China-2023: Langshan, pt. 4 – Bajiaozhai (very hao)!

Still at Langshan, there was one more mountain par excellence for us to check out – Bajiaozhai. And yes – it’s tricky to pronounce in any language, I’m sure!

And… how/why par excellence? Here’s how/why ->

These are the views from its peak ->

And the Buddhist temple up there is equally charming:

As per – the trusty brown (exhaustive) information board tells us all we need to know ->

Though there’s a cable car normally runs up the mountain, it was closed due to there being so few tourists. At least that’s what we were told – we think )…

All righty. We’ll make the climb on foot – along the yellow path shown here on the map ->

Off we pop. Yikes: up there?! ->

For the lazy less able-bodied tourist, one can go on horseback:

But we went by foot – as we always do…

Our destination for the day gradually gets nearer and nearer, but oh-so slowly! ->

Only half-way up, and the views all around already – fantastic:

It was half-way up this mountain when I wondered just how many steps we’d climbed (and descended) in recent days. Ten thousand? Fifteen? Whatever – thank god goodness Buddha Confucius they were well-built, sturdy ones ) ->

Almost there…

We make it – in just under an hour:

The views all around from the different viewing decks are breath-taking – especially since there are hardly any tourists about getting in the way! ->

A few tourists (exclusively Chinese) were caught on camera, but not often:

We strolled about up around the peak for nearly two hours…

Two Chinese TikTokers… TikToking. Is that how the kids call it? ) ->

The TikTokers sure chose the right spot ->

Btw: here‘s the peak of Bajiaozhai on Google Maps.

And now it’s time to bring out come the big guns lenses. DZ always has a super-zoom lens in his rucksack somewhere…

In one direction there’s this ->

…which isn’t the province we came from (Hunan); it’s Guizhou, whose caves I checked out just this summer (2023) ->

I bet that’s a freshly-built hotel, since the nearest decent lodgings are those to be found in the city of Xinning (where we stayed), and that’s a good distance away (~50km).

To the Guizhou side all the paths looked completely empty too ->

Another mountain – another path hugging its cliff-face, naturally ->

Village; what a wonderful place to live! ->

There’s a Buddhist temple up at the peak. A meditative stroll in its grounds was most pleasant – made all the better for its being tourist-less:

Photography isn’t permitted inside the temple, but it is in the grounds – as you can see ->

Arhats – the enlightened ones (the one on the right reminded me of one of our high-profile employees!) ->

Here’s a more modern historical object – a well of the Chinese Red Army. Apparently in the bad-old (or good-old – you decide) days some kind of super-heroic march took place around here, back when there were no roads, and the pilgrims drank at this very well. Next to it – seemingly incongruous (but what do I know?:) Buddhist candles and altarage. Well, why not?!…

The cable car – spookily silent and motionless as if after an apocalypse! ->

The temple on top, and with the state flag – no doubt due to the heritage status of the Red Army well next to it ->

The color red: the favorite color of the Chinese – as seen in the state flag and Buddhist ribbons. Harmonious! ->

Pink as a color is becoming popular too – especially among the TikTok generation ->

And that was that; time to be heading back.

A few PS pics ->

Down we go ->

By the time we reached the bus stop we’d been walking up and down and around for a good three hours. We’d have liked to have had longer, but we were getting tired so three hours in the end hit the sweet spot.

A few PPS photos ->

The rest of the China-2023 pics are here.