It seems like I just had vacation but yet again I found myself with not just 3 days off but 4. However so does the rest of China. I’d been warned by everyone that everywhere would be packed. I didn’t find out the exact days I had off until the week before so when I checked train tickets it looked like everywhere was booked. Standing tickets as well. However 4 days off was too long of a time for me to stay home when there are so many places to visit. After spending about 3 hours searching for a cool place to visit that also had train tickets left I managed to find tickets to Jiujiang where I could then take a tourist bus to Mt. Lushan National Park. The first plan started out like this: after work on Friday I would go home pack and go the train-station where I booked a hard sleeper seat directly to Jiujiang. That way I would be well rested to do some sightseeing right when I got there. I should have known that planning wouldn’t work because when I woke up the next morning I got an email saying the train was overbooked and my seat to Jiujiang was canceled.
So instead of canceling my hostel reservation and ticket back to Yangzhou I spent the morning figuring out how to get to Jiujiang by multiple trains. Now instead of 1 train that I could sleep on I was going to take 3 trains. 2 trains I could only get a standing ticket. New plan: after work go directly to the train station in Yangzhou where I had a standing ticket to Nanjing (about 45 minutes). After hanging out in Nanjing for 2 hours I had another standing ticket to Tongling (about 3 hours). I arrived in Tongling around 1:30 in the morning where I found an empty row of seats to sleep until my last train to Jiujiang left at 3:45am. I was planning on sleeping on the last train but the guy next to me apparently was studying English at university and wanted to practice speaking with me. I really wanted to sleep but I felt like it would be rude to say no. (and also he kept poking me to ask questions every time my head would droop) So basically until the train arrived at 6:10am I tried to answer questions like ‘Why does everyone hate Barack Obama’, ‘what’s the difference between Hispanic and Mexican’ ‘how long did it take to build the wall between the U.S. and Mexico? (Even though I tried to explain it hasn’t been built and who knows if it will ever be built he insisted that we’ve already built it. He also said ‘l don’t think you are a real American because all Americans are really fat.’ Other questions included ‘Why can African Americans call each a certain word but no one else can?’ He also kept saying that certain word and said ‘see nothing happens when I say it. You say it. Will people beat you up?’ Those are all the really awkward and weird ones I could remember. His English was pretty good but the understanding and cultural awareness was clearly missing. For instance with the wall question: every time I said the wall hasn’t been built. He would say ‘oh oh I understand.’ But then follow up with questions like ‘how long is it?’ and ‘is it keeping people out?’ and such. It was kinda frustrating not only because it was 4am but because I feel like the least qualified person to explain general stuff about America to anyone.
Anyway once I got off the train I follow a bit of a routine. Find a place to sit, reconfigure my surroundings and figure out where to go. I knew I had to get to the coach station which I googled (thanks VPN!) beforehand. I knew what number bus and what the stop was called. I just had to find the bus station. Usually there is a stop right outside or within walking distance outside the train station. Unfortunately English guy saw me sitting and decided to keep talking to me. I kept telling him I knew where to go but he insisted since it was his country he could show me around the city. However I wanted to leave the city and get to Lushan via tourist bus so I ended up getting on the first bus that came into the stop and said it’s my bus even though I had no idea where it went. I got off at the next station and went from there. It took a little longer to get to the coach station due to that but the buses didn’t start going to Lushan until 8:30 so I was still early. After the coach station opened I didn’t have to say one word of Chinese. I just said ‘Lushan’ the ticket tellers knew what I met. It was about a short drive to the foot of the mountain where I got off the bus to get a ticket into the park. The next part was a bit tricky as you’re supposed to go back out to the parking lot and get on the SAME bus that brought you to the bottom of the mountain. However all the buses look the same. Luckily I spotted some people on my bus and followed them back. From there it was about an hour drive up a windy, narrow road to the Guling Town which is a town on top of the mountain. At first I thought it would be cool to live up there because the view was spectacular but after walking around I realized it would be awful because every shop is extremely touristy.
As usual the first thing I do is find my hostel. After walking around for a couple hours I’m informed that the building was demolished several months ago. No wonder I couldn’t find it. I was slightly worried that everywhere else was going to be booked since it was a National Chinese holiday. (However I saw people with tents so I thought briefly about crashing their group if I couldn’t find a place).
After standing outside the demolished building two girls come up next to me and point at the building and start talking to each other. I’m guessing they made the same reservation. I decieded to ask. I ask where the building is and they say it’s gone. They ask what I’m going to do. I have no clue. I head back to the main road and go from hostel to hotel. Over and over I’m told there is no room. After the 8th place I walk out of I spot the two girls from before. They see me too and come over and say there’s room at the Violet Inn. They send me the address so I head over there. They only have a room for one night so I take it. It’s still early afternoon so after dropping my stuff off I get some noodles and get on Ctrip, hostel world and book.com to find another room for the next two nights. It doesn’t take long and I find another room. It’s getting pretty late so I join (what it seems like half the park) to watch the sun set and stars come out. By now it’s pretty cold so I head back to the hostel where I use the excellent wifi to call my parents.
The next day I’m ready for some serious hiking. However the park is really big. On the map I see that I’m at the center of it but everything else is at least 3km away. It doesn’t take long to realize that you get to the hiking entrances by bus. I wait in line to get on one but once I get to the front I’m pointed in the direction of a building where I get a bus card. So after getting a bus card I stand back in line. At this point I just follow everyone else. At the bus stop I don’t see a trail entrance but everyone else seems to know where to go so I follow them. I find a trail entrance take note of the direction I’m walking.
Occasionally there’s scenic stops that have signs both in Chinese and English that says what you’re looking at. It’s frusturating not to be able to read and I made a resolved to study characters more. On the actual path there isn’t a ton of people but on all the side trails there’s a crazy amount of people.
They all seem to just want to take photos and selfies so I steer clear of them. After hiking for a while (and not really knowing where this path leads) the trail steeply goes down.
I soon run into lots of people and a waterfall! It’s super refreshing to be hit by the spray of water. It takes a while to get down to the base of the waterfall because the steps are steep and there’s no handrail. Everyone is a little pushy and I really don’t want to go over the cliff so I take extra care and time getting down.
I didn’t really want to fight the crowd going back up but I discovered that there’s a shortcut! For 5¥ I took a ladder back to the main trail. It was kinda scary but fun! (I mention later in this post that I was looking for a waterfall. This one wasn’t it. The one I’m looking for is bigger.)
The sky was really clear so my next plan was hike to the top of Lushan. I didn’t end up doing this because all the trails are unmarked (in both Chinese and English) so every trail I found kept leading me back to the cable car. So I ended up taking the cable car to the top. That was pretty neat in itself because the view of Hanpo Pass was excellent. I could also see the hiking trail below me and was slightly annoyed that I couldn’t find it. At least I knew how to get down.
Once at the top I hiked along Han Po Lin ridge until I ran into Wango Pavilion. The Pavilion was somewhat neat. Han Po Lin ridge is 1211 meters above sea level. To the North you could see Five Old Men Peaks, to Poyang Lake to the east, Hangangfeng Peak to the South and the Lushan Botanic Gardens to the west. Expect I couldn’t see any of that because it was too cloudy and misty.
I couldn’t get past Wango Pavilion due to fences and signs saying there was a danger of forest fires in that area. Isn’t it so convenient that my phone translates somewhat?
I hiked back along the ridge and saw some signs for the Botanical Gardens. I headed that way and ran into a sign that had directions to places like a ‘Flowering Herb Area, Greenhouse Area and Rock Garden.
It was getting quite hot at this point so it was nice to walk in the shade and enjoy the flowers. Once again everyone else seemed to be happy to hang out on the lawn and avoid walking around. The rock garden was not what I thought it would be. The area was constructed from 1935 to 1936 which tried to imitate nature. The rocks were stacked near the mountain and the earth was heaped and piled around to cultivate plants. So not too many rocks were actually present. Liliacase, Orchidaceae, Amaryllidaceae and Caryophyllaceae and typically alpine plants – like disposition, presented a plant based landscape.
From the rock garden I walked into the Conifer Area. The only thing I can say about this area was the amount of large trees everywhere. This made sense because (if you didn’t already know) conifer means cone-bearing seed plants and there were lots of pinophyta trees around.
All around the area there were greenhouses. Some of them you could go into to but most were abandoned. The biggest one was in the Rhododendren Garden. This area was neat due to all the various species of Rhododendrens. The park has over 300 species from all over the world! They were supposed to bloom early May but it seemed like they might be late this year. Many of the plants were just starting to bud.
I also visited the Herb Area, Three Founder’s Tombs, ChenYinke’s Tomb, and the International Friendship Rhodendren Garden.
In the Botanical Garden I followed a trail that lead to Lushan’s Firn basin. The Firn basin was named by Li SI Guang, (a famous geologist who originated geo-mechanics in China). A brief definition of a firn basin: A firn basin is where glacial ice accumulates. This was the ice depository throughout four glacial eras. The rich soil and gentle slope made it a paradise for plants. This is why in 1934 the site was chosen for a botanical garden. It was the first alpine botanical garden in China.
From the Botanical Gardens I pulled out my map and found the trail to hike back to Guling Street. There were less people around so I got a large pastry and watched the lights go out in the town below.
The next day I woke up to rain. I don’t mind hiking in the rain but it seemed like the buses weren’t running until later. I decided to hit up some museums. The first one wasn’t about the mountain but instead it was about how Mao used to visit Lushan on holiday. It was still interesting to read about the meetings that took place on Lushan. None of the signs were in English but my google translate app was good enough to understand what most of the signs said.
The next museum was dedicated to the rocks and plants found in Lushan over the years. I liked this museum more than the Mao one. Probably because the signs had the Latin names for the plants so I knew more about what they were.
The museum also had the originally score by Frances Roots Hadden! The suite melody is based on a work song chant of stone carriers on Lushan. I would recommend a listen. I had never heard of her before but I enjoyed the piece.
The rain let up at a little at this point so the buses were running again. Since there was still a lot to do I picked the Immortal’s Cave next to visit. To get to the Cave it was a bit of a hike which was great! Since it was still raining a little no one was out. I felt like I had the place to myself. I past the Imperial Tablet Pavilion and The Stone Pine. The Imperial Table Pavilion had a cool view of the mist but I was unsure what the tablet said because it was all in old Chinese script. It had something to do with Taoism.
I also walked past the ‘Ne Drop Springs”. If you through a coin in and it lands in the pot you are suppose to have good luck. I threw a coin in but I couldn’t tell if it landed in the pot or not.
The Stone Pine turned out to be a tree growing next to a large rock. The giant stone is named Toad Stone and was hanging from the cliff wall which is supposed to stab the Jinxiugu Valley below. It was suppose to look like a toad because it looked like it was about to leap. I personally didn’t see it. The Stone Pine (that’s the tree) has been there for hundreds of years. Some parts of the root are showing but it’s still standing steadily showing that is has a tenacious unyielding character.
The path was super misty. It looks like my camera had a smudge on it but that’s just mist!
The cave was a little disappointing as it was not actually a proper cave. It measured about 7 meters high and 14 meters deep. In the cave there was a statue of Li Dan riding on an ox. You could buy prayer ribbons and tie it to the railing if you wanted. It looked kinda weird in my opinion. I thought the walk was really spectacular because the mist made everything look creepy. The geology was awesome though. You could see the lamination from really far away. A passing sign said I was in Embroidery Valley. Well named I thought too. The 1600m long U-Valley was caused by glacial erosion about 1 million years ago. Water erosion and collapsing cliff sides transformed the U-Valley into a narrow gorge with steep precipices. The valley was covered with flowers and vines hence the name embroidery valley. I also got to see the Lion Moth Cliff. It was named so (I presume) because it looks like a lion’s mouth. It was formed by sandstone collapsing along shear joints due to weathering during the later glacial period. From afar I thought it looked more like a sleeping lion than a lion’s mouth. It was pretty misty so I was probably imagining it. These pictures were taken less than 5 minutes apart. The mist was moving THAT fast.
At the end of the trail the last sightseeing view was Heavenly Bridge. Heavenly Bridge is a glacial spillway. It is also the site where Zhu Yuanzhang (the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty) was saved by a gold dragon. Over time the bridge has fallen down so it is not as big as it once was. I said earlier that there wasn’t any people around. I have no idea where the people in the photo appeared! Right when I wanted a picture too.
After exiting the trail I followed the signs for a scenic flower path. Part of the path went around Ru Qin Lake. Ru Qin Lake is also a firn basin. When the climate changed the firn basin became a pond. Da Lin Temple was built by its side and Bai Ju Yi, a Tang Dynasty poet, wrote the poem ‘Ode to the Peach Flowers’. When Bai Ju Yi was wandering around in late spring he was surprised to ind the peach flowers were still in blossom and he wrote the following poem:
Though on earth in April gone is the fragrance of blossoms
The peach trees are in blossom by this mountain temple
I grieved having nowhere to find the lost sprin
Little did I expect to come upon it here
In 1961 people built a dam on the glacial spillway. It formed a man-made lake in the shape of a lute (Although I couldn’t tell). The dense trees around the island look like a green necklace on the lake. At night, the water from the hills flow down into the lake and people say it sounds like the plucking from a lute.
The flower path was really mystical due to all the mist. It seemed like everyone else was still inside so I got some cool photos without a ton of people in them.
I was getting pretty hungry at this point and it looked like it was going to downpour again. I decided to head back to Guling Street despite it being barely 4pm. I didn’t know if the buses were going to stop running again due to rain.
Back at the top I picked a random restaurant and ordered a mystery item. (meaning I just pointed to something random on the menu). It turned out to be a dish made of corn, tomatoes, cucumber, and peppers. It also came with a giant pot of rice. Overall it wasn’t bad but if I knew what it was called I don’t think I would order it again. After dinner it was pouring rain and the people in tents were gone. I went to bed early to make the most of my last day on Lushan.
Tuesday morning I got up early and checked out. There was a three-tiered waterfall somewhere and I wanted to see it. After walking to three different bus stations I finally found the right bus. The start of the hike was interesting. There lots of rocks jutting out over the path which caused me to duck quite a bit around the path. Flowers were just beginning to bloom and like the purple flowers in Xi’an these flowers were the pink-ist of pinks. The path didn’t really go down and crisscrossed a lot over a river. I could hear and see the water but I had no idea how far the waterfall was.
If the waterfall was as big as the internet led me to believe I would have to start hiking down very sharply pretty soon. After an hour or so I made it to a little picnic area. I stopped for a while and bought some kind of corn bread thing. It was kinda dry.
After getting back on the trail I was getting a little worried I was on the wrong path but after a couple minutes all thoughts about finding the waterfall were gone. The path suddenly opened up into a huge valley. Now I could see why Lushan was called a Geological Park and the fault mountain that formed in the quaternary period. When Lushan was uplifted (hence the name Fault block mountain due to being created when faults and cracks in the Earth’s crust force material upward), the surrounding land sank to form Poyang Lake. Instead of folding, Block Mountains break up into chunks to move up and down. Fault-block Mountains are characterized by their steep front side and sloping back side. Large blocks of rock along faults in the earth’s crust can become uplifted and titled sideways. And you could see every layer of uplifted material. I was kicking myself for not hiking this route earlier.
Finally I reached the start of the trail going to the Three-fold waterfall. The steps suddenly went straight down with little warning. The sign said 1,500 down so 1,500 back up. I bought some water because it was probably going to be very expensive at the bottom. The hike down was easy and didn’t take long. Maybe 45 minutes tops. It was very tempting to stare at the waterfall and surrounding geology once it came into view but a couple of almost slips and I changed my mind. It was not worth it to fall down a couple hundred steps just for a quick glance. Once at the bottom I could see that you could hike through the whole valley!
The waterfall was so tall I could not take a picture of the whole thing. Even if I backed up as far as I could go without fall over the edge of the trail. It was also very loud. After starting at it for 20 minutes my ears began to hurt.
I had two opinions hike the rest of the valley trail and then hike back up or take a zip line to the end of the trail then hike back up. I opted to take a zip line (which was kinda scary but also super awesome!)
At the bottom of the valley the trail had lots of alien stones. I tried to find a good sample to take but without a rock hammer all the samples would have been too big. I had never heard of alien stone before nor could I find anything on google. If any of my geology peeps are reading this and know please let me know! (I only knew it was alien stone due to a sign but it was quite chinglish-y, so I’m not sure what it was trying to say).
I ended up following the path until I hit the east gate of the park. I decided that it would probably take the rest of the afternoon to hike out of the valley. And it did! The hike back up to the stairs was quite enjoyable. I really missed seeing cool geology. I hoped to come back here and explore more!
Once I got to the stairs I was already tired but with the waterfall in view it only took me two hours to get up all 1,500 stairs. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting because there were a bunch of older folks and people wearing heels so I figured if they can do it, I should have no problem.
After getting back to the top it was late afternoon so I figured I should be heading back to the city to catch my train. Unfortunately it looked like half the mountain was leaving so all the buses were full. Not to worry I was directed to some large golf carts that would take people down the mountain. It was a bit trilling to go down the mountain an an open-top vehicle. My hair was really messed up at the end. But so was everyone else’s hair. From there it was easy to catch a normal city bus back to the train station. At the bus stop, across the street, it seemed like a concert was happening later that night. People were setting up lights and fireworks. If I had time I would have stayed to see what was going on.
I still had some time to kill so I watched the sunset over the Yangtze River and hung out in Bamboo Park across the train station. It was a very relaxing day to end some of the coolest geology I’ve seen in China so far. Once the mosquitoes got too annoying and too dark I grabbed some noodles from a shop. I picked a restaurant at random and ordered noodles but I accidentally ordered something else but that’s another story. This post is already long enough.
The train ride back to Yangzhou was a straight 8 hours but I didn’t have to switch trains so that was nice. However it was the end of May Day holiday so it was very crowded. Normally there are three people to a bench but everyone that had a standing ticket kept trying to squeeze on. The conductor kept coming by and checking people’s tickets and kicking the people off the seats that had standing tickets. It made it hard to sleep since I had to keep showing my ticket. I pulled out my phone at one point to listen to music. This ended up being a mistake because the apple logo shows on my phone case. To put it shortly everyone suddenly became interested in my phone. But that’s a completely different train story.
To sum up the trip all I can say is I can’t wait to see what other geological wonders China has to offer! Lushan ended up being a bit more expensive that I thought but I would go back for sure!
Bonus pictures:
So misty
Cool designs in the path:
Never ending stairs!
Where does this path go? A pavilion!
A creepy cable car ride.
More mist!
