Hiking in the Wuyi Mountains - Chinese New Year Part 3

Day 2: Hiking in the Wuyi Mountains

The next morning my travel companions and I arrived at the mountains bright and early. I was blown away by how many people were already in the lobby of the park's ticket building. We managed to maneuver our way through the lines and onto trolly to the steepest trail we could find. Colleagues that had come before had told us that the more difficult trails would be much less crowded.

I used the restroom while we were waiting and I was relieved to find a pedestal toilet. I thought these icons were quite amusing.

Number 19 is a western-style pedestal toilet while 20 and 21 are the more common squat toilets.

This was also the first conservation sign I had seen during my short time in China. It would not be the last. Although there we would find litter on the trails, the sanitation infrastructure throughout the entire park was all new and built for efficient water use.

As we set out on the trail we passed tea fields at the base of the mountain. I found it interesting that, even in a national park, the land was used for food production. The fields only added to the serene environment.

My first thoughts upon seeing the mountain were that the stone was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Wuyi Mountain is a Danxia (丹霞) landform. These are raised landforms made up of uplifted bedrock and/or reddish sandstone, characterized by steep, near-barren, verticle cliffs. Danxia landforms are unique to China.

"The region makes up part of the Cathayshan fold system and has experienced high volcanic activity. The formation of large fault structures has been subsequently subject to erosion by water and weathering. Winding river valleys flanked by columnar or dome-shaped cliffs as well as cave systems characterize the landscape. Peaks in the western portion of the Wuyi Mountains typically consist of volcanic or plutonic rocks, whereas red sandstone with very steep slopes but flat tops make up the peaks and hills in the eastern area." - New World Encyclopedia

Soon we found ourselves face to face with one of these vertical cliffs. To my surprise, our path up the cliff was a narrow, stone stairway, formed into the mountain itself.

The stairway was intimidating - but it was sturdy. My biggest concern was the number of people clustering their way up. Many people walked in twos or passed each other on their way to the top. I was amazed when we reached the end of the stairway and no one had fallen.

The oddity of the whole thing really only enhanced the experience. At several lookout points along the way, the view that was afforded took on other-worldly proportions.

Wuyi Mountain and the surrounding town of Wuyishan - 武夷山 Wǔyí Shān /Woo-yee Shan - are also "known" as the 'Military Barbarian Mountain(s)' due to their past as the capital city of Chengcun in the Minyue kingdom. The Minyue kingdom existed from 334 to 110 BCE and was a contemporary of the Han dynasty. The Minyue was eventually conquered by the Han but the geographical nature and remote location of their home ensured that the Han never gained firm control over the people living in the kingdom.

Today, all of the paths on Wuyi Mountain are paved with stone - the norm for Chinese mountains and nature reserves. The Chinese families we hiked with, transversed these trails in beautiful sweaters, pressed slacks or dark jeans, dresses and even heels.

The sites of the park made for gorgeous group photos. I suppose they wanted to be prepared.

I wondered how it was the Minyue scaled these verticle peaks.

As formal and out of place as their attire seemed, the manner in which the local tourists engaged with the mountain was quite something. The mountain was scattered with decorations for the new year and, at the intermittent lookout spots, there were bowls of clementines, likely taken from the trees growing near the railings, and water chestnuts. Several spots had teapots or water. It was not clear whether these things were put there by the park or were brought by the families themselves. The spaces were communal and fluid. The other visitors seemed quite at home and intermingled as if the mountain were an extension of their own backyard.

The tea fields below and the (seemingly) strategic clementine trees above made the Wuyi Mountain feel an active part of the community, as opposed to a historic site whose time had passed. The mountain is a UNESCO heritage site, however, both for its historical significance and unique landforms, as well as its ongoing biodiversity.

"Mount Wuyi is one of the most outstanding subtropical forests in the world. It is the largest, most representative example of a largely intact forest encompassing the diversity of the Chinese Subtropical Forest and the South Chinese Rainforest, with high plant diversity. It acts as a refuge for a large number of ancient, relict plant species, many of them endemic to China and rare elsewhere in the country. It also has an outstanding faunal diversity, especially with respect to its reptile, amphibian and insect species." - UNESCO

The mountains are also home to dozens of ancient monasteries, temples, and altars. The mountains were home to Taoism and Buddhism in the seventh century and would become "the cradle of neo-Confucianism" in the eleventh.

"Mount Wuyi was the cradle of Neo-Confucianism, a doctrine that played a dominant role in the countries of Eastern and South-eastern Asia for many centuries and influenced philosophy and government over much of the world." - <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/911> UNESCO

The trail we hiked was scattered with altars and religious engravings. Each time we would come upon one of these, I felt an almost overwhelming feeling of humility. Here we were, in this gorgeous environment of such natural intensity and among this, we find beautifully carved and preserved symbols of humanity.

Each site was, again, not only a historic monument but an active place of worship.

Prayer pillows and sticks of incense were provided and readily used throughout the trail.

Coming down the mountain on the stone staircases was honestly less unnerving than going up.

In addition to the staircases on the trail, our journey was full of additional stone infrastructure, from doorways and blocked-off stairways to decorative sculpture. It was not clear when these had been built.

All along the way, children placed small sticks under neath the massive boulders, as if to help the rocks stay in place.

We came to a large rest area at the end of our first hike. This area also incorporated itself into the environment in a way that was much more natural and more integrative than the parks I had been to in the US and EU. For the hoards of visitors on the mountain only just today, there was something consistently cozy about the journey.

We did not see any monkeys during our hike - probably because there were so many people. You can go here for a cute baby monkey photo from the mountains.

Our second hike was significantly more flat, strolling through tea fields on the way to the Wuyi Palace temple site.

For whatever reason, on this hike, we had lost the crowds. Possibly because the Chinese tourists were not as taken as we were by the tea fields. There was also a bus directly to the palace site. Either way, we were able to walk in silence, listening only to the birds and running water, for the first time that day.

These floating tree roots were really quite impressive.

We came to a bridge overlooking the Nine-bend Stream - which is actually a river. The water was a breathtaking color of deep blue-green.

It was interesting to consider the health and beauty of this river to the visibly polluted river, the West Chongyang Brook, I had walked along outside the park the day before. The Nine-bend Stream is mentioned in UNESCOS heritage site criteria and has been emphatically photographed. The Chongyang Brook feeds the soil on its banks, scattered with residential vegetable gardens.

We arrived at Wuyi Palace after only about an hour or so on the trail.

This temple was <ahref="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mount_Wuyi#Geology> built in the seventh century, for emperors to conduct sacrificial rituals.

Outside the temple was a small park dotted with sculptures and monuments. It was the perfect place for a short nap in the sun.

As we walked back to the bus stop, feeling both tired and refreshed, I couldn't help but feel, as I still do, how much I had not been able to understand about what we had just seen. Nonetheless, I was already overwhelmed by the experience. My first day of hiking in the middle kingdom had surpassed my expectations and had provided lessons I wouldn't have imagined finding on a 'military mountain of barbarians.'

That night we decided to take the bus into the main part of town and just wander around until we found somewhere that looked good to eat.

We passed tables of food laid out next to the street and dozens of diners, grouped four to six tables at a time, eating outside the small restaurants.

We must have been out a bit too late, though. The restaurant we settled on was out of just about everything we tried to order. On our way home, we did stumble into a group doing a dragon dance for the new year, snaking through the outdoor diners. I would love to upload it but I still haven't seemed to figure out how to get videos on Steemit.