Peaks in Zhejiang: Part 1

To avoid murder in Shanghai, I escape to Zhejiang often. For those of you who don’t know, I am on the hit list (like all Shanghai residents) of the delivery bike riders. They are a unique species, distinct from rest of humanity: blessed with Formula1/ MotoGP skillset, along with an unparalleled ability to break all the rules, knock and kill: in pursuit of their mission of getting the packages to rest of us in time.

So on a weekend, my ride changes: my bicycle (knocked down twice by maniacal bikers) is given a break and the car is rolled out to munch miles.

One may drive to Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi or even Shandong. But one realizes that if mountains are your calling, Zhejiang is the province to head to. These enigmatic mountains have been formed by crux of the Earth, tempered by nature for over a thousand years. They often help you to retain perspective: what all we do, and where it pales compared to mother nature, or grandfather time. If nature doesn’t cover enough, let me throw in some materialistic perspective: Zhejiang is rich and it shows with the quality of build of its interior roads.

Here is the ranking and some of the places are covered in this post (Part 2 later)..

Yangdangshan  (Rank 8)

DaLong waterfall at YangDangShan

A popular destination (UNESCO global), but the challenge here is is the number of spots one needs to cover. And of course - it is swarmed by humanity amply. I covered the DaLong waterfall (unique indeed) and the peak. The tourist area is well developed (China AAAAA rated) but one needs to plan a lot, face crowds and spend a lot of time and money (every area needs a separate ticket).

 If you are driving, you’d be challenged to park across various spots, and if you are not, you will be queueing up every now and then to get to the next buses ferrying tourists across.

The main trek is challenging, to mildly put it. However, the oomph factor for me was dulled by the popularity of the place and the volume of humanity that chooses to hit this place. Maybe I am anti-social: but I don't recommend this highly as the peace and equanimity in the equation collapses. 

Xianhua (Rank 2)

Not the highest peak, not so popular – but my favorite!

It has so little popularity that everyone I mention this to end up searching 'Xiangshan' and missing this masterful place (XiangHua).

Those of you who crib that trekking is focused on working out your lower body only, there is good news for the kind: You have to get on all fours. Your biceps and triceps have a lot to do and you may walk back with stronger muscles to showoff upon concluding your trek.

The climb & the chains

I thought the chains were to help those climbing up. I was terribly wrong. The chains' role is predominantly to keep the people crumbling down and delaying death. The bottle here is not to irritate my wife, who can annihilate anyone caught littering, but it is to give you perspective of the steps and the attack angles.

This is one of the best places I have seen. Ironically the results you get on google for the place is zero. Nil.

Unique thing here besides the chains: Lizards. There were ample rustles to scare you. I was greeted by 15 lizards of different scientific names in a matter of hour, all ranging from brown to psychedelic green. Google executives called me to inform that their global cloud space was running out as I started to write about my hatred for lizards, so I won’t delve in that. I remembered the strategy of my dear friend Bugga: who when accosted by the wild beings, kept survival strategy simple: Run..

This is one of the best places I have seen. Ironically the results you get on google for the place is zero. Nil. Xianhua is not accessible by public transport, nor is it found as the top 5 places to visit on forums. However, I rate it one of the best factoring in just that. The crowds are kept away and if you are the contemplative kind or one who loves nature more than humanity – this place is a gem. If you do want to reconnect with humanity after your trek – head to Yiwu – the factory of the world to see where weirdest of the goods of the world (toy cars’ gears, glass grabber, 95% of the world’s Christmas tree decorations, etc.) come from.

Tiantai mountain (Rank 6)

The waterfall here is said to have inspired the famous poet Li Bai.

The waterfall that inspired Li Bai

The silly thing here is the split between the areas and tickets. I was terribly confused about the options and bought the overall package (160 as against 100 for the waterfall only)

The waterfall, with it’s majesty will impress. And it will ask you to undertake a treacherous climb.

Even beyond the waterfall, the trek is enigmatic with great views of the fall, the valleys and the reservoirs.

After an hour and half,  I came at a juncture where a ticket check was needed. Brilliant, this is where the extra money I accidently^ paid would be put to work.

(translation error by the only foreigner thanks to his broken Mandarin) 

Alas, that elation was short-lived; I was accosted by a major problem. That extra money I had spent had but bought me into fear. The author is incredibly scared of heights, and the path ahead entailed walking on a bridge (at unspeakable heights) with a glass base. This maximized the vision of possible plunge below, and sharpened my fear of heights..

After battling anxiety for those long moments, I managed to cross the ghastly life threatening piece that they call an engineering marvel. Only to find myself lost. I headed to the one exit sign, only to find that the aforementioned exit seemed to be miles away from where I wanted to be. Conversation transpired in my broken Chinese with the sole employee I could find there. I explained to her the facts: I was lost, my car was at the map location (which displayed English, a language she could not quite comprehend)

My problem statement was barely conveyed when she was joined if by a a couple of onlookers who shot a flurry of instructions and life advisory. With my limited understanding, I grappled to comprehend and I frantically took notes and tried to reconstruct the messages *:

- “you are truly lost”

- “Too far”

- “Find ‘that’ exit, and then find 'that' bus”

- “Hope you can find your way in life. And perhaps your car”

 *I am only HSK level 2 qualified, and there could be errors in my comprehension

I was incredibly lost indeed. I kept trekking, often in counterintuitive direction to what Apple Maps depicted. There was another beautiful waterfall, a majestic lake, which tapered to become another waterfall at the edge of the dam. This sight did make my spirits plunge from a state of melancholy to elation for a while, until reality check rightly brought me back to the state of panic. For the sun was setting, the return drive was long, and if I took the simple way of returning the way I came to find my car, I was sure to be eaten up by the creatures of the wild by nighfall.
  

Miraculously, I did find 'the exit' mentioned by a well wishing onlooker, I did manage to get onboard 'the bus' and reached 'the car park' to retrieve the right vehicle. 

Was the whole ordeal beautiful? Incredibly so..

Did I enjoy it? Nope..

And this is because this is because of the guidance I could NOT get. Forget the foreigner/ English instructions problem, the area is sub-divided to many regions (my ticket covered couple of them), and at every region: the map changes, royally ignoring what the master map says. While you could expect an ill-read foreigner going astray from regular paths, my Chinese comrades had similar problems. I met many on the way with similar expression as mine: a unique combination of fear, elation and panic thanks to being lost in nature's splendor.  

The process remains complicated: entry from one, exit from another  area(s), taking the bus to car park.

So while TianTai righteously takes a spot in the top places of Zhejiang, my anxiety resulting from lack of directions forbids me to take it to the top 3.

Fangyan (Rank 12)

Fangyan's' fame: the bridge

This is a nice temple place with a relatively easy trek. The scenic area provides complimentary transport from parking to the ticket counter: saving you ~ 20 minutes of walk. The trek: though modest in terms of time and ascent, involves lots of stairs which can test your knees. There a quirky route which offers to land you at the film city when taking the cable car, but i avoided this to get lost from my car again (memories of TianTai haunting).

There are many interesting spots in the course of the trek, with temples, places of historical interest and view points. Yet, I will never go here again. Jinhua has lot of other interesting places to offer and I would advise to skip this one.

Disclosure: Author's rating here is heavily biased as he was cheated into adulterated fuel at YongKang. This led to drops in power with the drive back and a visit to the service station to diagnose the issue.

Lingqi Caves (Rank 5)

River snaking into the karst system

To be clear: this is not a mountain trek but rather a phenomenon of nature worthy of pilgrimage. Hence including in this list. The stalactite/ stalagmite formations date back centuries. Like it is with many things in China: this has been maintained incredibly well and the displays are commendable (can't help comparing this with San Antonio's natural bridge caverns). 

Why it does not feature as one of the 'go to' places in China is a mystery for me. We accidentally discovered this gem during our trip to 1,000 island lake (QianDaoHu) and it turned to be the pinnacle of the trip. There is a moderate walk to get the the caves from the tourist entrance gate and then comes the boat ride, taking you through a secret river snaking through the mountains. The karst water system is a phenomenon to be experienced and wish it were more popular - for the benefit of humanity.

The drive to LingQi caves is an added bonus, with ample fast mountainous roads featuring more tunnels than I had cumulatively seen in my lifetime.