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An Adventure just outside Hangzhou
By John Mckenna
www.Travel-the-Real-China.com
Day 1, Nov. 4th
Two of us went exploring over towards Hangzhou where we had heard about
some impressive sites, that only the Chinese get to see, as the infrastructure
is not yet set up for Western tourists.
White Horse Cliff, Lao Dui Xi (a great walk though a canyon and along
the river), and Da Ming Mountain this mountain is said to be as good as
Huangshan (Yellow
Mountain).
Let’s go and find out.
We took the early train, to Hangzhou.
(6:30am, and it is the first fast train, arriving around 8:15am.) We arrived at
the Hangzhou East Railway Station just as it started to rain.
The Hangzhou East railway station is very old and run down and a bit out
of town, not like the main Station, which is very new and modern. As we were unsure of our plans for the next
three days and getting train tickets can be difficult, we decided to buy our
return tickets for the Sunday.
After buying our tickets back to Shanghai
for the Sunday (6-30pm), we headed off to find a taxi, as we needed to get
across town to the Hangzhou West Bus station. Hangzhou has a population of over 3 million,
so it’s not a small place, and the lake is not the only main amazing attraction…as
we were soon to find out.
It took us 45 minutes to get across town and then from the Hangzhou West
Bus Station, we took the 9-50 bus to Chang Hua (cost RMB 20).
The bus is comfortable and we got a seat number, so we had a 2.5 hour
ride in the heavy rain and muddy roads to get to a small town called Chang Hua.
There are two main towns that feed all the mountain sight-seeing spots in
the Zhe Jiang province one is Lin’an which we had just driven through, and the other
is Chang
Hua.
Lin’an is the bigger of the two and about 35 km (45 minutes) east of Hangzhou, on the Yellow
Mountain side of Hangzhou. There are 3 main tourist areas with
Lin’an being the central feeder to them all.
There is Jin Cheng (east side, Down Town), Tian Mu Mountain (in the middle) and Qing
Liang Feng (west side) all are around
and within 2 to 3 hrs from Hangzhou.
Lin’an is very well set up to get bus tours, etc, out to the mountain sight-seeing
places. Here there are plenty of Chinese 2 and 3 star hotels ranging from RMB
60 to 300 per night, which are a bit more expensive over weekends. I asked
around, and these areas get NO Western tourists - all Chinese, as these areas
are very difficult for the Western traveller to get to. All foreigners go to the more easily reached Huangshan
(Yellow Mountain).
In the Lin’an area, it’s all Chinese language, hotels, cafes, transportation
out to the sites, sorry, NO English at all.
This whole area is much cheaper than Yellow Mountain
and in my view, just as good … as you will soon find out.
Chang Hua is a very small country village and has a 500-year history of
having the best roasted Chestnuts in the land its bus station is a main feeder
to all the mountain sites around this area.
Oh yes, it also has a classic Chinese toilet at the bus station, Take a
deep breath. (Or don’t!)
At Chang Hua we boarded another bus (RMB 6) and headed for Tai Ping Qiao
which is a very small mountain village close to the places we wanted to see.
The weather had started to clear and we were in for a great sunny
afternoon.
When we arrived at Tai Ping Qiao, we were met by the hotel boss who took
us to our room. The whole town has about 6, 5-floor low budget hotels and that is
about all. This is the off-season, so we were the only tourists in the whole
town and being a foreigner certainly made for funny looks in my direction
remember no foreigners come to these sites.
The room was as expected for RMB 60 per night. What was a surprise was a new hot water
heater on the wall - at least we could have a nice hot shower. A point to remember,
a RMB 60 per night room does not come with towel, so take your own… Hehehe.
We were starving by this time with all the travelling to get here. With only two proper restaurants in town, and
both empty at lunchtime it was not a good sign… we went into one and the lady
there had to phone the chef to come to work, another bad sign…. we left.
We ended up in a noodle place (the only one) across the road from our
hotel. Here we had four local dishes including great dumplings and noodles. Our
lunch cost us RMB 16 for two persons… nice.
Now, with a bright sunny day and being well fed, it was time for us to
do what we had come here to do…see the sights.
As the tourist sites are still a good distance from the small town, we
asked the hotel boss to take us to the furthest site up the mountain road and
we would walk back. This cost us RMB 20. He took us to the first site called
White Horse Cliff (Bai Ma Ya) where the entrance fee here is RMB 60, which also
includes another sight-seeing place called Lao Dui Xi, just down the road.
We could choose to buy a 4-site ticket that includes all the sites for
this area and this would cost RMB 110. However if visitors do not arrive early enough
there would not be enough time to fit them all in.
The 4 sites are called Tuo Lin Waterfall (Tuo Lin Po Bu), White Horse
Cliff, Lao Dui Xi, and Jian Men Guan.
If you have time to do just two sites you need to buy the tickets in
this order, or you will be overcharged.
White Horse Cliff + Lao Dui Xi - both for RMB 60.
White Horse Cliff + Sword Gate - both for RMB 60.
If you start with either Lao Dui Xi or Sword Gate, you will be sold a
ticket for RMB 60 for just one site.
White Horse Cliff
This place is really beautiful it has a well made stone path walkway
through the forest and valleys, with water pools, waterfalls, amazing rock
formations, great views of lush valleys… all along the way. This walk takes
about 2 hrs at a stroll.
We had chosen the best time of the year to go on this mountain trip as
the whole place was alive with autumn colours.
As it was a Friday, we were the only people in the entire scenic spot. WOW.
Nobody…no crowds, lots of peace and quiet, waterfalls, fresh mountain air…just
great.
Well worth all the train and bus
rides to get here.
It’s quite a climb in some places with many steps (many Chinese mountain
sites seem to have a lot of steps), so visitors need to just take it slow and
pace themselves.
Good for the legs and butt…my Mum always used to say.
There is a lady at the top-most point who has a shop there. She climbs
up everyday summer and winter, and in the winter on some days when no-one
comes, she earns nothing for the week. However she still does it she is a
tough lady dedicated to her business. This is typical of how hard some of the
country folk have to work to make a living.
White Horse Cliff is a great walk and well worth the visit however, in
the summer I imagine it would be very crowded and very hot.
This place gets busy from May through to the October holiday, after
which the tourist traffic falls away and over the winter months only the hardened
day-trippers from Shanghai or Hangzhou come here during the weekends.
Lao Dui Xi
From White Horse Cliff you can then walk down the road to Lao Dui Xi, which
was a complete surprise. Here were Minority dancing displays, working models of
ancient grinding and mill-type tools for making different types of local oils,
and a great teahouse overlooking the river. And open spaces for kids to run and
play…all very well done.
Again, we were the only ones there, as it was a Friday.
Once you have enjoyed the main areas and sites, there is a walkway
alongside the river. It is a good path that takes about an hour and brings you
back to the road further down the mountain.
It is really a nice walk with high cliff-sides, big rock formations,
autumn colours, and peace and quiet. Remember it’s a Friday, so the next day
there will be many, many people here.
By the time we arrived back on the road it was nearly dark, but we knew
where the hotel was, so we just walked back.
We got back in total darkness with the hotel boss thinking these two
silly city tourists had got lost. She was quite worried for us.
We went straight to dinner and decided to try the restaurant that had a
chef. On the menu was peacock, Snake, Wild Boar and Rabbit, Mountain Turtle,
Wild Chicken, Donkey…quite an interesting menu with prices at Shanghai levels. In the summer tourist season
the prices must be very high. We bargained and ended having a local stonefish
dish, egg fried rice with mushroom and a local dish bamboo root / vegetable and
bacon soup, total RMB 45. It was ok.
This is a real small country village and when it gets dark, well that is
it. nothing to do except go to bed.
So we did as the locals do and retired to bed as well, a long day but a
great day, well worth the effort to get up here.
Day 2, Nov. 5th
We were up bright and early after a great nights sleep we’re not used
to the quiet, and it was good to hear a truck roar through town at 3am. Hehehe.
Then it was off to the best place in town (the only place in town) for
some breakfast. We got there about 8-15 and found the buns (Rou Bao), soybean
juice, pan cakes etc were all sold out before 8AM. WOW - must be good business in
the early morning.
We settled for their very good dumplings and local noodles, 2 bowls of
each, (we were hungry), total cost RMB 11.
Here we saw a local running around with a snake trying to sell it to the
restaurants don’t you just love these local country places. Hehehe.
We were off to a local mountain called Da Ming Shan, which is a mountain
that is compared to Yellow Mountain for views and scenery however very much
cheaper and closer to Shanghai and Hangzhou, being only about 2.5 hrs from
Hangzhou.
We decided to take the bus. The hotel boss wanted to drive us there for
RMB 80, but we thought the bus would be more fun.
After an hours wait, snacking on local pancakes with the whole town
watching us, the bus stormed past us. Luckily for us two seats were available, and
we discovered the local area officials are very strict on overloading and will
not allow anyone to stand - no-seats and the bus will not stop to pick you up. This
is actually is good to know, as when I back-packed 10 years ago, the policy was
- pack in as many as you can. It’s a lot safer now.
Half an hour later we were dropped off in a small town called Long Gang (Dragon
gate), to catch the next local bus to Ji Xi, which is the junction point to go
up to Da Ming Mountain, another 4km up the road.
All the bus rides provide great entertainment from the locals, as
getting to this mountain is easy for the Chinese, but very difficult for the
Westerner. So this famous Chinese tourist site gets no Western tourist traffic.
The weather had turned into a beautiful hot sunny autumn day, and we had
to buy hats strange weather the Chinese autumn, cold and wet one day, so hot the
next that you need a hat.
Da Ming Shan (Mountain)
The entrance fee and the sign are in English, and it says RMB 68. Yes,
you get charged this, plus an extra RMB 8, which is not explained in English. It’s
the fee for an internal mountain bus ride between the main entrance and the cable
car area - (it’s a long walk but not worth doing), so the correct entrance fee
to Da Ming Shan is RMB 76.
There is a hotel up beside the cable car station called Da Ming Mountain
Villa the rooms are from RMB160 to 350 per night with different prices for the
weekday and the weekend. I checked the lowest cost room as well as the highest
cost. Both rooms had small windows, but not really showing off the wonderful
views, with the RMB 350 room being newer and cleaner.
From the cable car area you have some decisions to make - take the cable
car up the mountain, or walk? The ride up is RMB30, the ride down is RMB25.
Trust me, take the cable car, it’s a LONG walk and there plenty of steps
and climbing to do when you up there, so save your energy.
WOW …What a view. We have chosen
the best time of year with all the amazing autumn colours around us.
When we arrived at the top and thought, good ride up, now what, we were
told to “walk this way†straight into the side of the mountain.
All the scenic sites are linked via 10km of tunnels through the
mountain, it’s just amazing. The tunnels are well lit and take you to all the
best viewing points around the mountain..
The site description signs are bi-lingual, hanging bridges, spectacular outlooks,
restaurants, very clean toilets, all well placed, very impressive. And not one
foreigner.
There were many tour groups here from Shanghai,
Hangzhou,
Suzhou etc, and all the guides said that Da Ming Shan gets no western tourist
traffic due to being so hard to get to. If a foreigner comes, it is always with
a Chinese tour group.
We spent the rest of the day up there, checking all the sites out,
climbing, what I though were thousands and thousands of steps, and ate good hot
local noodles overlooking a beautiful mountain meadow.
The hot sunny autumn sunshine, magnificent views, and a well set up
scenic site, provided a great day out - well worth the effort in getting here.
Da Ming Shan definitely should be checked out, and in the winter all the
mountain peeks will be very spectacular.
I will certainly be back over the winter months for more photos.
Oops! I forgot to mention about getting back. It
was getting too late for the local buses, so some quick talking was called for.
We needed to get back to Lin’an, which is just 35 minutes away from Hangzhou, and find a good
cheap hotel.
Fortunately we found a Suzhou
tourist group (120 persons) on their way back to Lin’an to stay the night. The tour
group leader said he had some spare seats at the back of the bus and we could
have them, so we were lucky.
It turned out that the tour group had some people drop out and the hotel
where this group was staying had rooms booked that they had to pay for. So we
were offered one of the rooms. We were very pleased to get a good hotel room at
a tour group price, and it saved the tour operator paying for empty rooms.
We were then invited for dinner with the group leaders and the guides. Over
dinner the group manager found out I was in the tourist business and then
invited us to go with them to the locations they had planned for tomorrow.
WOW - great stuff. More sites to explore
and investigate that foreigners would find difficult to get to, and so close to
Hangzhou.
Tomorrow we would be off to a site call Xiao (small) Jiuzhaigou, named
after the famous Jiuzhaigou in the Sichuan
Province. This should be
interesting, and just an hour and a half away from Hangzhou.
After a day of adventures and excitement it was off to bed, with much more
to look forward to tomorrow.
Day 3, Nov. 6th
Up bright and early again. Last
night we came in after dark, so didn’t get a good look at Lin’an.
The Hotel’s name was Hai Ding Tian the group rate we paid was RMB 140
the actual room rate was RMB320, so we did OK. Breakfast was a very expensive
RMB 5 for a classic Chinese breakfast!…YUM YUM. Hehehe
We went for a small walk through town before breakfast and noticed that the
town was very industrial many small shops all with building supplies etc many
new buildings going up, and many, many small Chinese hotels. This town is the
main feeder town for the mountain tourist area, as it’s much cheaper to stay
here than in Hangzhou.
At 8-30 we were off in 3 large buses winding their way through very
small towns and villages to Xiao Jiuzhaigou. The scenery is beautiful. We came
across a hydroelectric dam, and the lake it has created is spectacular we
never expected this.
Our trip took about 50 minutes in our private bus. However you can get a
public bus from the Lin’an, Hangzhou
bus station up to here as well.
Well, what a shock. On the way we found we were in a 3-bus convoy (thought
we had left early) and arrived to find another 10 buses already ahead of us. It
was time to experience the throngs of Chinese tourism.
Another shock - all the signs etc were bi-lingual and the entrance fee
was RMB 48. We were invited in as guests of the tour operator from Suzhou – very nice.
Later, in discussions with the operators of Xiao Jiuzhaigou I learned
that this place also sees no western tourists it’s just too hard to get to.
It had just started to rain a little and the temperature had dropped - very
different from yesterday’s beautiful sunny day.
Xiao Jiuzhaigou is in a small
valley with waterfalls, ponds, lovely little bridges, some monkeys on show a
cool climbing wall that everyone can have a go on, with the safety procedures
looking OK as well.
It’s a lovely place to walk through breathing some welcome fresh air, be
close to running water, sit and have tea at the temple at the top of the
valley, and sample the local food on sale.
We went there with a lot of people, and in the summer it will get very
crowded. But in the winter it would be quite
beautiful, as there would be snow and ice all around.
It’s not a long walk up the valley and you only need a couple of hours there,
then you either sit down and enjoy the atmosphere, or feel its time to move on.
We said our gracious thanks to the Suzhou operator for looking after us
so well and said I will contact him concerning trips etc for Suzhou and the
surrounding area I now have a good contact in Suzhou.
Fortune rained down on us once again. We meet a tour operator from Shanghai and he asked us if
we needed a ride back to Lin’an…. Yes please.
After a local lunch for us both
in Lin’an (RMB11) it was off to find the bus back to Hangzhou.
Buses leave from the Lin’an bus station to Hangzhou about every 15 minutes and the ride
takes about 35–40 minutes, costing RMB 10.
We had already bought our 6-30pm train tickets back to Shanghai
from the main Hangzhou
railway station, a big modern station with thousands of people everywhere.
We were now 3 hrs early for our train, so we dropped off our bags at the
station luggage office (RMB 5 per bag) and headed into town, as I needed some
coffee. (I must be getting too old for this wild exploring. Hehe)
To get into town from the main railway station, there are many buses so
we jumped on a K900 to the lake.
Hangzhou is well set up
it was easy compared to the last few days of finding buses etc.
We found a new coffee shop down by the lake, Blenz Coffee shop, a nice
clean, modern coffee shop overlooking the lake and ordered coffee and cake…wonderful…I
must be getting old.
There is a great, cheap famous local place to eat in Hangzhou called Zhi Wei Guan where the main
restaurant is upstairs and it’s a ticket system for downstairs, with all dishes
about RMB 5. We had a quick dinner and headed back to the station on a 151 bus,
which took 15 minutes.
We had brought soft-seat tickets, so we headed for the soft-seat waiting
area big nice soft seats to crash into, to wait for our train to arrive.
Then we took the N510 back to Shanghai
unfortunately it was a slow train and took 3hrs - oops, bad planning there.
Finally arrived back in Shanghai,
and crashed.
A great weekend, exploring new sites to share with you all.
If you would like more information Hangzhou, and the
surrounding area please contact me anytime
Happy travelling
John
About the Author
Hi I'm John Mckenna, I am from New
Zealand and have lived in Shanghai
China
now for 3 years.
I own and operate www.Travel-the-Real-China.com my site provides experienced based Travel
and Tour information on the wonders of Travel in China, the Real China, Ancient
China, China at its very best.
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