Tanglangshan

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A major hassle had just been removed this weekend. We no longer needed Covid tests for the subway. So to celebrate I decided to head to Tanglangshan to do a small hike. It had been a while since I'd done one, so I picked this as it sounded fairly easy. From Taoyuancun Station it was a short walk to the start of the trail. I don't know if it was because I got there a little later in the morning or because restrictions were being lifted but it was pretty busy. There are two paths up the mountain (from this point): the road or steps. I opted for the steps. There was a guard making people scan in on the healthcode app, but being a foreigner I was ignored (if only this happened more often). The first section of stairs wasn't too bad and it soon levelled out onto a lovely flat walk. It was surrounded by lots of lush greenery and some beautiful purpley-pink flowers hanging from the bushes. This made up for the crappy grey overcast sky. I could have happily kept going on that path forever, but the next, longer sets of stairs soon began. These weren't too bad actually and also because the path was quite crowded there was plenty of opportunities to rest.

After a short while, I got some views of the city below. The view was a sea of high rise apartment buildings and office skyscrapers. There was also a nice patch of flat to walk on, which had trees growing along the path. The trees shaded the path nicely, too. I also passed some interesting looking structures. I wasn't sure if they'd been buildings before and now only the shells were left. The road intersected the hiking trail a couple of times as I was walking up the mountain. I stuck to the hiking trail apart from one point, where you had to take the road. I do despair at people though. Why would you decided to do a photoshoot sitting on the stairs, when lots of people are trying to get past? The next section of stairs were pretty steep. I took me a bit longer with a few more pauses to catch my breath to get up them. The trail ended and for the next part I was walking up the road, which was nice. Since I was now higher up, the views offered a bit more. I could see a pavilion further up and presumed that was the highest point. At the end of the road, there was a flat area and some viewing points so that you could see different parts of Shenzhen. In one direction I could see Shenzhen Bay. Since the sky was so overcast, I couldn't make the New Territories across the bay. In the other direction, I could see the skyscrapers nestled between the mountains. The views were really grey and had a bit of a post-apocalyptic. I think I will have to return on a clear day to get some better pictures of the view.

I saw a set of stairs that lead to the peak. These weren't too steep or difficult. On the way up I got some good views looking down the mountain and the road winding through it. I could also see the city looking grey and murky behind the vibrant green of the mountain. After reaching the top of the stairs, I was quite surprised to see that the peak area was flat and filled with people taking a break and picnicking. There was a lot of room for people to relax. I wandered around the top taking in the view from the different viewpoints before heading back down. I decided to take the road route back down. I liked taking this route back down as I got some different views of the city. While I'd been hiking up, there wasn't much to see in the foreground looking down, but on this route there was more to see. It did seem to take longer to get down than I thought it would. I had expected to be faster as although the route was longer, I didn't have to stop and rest.

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