Mount Qingcheng

 Afternoon, Day 4 (25th October 2012)

 

 

After my lesson with the tout at Dujiangyan, I was determined that I should take a bus at Mount Qingcheng, know where it was park on arriving at the destination and then returning to the parking lot for the return trip. On arrival at Mount Qingcheng CRH Railway cum Bus Station, there was no tout. It cost only RMB1.50 from the bus station to the parking lot at Mount Qingcheng Scenic Area. I just followed the crowd to the Mount Qingcheng entrance. The entrance ticket was RMB90.

 

From the entrance gate, it was up and up and up. At the point where the path branched into two, I decided to take the branch to the Yue Cheng Lake and the cable car to Shangqing Temple, after seeing how steep the climb to Tianshi Cave was at the other branch. The cable ride was RMB35 one way or RMB60 return. I decided to take one way up, thinking of walking down later. On the return trip, I found my legs refusing to cooperate and I had to fork out another RMB35 for the cable car down. It was a punishing two and three-quarter hours trek on Mount Qingcheng.

 

Mount Qingcheng is a very scenic area and the most beautiful part is at the lower part of the mountain where there is a pavilion and a number of very tall pine trees. My camera could not capture the wide angle that my eyes saw of the beauty of the whole scenery.

Today, I spent the longest time in a day on my two feet. A whole day of walking almost non-stop! This was a good training to strengthen my legs for the most important part of the trip, i.e. to Jiuzhaigou World Heritage Site.