group of 19 from the National Geographic expedition to go on the excursion to the White King Town, built around 25 AD by a local who declared himself Emperor of the area.

It’s on top of a little island (connected by a long footbridge to the mainland), and my decision to go turned out to be a really good one.  Also referred to as the White Emperor City, it is located on top of Baidi Mountain, which is not a mountain, but if that’s what they want to call it. . .they can. 

We climbed the 300 stairs which were not as painful as my knee expected.  The island is really the story of two badass men, one of whom was the Emperor, and the other was his right hand man, the Prime Minister.

It was old school stuff, as you can see from the photos below.  There was a lot to see on top of the peak, and we were surrounded by pretty trees and views.  It was definitely worth the trip.

As we finished, I went to use the restroom near the entryway.  On my way back down, there was a huge group of schoolkids, and when they saw me, they instinctively knew I'm not Chinese (not sure how!) and starting waving and saying hello, hi, etc.  It was a cute moment.

We got back just as dinner was starting, so I took a quick shower and made it before the appetizer course was served!