This is one of Eastern China's best hidden gems, IMHO.
Spectacular mountain scenery. Ancient relics. Great hikes. All within striking distance from Shanghai. Just a few hours of high-speed train and bus rides brought us to the National Park of Mount Sanqingshan.
You're not alone if you haven't heard of Sanqingshan. In fact my Chinese coworkers hadn't either ... until I returned from China with these pictures. You too can decide whether this place is worth your valuable vacation time.
Sanqingshan is actually far from being unknown. Its UNESCO World Heritage Site status puts it on the same level as the Grand Canyon or the Great Barrier Reef, and domestically it boasts the highest national rating as a tourist destination. Somehow it has mostly gone under the radar of even domestic Chinese tourists for years, though that's slowly changing.
Living on Canada's Westcoast, my foremost image of an alpine vista would be the turquoise lakes of the Canadian Rockies. But this place has given me a whole different appreciation for the beauty of mountains -- twisted pine trees clinging precariously to vertical cliffs, giant granite peaks protruding out of nowhere -- it's everyone's image of classical Chinese mountain scenery. I know it sounds funny but Kung Fu Panda comes to mind.
And Sanqingshan is more than just mountain landscapes -- it has been a Taoist sanctuary since the time of Romans and Huns in the western world, and the terrain is still dotted with ancient sculptures and relics from dynasties past. Curious travelers are rewarded with rediscoveries of statuettes of guardians or tigers, often buried inside the the overgrown vegetation. No signage or plaques exist to explain the artefacts -- just tour the mountain as an unofficial open-air museum. It's Disneyland for the inquisitive.
So why isn't this place more popular? Well it is -- every year it gets several million visitors, albeit almost exclusively local Chinese tourists on organized tours. During our hike we ran into only one group of foreigners -- a small party of senior Korean hikers with a tour guide. Western tourists mostly haven't discovered this place yet, and independent travelers are almost non-existent.
When we did our pre-trip research there was next to nothing on the English Internet about the hiking route, directions or how long it takes. The following is a short documentation of our experience.
THE HIKING ROUTE
We maximized our time and took a 7 hour, estimated 15 km loop that encompassed perhaps 80% of the major trails. Shorter loops are available for more relaxed strolls (we did see a fair number of Chinese grannies chugging along with us), while more advanced hikers can choose steeper trails that climb all the way up to the 1819m summit of Yujing Peak.
As in most Chinese national parks, Sanqingshan's trail system starts from the cable car stations at the top of the mountain. Two cable cars are available: the Jinsha Ropeway on the eastern slope, and the Waishuangxi Ropeway on the southern slope. We chose Jinsha as it offers simpler transportation to our next destination of Wuyuan (another AMAZING place ... more on that later).
So our hike began and finished at the Jinsha Ropeway, a short 10 minute ride up the elevation gain of 900m. Stepping out of our cable car at 08:00, the trail turned towards the right and slowly climbed towards a series of bizarre granite formations with even more bizarre names, from "Penguin Presenting the Peach" to "Fox Gnawing at the Chicken" (my translation). As the steepness of the stairs increased, the trail reached a small summit known as Yuhuang Peak. We arrived at the summit around 10:00.
A short distance further from Yuhuang Peak the trail passes a wobbly suspension bridge. Here begins a whopping 3.5 km of impossibly constructed footpaths of concrete slabs suspended in mid-air, supported by cantilever beams burrowed into near-vertical cliffs. Towards the end of this footpath, known as the Sunny Coast trail, the roads branches out with several options.
1) A small, steep trail on the left leads to Yujing Peak, the highest summit of the mountain range. We didn't take this trail as the ascend is supposed to take an hour each way.
2) The next branch-off splits into two trails. The left side leads directly to the middle of another mid-air footpath known as the West Coast trail. This is the most popular turn-back for visitors not intending to complete the full loop. Once arriving at the West Coast, turn left, and the trail travels eastward towards the southern cable car station, and eventually the eastern cable car station. This shorter loop, starting from the eastern cable car station, through Sunny Coast, half of West Coast and back to the eastern cable car station, is said to take about 6 hours according to pamphlets, though I would estimate it at closer to 5 hours for walkers of reasonable fitness.
3) We took the right branch towards the mystical Taoist sanctuary of Sanqinggong. This complete loop would add another 2 hours on top of the shorter loop.
Shortly past 11:00 we arrived in the neighborhood of Sanqinggong, a haven for Taoist alchemists seeking to refine the elixir of immortality since 4th Century AD. The closer we approached the shrine of Sanqinggong, the more deserted Taoist relics turned up on the wayside, including this giant relief sculpture of a dragon and its pearl of fire.
The current incarnation of Sanqinggong dates from mid Ming Dynasty more than 500 years back. In its heyday as a Taoist monastery complex, hundreds of monuments and architectural elements radiated out from the central shrine for kilometres. Now it's all but crumbling ruins.
But not to worry: to this date the shrine still features a Taoist incense- and amulet-dispensing clinic inside, waiting to perform the miracle of making your 100 RMB bills disappear in exchange for grossly over-priced incense sticks. Watch out for Taoist priests attempting to lead you further inside. As with most temples and shrines in China's tourist destinations, it's best to exercise caution and leave after a couple of quick pictures.
At Sanqinggong the paths branch off again. A trail on the left side just before the shrine led to a small tranquil lake where we had our picnic lunch of local specialty snacks, such as the pressed walnut cakes that we purchased from souvenir shops the previous day. This road turned into the start of the West Coast trail, another mid-air footpath of 4 km leading towards the southern cable car station.
The West Coast trail is, IMHO, the absolutely not-to-be-missed sight of Sanqingshan. On that glorious sunny day, every few steps we took led to a slightly different view of the towering granite peaks above and the nameless mountain ranges on the horizon. As we stopped frequently for the spectacular photospots along the route, it was already 13:45 by the time we reached the turnoff to the southern cable car station.
From the turnoff it's another long section of mid-air footpaths to return to the eastern cable car station. We arrived at the station around 15:00, exactly 7 hours after the start of our hike and still with 2 hours remaining before the cable car would shut down for the night. So here's our conclusion -- completing Sanqingshan's full loop in one day is definitely doable, even for office workers of mediocre fitness level like us.
Lastly, if you really want to climb Sanqingshan from the very bottom, two officially maintained trails are available. The simplest one follows the route of the Waishuangxi (southern) cable car from bottom to top and is said to take about 2.5 hours. An alternative trail starts from the town of Fenshui in the north (accessible by car or taxi only) and leads directly to the Taoist shrine of Sanqinggong with a 5 hour climb. Either way, this would take a two day trip with the night spent in one of the several hotels on the mountain top.
TRANSPORTATION
Assuming you're starting out from Shanghai like we did, Sanqingshan is actually pretty easy to reach.
Sanqingshan is situated at the eastern edge of Jiangxi, a province not famous for popular tourism even to the Chinese. But most people also don't realize that Sanqingshan is just one bus ride away from the new high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Changsha. That was how we chose to begin our journey.
High-speed trains depart Shanghai's Hongqiao Railway Station (accessible from Shanghai Metro Line 2) for Quzhou several times a day, en route to Changsha or beyond. We took the D105 which departed around 9 AM and arrived at Quzhou shortly past noon.
While the closest station to Sanqingshan is actually Yushan, high-speed trains currently don't stop there and train connections from Quzhou to Yushan are slow and somewhat limited. Buses from Yushan to Sanqingshan are very frequent though, so it's worthwhile to keep that as a last-minute alternative.
Upon arriving at Quzhou Railway Station, take a short taxi ride (RMB 10 or so) from to Quzhou Long Distance Bus Station (write "Quzhou Changtu Qichezhan" for the cabbie). It's less than two kilometres away. Then buy a ticket for JINSHA. Note that you have to ask for "Jinsha," NOT "Sanqingshan." I originally made the mistake of asking for Sanqingshan and the lady at the counter said the only bus for the day had left already! What she didn't know however was that Jinsha is actually the cable car station at the eastern slope of Sanqingshan. I spent an anxious 15 minutes to ask around and double-check the posted schedule before returning to the counter to get the correct tickets. At the time of writing, this bus departs at around 13:55.
With the train arriving at Quzhou around 12:30 and the bus departing at 14:00, there was plenty of time for a simple lunch. We picked a random noodle house across the street on Hesi Road. The Red-Braised Beef Noodles (RMB 12 or CAD$2) was much better than what I expected of a mom-and-pop eatery next to a dusty bus station, and was certainly better than our dinner at the foot of Sanqingshan that night. The name of the eatery was Laoniu Mianguan (Old Cattle's Noodle House), with a red store sign.
The rest was easy -- just sit back for a couple hours as the bus goes through some lush green countryside and the small villages of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi border. We arrived at the foot of Sanqingshan shortly past 16:00, in time to shop for water and food supplies for the next day's big hike.
But here's the best hidden secret about a trip to Sanqingshan -- the charming villages of Wuyuan (pictured above), reputed as the "most beautiful village in China," is only a short bus ride to the north. Multiple buses from Yushan and Shangrao towards Wuyuan pass by the town of Jinsha every day, the last one passing through around 18:50. So it's entirely possible to finish a day's hike, take the eastern cable car down to Jinsha, then flag down the bus as it passes the town's only road.
Or if you don't mind spending a little more for a private taxi like we did, our taxi ride from Jinsha to Wuyuan cost us RMB 200 and only took around an hour. We lucked out with an excellent driver, who spoke Chinese only but was an honest and great guy. He even sped up to try to get us to the Wuyuan Long Distance Bus Station before the ticket counter closed at 17:00. Leave me a message if you want his cell phone number.
ACCOMMODATION
Hotel Review: ELBA GARDEN HOTEL (Sanqingshan)
Address: Next to the Jinsha Ropeway station, Jinsha, Sanqingshan
Price: RMB 180
Website/Map: Book from Agoda.com
Directions: From the Jinsha cable car station, walk towards the right side of town. Elba should be one of the two or three nearest hotels.
We booked into one of Jinsha town's newest hotels, situated at an unbeatable location barely 200m from the cable car station. While the furniture was even flimsier than IKEA's, the bathroom was modern and very clean. The price of RMB 180 including breakfast was quite a good deal for a brand new room at the heart of a tourist town.
Our other option was to book one of the hotels at the mountain top for around RMB 400, but we chose this place instead as we didn't arrive early enough to do any hiking on the first day. The RMB 220 saved would more than pay for our taxi to Wuyuan the next afternoon.
The breakfast buffet consisted of typical Southern Chinese staples such as rice porridge and various pickles and condiments, and random items like Mantou buns and hard boiled eggs. Nothing fancy, but a second or third helping should provide enough fuel for a long day's hike.
FOOD
Nothing to report here except expensive and bad quality dishes you'd expect in typical tourist towns. We picked our restaurant based on the number of Chinese clients inside, and still walked into a rip-off. The Shenxian Doufu (literally "fairy tofu", which was actually a jelly made with Kudzu powder) pictured above came swimming in oil. A small dish of Dongsun Chaorou (stir-fried pork and winter bamboo shoots) featured some of the toughest bamboo shoots in memory. We carefully picked three of the cheaper dishes on the menu plus a beer, and escaped after putting down RMB 120 (CAD$19). Comparatively this was more expensive than our excellent dinners in Shanghai the previous two nights.
We did take something positive out of the experience though -- forget lunch at the mountain top eateries the next day, and grab some packable snacks from the souvenir stores for the hike!
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