Monday, September 21, 2015

CD/成都/04: Mt. Qing Cheng 青城山

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

a short cable car trip towards the top

there was a temple,

Shang Qin Place (上清宮) 

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

Zhang Daqian (張大千) used to

stay here with his families for

2 years during the war

the quarter was labeled and

there is also a small memorial hall for

Zhang Daqian & Xu Beihong

 

A 20 minute walk towards the pagoda

not exactly the peak at 1700 m

but this is the tallest attraction

with a really huge Laozi statute in there

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

upon reaching the top

there’s two choices available

either to just take the previous path

with cable car or to

explore more and

take the longer route

which takes about one and a half hour of

not really pleasant routes

some were really steep

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

obviously the wrong shoes contributed

kept wondering..

Are we there yet? 

Is this the right path?

because there really weren’t many people 

and looked like it was about to rain

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

some folks who were about to

making their way up on the reversed direction

they were asking how long to go too

it took us two hours to descend

wondered if they make it uphill

wondered if they stay overnight in

one of the temples

 

met a group of cyclists aged 40-50+

met an old man with a walking stick

at the really steep path

taking one step at a time

and happened to meet him again

at another temple

back in Chengdu city

the next day

 

the small Taoist temples along the way

some were pretty unique

sorry, I am still wondering too

why didn’t I snap photos

perhaps I have really learnt to

respect and protect cultural relics 

 

some which were built in caves

which gave than sort of

sending a chill down your spine

kinda feeling

I mean literally it was

kinda cold and gloomy in there

 

Quanzhen temple (全真觀) with

double-storey layout consisting of

Hall of 5 Masters (五祖殿) on top and

Hall of 7 Disciples (七真殿) below

I remembered this particularly well because

I was like hey these folks are new to me and

I must really find out more about them

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

first and the final stop

the temple at the entrance to the mountain

made it here by 4:45pm

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

that was how items are carried uphill and

rubbish are carried downhill

don’t litter and even better

try your best to carry along your rubbish

Mount Qing Cheng, Chengdu 成都青城山

 

the mountain is generally divided into two

in terms of a tourist map

on the left: the back,

more natural scenes for the hikers

on the right: the front,

the main focus are the Taoism temples

青城山地圖 Mt Qingcheng map (credit to cd.bendibao.com)

 

glad that we have basically covered

all the spots on the map for the front mountain

 

Mount Qingcheng is really near to

another attraction Du Jiang Yan 都江堰

the irrigation system built 256 B.C.

 

ideally should visit both as

both places are a joint UNESCO world heritage site

 

how to get here:

catch an express bus from Chengdu at

Cha Dian Zi Terminal 茶店子車站

accessible via Metro with

the same station name

 

that will land you at the

high-speed-rail station of Mount Qingcheng 

after a 2 hour journey 

 

I felt kinda cheated actually

because it was written on the bus ticket

directly to the Mountain

from the station catch a town bus

town bus to Dujiangyan is available here too

 

Dujiangyan…

as I saw more folks who

came from Mt. Qing Cheng

were heading there via the other town bus

still feeling slightly guilty, was I

 

believed to the earliest

irrigation system in the world and

sorry to give it a miss due

to time constraint 

 

I don’t know what was going on

I took so little photos

not to mention good photos

 

that was a one fine hike

(partially aided by cable car)

 

1700m, checked

0.5 UNESCO world heritage, checked