Yellow Mountain II: from sunrise to sunset(2)
Years worth of friends and couples in love have brought their padlocks to the top of Yellow Mountain. The safety chains and rails are hidden beneath thousands of them.
To my huge disappointment, the path leads on only another few hundred enticingly beautiful meters before it ends in a large, locked gate. A security officer keeps watch and mutters that it won't re-open until spring.
So I must backtrack along the cliff edges, through the tunnels that squeeze between the rocks, up and down the narrow flights of steps. I am overwhelmed by this tiny taster of the West Grand Canyon Route and am left with nothing but my imagination to conjure up how amazing the full route might be.
Reservoirs and Flying Rocks
Fortunately the summit area is big and beautiful enough to keep anyone occupied for at least a day of walking and exploring. Photographers especially love it here, with the combinations of pure light, spectacular scenery and mountainous vistas.
I walk a considerable way, taking a route that first leads me around the Xihai Reservoir before passing the intriguingly named Flying over Rock.
The reservoir is nestled in a large valley surrounded by pine trees and hills. The water is a rich turquoise and with the sun streaming down through the trees it seems remarkable that I am in fact on top of a mountain.
Flying over Rock is actually a 12m high, 544 tonne piece of rock that is balanced on a very small ledge. A flight of steps leads to the ledge and less than 10 people can fit on it at any one time. It's a tight space edged with terrifying drops and thankfully guarded with man-made safety rails.
Typical of Yellow Mountain's improbable and extravagant natural beauty, Flying over Rock is a mini pilgrimage site for summit walkers to flock to, have their photos taken and move on. I naturally follow suit!
The Northern Route via the Taiping Cable Car
I didn't even know there was a Northern Route at Yellow Mountain, but when I arrive by chance at Red Cloud Station, I decide to check it out. I don't have time to walk down and take the cable car back, so I have no other choice but to rest my legs and go for the easy option.
The Taiping Cable Car runs infrequently in winter, once an hour, and accommodates a large amount of people. Therefore I'm ushered into a waiting room that just happens to be furnished in unexpected splendor with an air-conditioning machine set to 30C. It is the warmest, most comfortable episode in my whole journey.
Half an hour later and I'm more than a little reluctant to make my way, with 20 other passengers into the cable car. The 20 minute ride is not for those with a fear of heights as we swing out and down over dizzying drops. The mountain underneath us is a mixture of vertical cliffs and gushing waterfalls. In the distance, the towns are ridiculously tiny, and look like model villages scattered on the land.
An Old Monastery and the Emerald Pool
The bottom of the Northern Route offers little in the way of exploration and unless you're going that way, or particularly enjoy cable car rides, it doesn't warrant the 100 yuan to get there. Nevertheless it makes for a quiet spot to enjoy a late lunch and admire the crystal clear waters of the Emerald Pool.
There's an old monastery that is picturesque but appears to be in a state of quiet collapse. A man is busy farming the land in front of it, but otherwise there isn't another person. I follow the rushing sound of the water down through the familiar land-based terrain of bamboo groves whose giant green stems are in stark contrast with the bare mountain colors.
The waters in the stream are gleaming and I can see the rocks at the bottom as though there is nothing but a pane of blue-green glass between them and my eyes. Giant boulders crowd and direct the stream from tumbling cascade to deep pool and ever downwards. Many of the rocks are carved with poems and inscriptions and it is near one decorated with a Buddhist figure that I stop for something to eat.
