The only problem with getting out of Beijing is my acute lack of Mandarin, which inhibits my access to transportation. Unlike the city subway system with its map and clearly laid-out stations, the bus routes around Beijing are too numerous to list and put down on paper, with hundreds of buses going by thousands of different roads – you really have to know where you’re going and which bus to take in order to get to your destination in anything resembling timely fashion (if you get there at all). Not one to be restrained from scaling a (big) pile of rocks, I swung my cursor over to the Beijinger, a popular site for local ex-pats and English-speaking Chinese alike. It didn’t take me long to find Sonia, a Chinese woman with a real penchant for hiking and nature. She gathers groups of Chinese and foreigners for a trip out of the city almost every weekend. Having visited most of the local parks and mountains, Sonia is quite comfortable with traversing greater Beijing. Perfect.
Several peaks in the Beijing area exceed 2000 meters in height. Lingshan mountain is the highest at over 2300 meters, with the top of Haituo (also named Song Shan) coming in around 2,241 – this is the range we would be heading to on this particular outing. Unfortunately, the trail we would take tops out at a peak height of 2198 meters – but it would have to do.
We began by taking a bus out of town. The 2 hour trip turned into 3 as we ran into (you guessed it) a huge column of trucks. The aforementioned truck column has been haunting me on every trip outside of the city. Just when I think I’ll get to breathe something amounting to pristine air, out of nowhere come rows and rows of hulking 18-to-24-to-36-wheelers spouting black smoke into the atmosphere and making me hate life. On the plus side, we drove by various sections of the Great Wall – my first sighting of this wonder of the world. After maneuvering our way through the truck formation and past the Wall, we finally arrived at a small city - Yanqing county center. From here we would have to rent a car to take us to the trailhead. For 260 kuai, the driver would take us the 60 kilometers up into the mountains, wait for us to complete the hike, and bring us back again – not a bad deal when split between 8 people.
The Great Wall snaked along ridge-lines we drove under.
The 60 kilometer drive from county center to trail-head was done over some of the roughest terrain I've ever traversed in a car. Besides being made almost entirely out of rocks, the road meandered through serpentine switchbacks as it rose and fell over the Haituos. I seriously doubt this sort of thing would be attempted with anything less than all-terrain tires and 8 cylinders back in the States, but our van was equipped with lawnmower-thin tires, powered by 4 tiny cylinders, and loaded down with 8 (fat/happy) passengers plus driver. Result - our kidneys felt every tiny bump in the road, jolting us up, down, sideways, and into each other as the driver fought the road each second of the way. If I didn't spend the majority of my time shielding the camera from direct impact with someone's elbow/knee/face/walking stick, I would have filmed a little video clip of this ride-from-hell. Some of those downhill runs were truly epic - I swear at one point the window next to me almost cracked when the driver pretended to be a pilot and landed the van in a hole three seconds after getting it airborne.
Haituo! The beauty of this place is difficult to describe. From where I stood to take this photo, we would climb to the furthest/highest peak seen over the horizon. The trip takes an average of 2-3 hours one way, starting with flats and then turning sharply up and over several smaller peaks before reaching the top. As agreed, at this point I left my group and began running up the trail. I would go all the way to the top before turning around and meeting them somewhere during their climb up.
First time at the top. This mountain/trail is very popular with the Chinese but rarely sees any foreigners. The entire way up, Chinese hikers were downright stunned to see me, instantly producing cameras and smiling for me to get a picture taken with them - despite hearing about this in America and after arriving, this is the first time I experienced this sort of treatment. A hiking group was resting on the peak when I ran up there - before I realized what's going on, the leader hailed me down, handed me one end of a flag to hold, and pointed my face into his photographer's camera - oh yeah, instant celebrity. In return, he got to take a photo of me with the plaque denoting mountain name and elevation.
The air was amazing at this altitude, I couldn't get enough of it. While it was around 35 degrees and sunny down in the valley, it couldn't have been more than 18-20 degrees up here, with a fine mist covering the mountaintop. The air was filled with buzzing - note the bees - even at this altitude there are lots of flowers growing in the meadow for them to harvest nectar from.
The white, yinlianhua(银莲花) and yellow jinlianhua(金莲花), flowers only grow at altitudes of over 2000 meters. We were very fortunate to find some.
Second time at the top. After running to the peak and taking lots of pictures coming back down, I ran into my group - they were about halfway up the trail. They were at the most brutal part, where the path begins to move steeply up for over a mile. With the afternoon sun raging and her backpack loaded down, Sonia was really struggling. After grabbing her pack and offering her (personal trainer style) encouragement, we continued moving up the mountain. Eventually, we made it to the top - by this time the sun had burned off most of the mist, so we were rewarded with beautiful views in all directions.
By this time the entire group was starving. Now, I like to pack high-energy, low-weight food such as dried fruit and nuts when traveling over land, so much the better to fuel me but keep the weight down. My fellow hikers however, had other notions, finally revealing what they were carrying in their bulging packs. To my surprise (and delight) lunch consisted of everything from fresh (tomatoes, cucumbers) to pickled (cabbage, peppers) vegetables to dumplings filled with meat and mushrooms. Chocolate, cookies, and fruit rounded out the spread. On second thought, I shouldn't be surprised it took them so long to get up the mountain.
Flowers lined our entire path, up and down the mountain.
A clear stream ran down the mountainside - it was very cold to the touch. It would have been great to splash the guy napping in the trees, especially for brushing up on my Mandarin curse words.
More flowers, though I can't name these.
Horses were chomping on grass all around the valley.
The official trail start is the black tent near the pond. Our driver waited for us in this village, his is the crimson-red van standing away from the two parked face-to-face. Near the van is, coincidentally, the flag-bearing hiking group leader from the mountaintop - the one who was so anxious to get a photo with me.
This pond serves many purposes for the locals. By the time my entire group made it down the mountain, it was perfectly clear that we would not make it back to county center in time to catch the last bus to Beijing. Our driver gunned the engine and we were off to the local train station.
The station may have been located in a rural area, but the train was anything but. As a supply chain major, I like to think that I know a thing or two about steel horses, but this thing was quite a surprise even for me. Cruising at over 120 km/h - a panel indicates speed, outside temperature, and other data - this thing was not only loaded chock-full of technology, but even the bathroom was big enough to stage a World Cup football match. As for headroom and the main alley - well let's just say that I could have probably landed a 747 with engine fire and still had enough room to park a stretch Lexus in there. There was enough legroom to lay yourself flat on the floor in front of your seat. The train was empty, so we commandeered ourselves a train-car and promptly fell off to sleep after dispatching the remainder of our food supply.
The group on our way back to Beijing. The outing was a blast - besides getting to ride in a Chinese bus, car, and train, I got to run up and down a mountain, experience more of the local nature, and friend some great people - all in fresh air.
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