Wuzhishan

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The weather in Sanya was not the best for sun-tanning at the beach so we made plans with Mark who we had met earlier and Cat who we met at the Christmas party to go to Wuzhishan. Wuzhishan itself is a renamed city in the interior of the island about an hour and a half by bus from Sanya. The area is famous for Wuzhishan (or "Five Fingered Mountain") which is in a park not far away. We weren't sure exactly what we were going to do up there but Mark had met an English teacher, Alex from London, who we had plans to meet up with.

Wuzhishan the town is small as far as cities goes but is interesting enough for a visit. The centre of the city hugs a part of a river that grows significantly in size with the rain. The city is in the mountains and is surrounded by forest and has a lot of trees, vegetation and gardens through out. Despite being in the mountains many people had garden plots growing bak choy, radishes and other greens as well as banana trees and papaya. The first night we walked up to the university north east campus to have a look and see if we would run in to any English speaking locals. The campus is a nice spot set on a hill above the city with an impressive Chinese style arched roof.

We met Alex at the local eatery and hang out near our hotel. We got there by walking down a poorly lit set of steps, the kind you say to yourself, “this is a little sketchy”! At the bottom of the steps the surroundings weren’t much better. Nicknamed the "Dungeon" by Mark it is a large open area like a parking lot but with BBQ stands, pool tables, tables for eating with laid back couches and of course pink lawn chairs. The floor was covered with a black grime from years of cigarette ash and BBQ refuse and accompanied by the occasional furry friend scurrying by. Despite the grim picture we had a tableside Bar-B-Q that we could choose from marinated lamb, pork and beef kebabs, tofu, mushrooms, and the favourite bar-b-q’d dried squid dipped with wasabi that was a salty snack that went with beer.
Apparently according to the boys the bathroom was one of a kind. Sounds disgusting when Alex says you see rats running around as you do your business. I don't need to describe more, just use your imagination or you can confirm this with Geoff. For what ever reason, the Dungeon became our watering hole for three nights in a row. That night we made plans to hike Wuzhishan.
When we woke up it was raining. We got up anyway and went for a bowl of hot beef noodle soup made by a young Muslim teenager in a shop right beside the hotel and waited for the hiking crew to arrive. It was great watching him fold the dough, and then stretch the dough as long as his arms could reach, again and again between his fingers until the dough became individual strands. He’d make a loop of noodles, pinch off one end and plop them into boiling water. He did it so quickly and with practiced skill, I could watch him all day. I probably had about six bowls of noodles in the three days we were there. As the day grew later we decided to postpone our Wuzhishan hike because of the rain. Instead we decided to search for a Li village which were said to scatter the hills around the city. We had some basic instruction to hike up behind the university campus. We followed a narrow road, surprisingly paved that wound up the mountain. It past Banana and Betel Nut plantations and looked above the forested valley below. We followed the trail for about 3 hours to a dam that created the Wuzhishans’ reservoir. At the top was a small building complex with nobody around. A little disappointed we headed back down. Then somebody spotted a scooter heading across the dam. Realizing that the road must continue across the dam we got the spirit to keep going. This time we crossed the grassy part of the dam and we think this is where Mark caught a nasty little leach that came along for the ride. The road hugged the reservoir and was lined with bamboo groves and after several kilometers and a lot of twists the forest opened up to a small valley bright green with young rice shoots.

The village and farm was a nice reward for our persistence. The neatly made terraces of rice, along with cabbage, cane plots and peas were really beautiful. Two quaint groups of houses were right in the middle. We continued into the village that the road led up to. The pavement went right inside, there was even electricity and a small school. The houses were pretty small but neatly arranged. We didn’t see too many villagers because it was raining and I am not sure how welcome we were. However, we did see some curious eyes looking out from a few windows and we shared a smile with a young lady and possibly her grandmother. We didn’t stay long but snapped some pics of two cute and curious youngsters sneaking a look out from there home.

Having made it to the village we all felt satisfied with our hike and rewarded for being wet. Mazi beginning to feel her back managed to negotiate a deal to hop on the back of a motorcycle of one of the villagers heading in to town for 5 RMB. That night the bbq was even tastier and so was the beer. Later, Cat and I still heard the mountain calling so we convinced Alex that we would climb Wuzhishan the next day rain or shine.

The next morning, after two bowls of noodles ( I knew I would need a full stomach) I (Geoff) met Cat and Alex at the bus station. We caught a bus that took us into the mountains, near a steep river canyon, past dense forest, rice paddies, and water buffalo to a small but tidy little town. Alex, who I forgot to mention spoke Mandarin, negotiated with some local motorbike drivers to take us to the foot of the mountain. So we all hopped on board the backs of our bikes and hung on as we cruised up the windy road up to the mountain. A great way to start the day off!

The mountain trail, although well defined, headed in to the bush right away. Alex set a stiff pace and Cat and I trudged after him shaking off the morning cobwebs. The course ran its way up a fairly vertical path right away and didn't relent almost all the way to the top. The rain was with us the entire way. Even though the canopy was thick the brush was dense and we often had to duck under bamboo groves and other trees all the while thinking and looking out for snakes which potentially lurked nearby. My first big rainforest hike was not a disappointment. The forest had interesting and large trees and plants. At one point we heard a really strange sounding bird. In some points the trail climbed over a few small rock faces that required ladders. It made for an extra element of nervousness in the sopping wetness. Another thing I didn't really get use to was looking over an edge and seeing only a bright white backdrop behind the forest because of the clouds which I knew potentially was an undeterminable drop.

Finally we made it to the top of the fourth finger. The clouds had not let up so our view wasn’t great. We continued on another 25 minutes down the other side of the fourth finger through a misty valley and then up to the fifth and highest finger to the top of Wuzhishan. Alex who had been to the top five times before described the view as impressive so we used our imaginations. We didn't stay long as it was cool and we were wet. I was impressed by the other determined hikers most of which were less prepared than us.
It was an even longer trip down as it was difficult negotiating the muddy trail that writhed with twisty tree roots and sharp rocks not to mention the slippery ladders. We escaped with just a couple scrapes, one leach and a bunch of mud. Luckily there was a pool at the bottom which we used to clean off. Alex arranged for our drivers to pick us up and they were waiting for us at the bottom by the time we arrived so it was a quick and smooth ride back to the village. Here I picked up a metre long piece of cane to munch on for the ride back to Wuzhishan (the city).

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Photos

Wuzhishan
Temple Wall

Wuzhishan
Temple

Wuzhishan
Wet hike up to the Li village

Wuzhishan
Plenty of misty forest and mountains

Wuzhishan
looking down at a hillside plantation

Wuzhishan
Li village hike, first point we almost turned around climbing the reservoir dam

Wuzhishan
Yep, I'm wet!

Wuzhishan
Reservoir Lake