Nanshan

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From Seaworld Station exit B, it was a short walk about 5-10 minutes to the entrance to Nanshan Park. I passed a few nice looking apartment blocks. The walk to the start of the trail wasn't too bad, as it was on a nice gently sloping paved road. There were some pretty trees lining the walk with pretty red flowers. It was nice to look at those and made up for the fact there was no view of the surrounding area. I think I must have walked along the path for about ten to fifteen minutes before I reached Longevity Culture Square. This was a nice little square with some kind of rock feature/waterfall that was missing the water and plenty of exercise equipment in the shade. The trail, the No. 1 Climbing Path, started here. It had been quite a while since I'd been on a hike so I had opted for Nanshan as it was pretty small, only a few hundred metres high and is known to be pretty easy.

The hike up wasn't too bad especially for someone as unfit as me. It was just steps all the way up. After only a few metres, I came across a sign warning of snakes and one of the trail branches blocked off. I hope the sign meant that snakes were on that path and not the one I was hiking, but I kept a cautious eye out during my ascent. Happily, I didn't see any snakes. For the first part of the journey upward, there wasn't too much to see as there were trees blocking the views. However, I did start to get glimpses of the city below. Since it was a weekday, the trail was pretty quiet. There were a few other people hiking it, mainly in pairs. I did pass some Koreans and it was nice to hear the Korean language, it took me back. I went slowly and stopped a few times on the way up. There were a few benches so I was able to make the most of those. There was a pagoda to rest in part way up too, but I'd just taken a rest to catch my breath a few metres below it.

I continued on towards the top. There was a new metal set of stairs at one point and next to them the old worn stone steps. I would have liked to have taken the stone steps, but there was a sign further down that seemed to be warning about fines, so I guess it meant stick to the track. Also the higher I got, the better the views got. Although it was a hazy day, I got some good views of Shenzhen below; the city's skyscrapers and the port. I got to the top and headed to the Qitian Pavilion. There were a couple of other people there taking a rest. The pavilion had two floors and I climbed to the top one to take in the views. I really wish that the sky had been clear as I would have liked to have seen Hong Kong in the distance. I made my way back down to the bottom of the pavilion and took a nice rest there, reading and enjoying the breeze.

Once nicely rested, I decided to make my way back down. There were a few different routes. I had thought about continuing on, but since the view was pretty hazy, decided to wait for a clear day. Instead of going back the way I came, I took the other path, which would mean that I had done a loop path. The first part of the path was flat and I noticed that there were street lamps. I want to come back in the future to see the views at night as I think it will look pretty good. After a while, the steps started, but they were rather gentle. I came to another trail, which was closed and I think the sign said it would reopen in April, there were no pictures of snakes on this sign. A bit further on, there was another pavilion to take a rest in, but going down I didn't need to rest as much. The steps did seem steeper heading down though and each section of steps seemed longer. I will have to hike this trail in reverse to see which way I like better. About half way down, there was a viewing platforms that gave you great views of Shenzhen. I preferred the views from here to those from the top. If only I'd known I could have saved myself some exertion. It didn't take too long to get down the trail. The only other thing of note was a pavilion on the trail that had a set of ying and yang Buddhas on its floor. Also there was a nice pattern painted on the pavilion's roof. The end of this trail was only about a hundred metres or so from the Longevity Culture Square, where I'd started the trail. It was a nice hike, not too strenuous and a good reintroduction with some good views. I'm looking forward to hiking it again in the future.

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Photos

Longevity Square
and the start of the trail