Longqing Gorge
So Saturday was our big daytrip: waking up bright and early (meet outside the library at 7:15 am!) to take a two-hour bus ride 90 km away to nearby Yanqing County, where the wonders of one of northern China's most beautiful natural scenery. Longqing Gorge is a gigantic canyon, a natural wonder carefully built over to affort visitors the maximum amount of "fun" possible, replete with a 70 m high dam (see picture at left) and cascading waterfalls, a 300 m long dragon-shaped escalator (see picture at right) which carries tourists part of the way up the sides of the gorge, a number of panoramic hiking trails, a small buddhist temple (Jingang Temple) and a blessing bell, a 7 km stretch of lake trolled by tourist boats, a series of caves with slick, wet walls, and a large number of tasty restaurants, all of which I went to, in roughly that order. The pictures tell a far better story than I could put into words -- despite being nervous about having to memorize my stupid she hui diao cha bao gao (grumble grumble grumble grrr), I had a ton of fun on Saturday, scaling the mountain with friends, admiring the stunning scenery, giving my lungs a welcome break from Beijing's fairly toxic air, and most of all gazing in awe as we rode the tour boat through the gorge's deep crevasse. It was simply gorgeous, really, truly, unbelievable... the cultural sights of Beijing are obviously unparalleled and very interesting in their own way, but getting away from historical/cultural/otherwise intellectual sight-seeing, getting away from the gritty, hazy city air and the crowded streets was a really welcome change. Enjoy the pictures!
So this was the giant yellow dragon escalator. I was initially a little piqued by the lack of opportunities to "commune with nature" inside the smelly electric bowels of a giant elevator on the side of the mountain. However, my fears were more than allayed by the profusion of stairs and rocky paths higher up on the mountain.
This is the waterfall from the giant dam. The spray coming off this thing was unbelievable. My hair was very, very unhappy with all the mist, but the falls were gorgeous. The funny thing was that one of the teachers (Tian Laoshi, in fact) tried to compare these waterfalls with Niagara Falls, which he's obviously never been to. Now, admittedtly, I've never been to Niagara either, but I have a sneaking suspicion that those falls are just a little bit different from these...
So here are two people on four horses crossing the river below the dam. Very picturesque.
Longqiao Gorge is filled throughout with characters, names, and phrases which have been carved into the sheer rock face and painted red. While I didn't know what all the inscriptions meant, it was still sort of beautiful. They were all traditional (rather than simplified) characters. :)
Pretty Chinese flowers... my friend from Kansas saw me taking numerous shots of the gorgeous scenery and asked if I was also a "nature photographer," and come to think of it, I guess I do tend to take photos which have scenery but no people in them, and certainly no me in them, which is what he said his parents complain about non-stop. I have also received this complaint from friends at home... hmm...
Gorgeous, gorgeous scenery. This was from the boat. It was so unbelievable.
Also on the boat... a pretty pagoda.
Yay! Look! A picture with people in it! From left to right: Kong Manlan, me, Gu Mei'an, and my friend from Kansas whose Chinese name I do not know (bu hao yi si!).
Like I said, the scenery was just breathtaking. I have about 8 thousand (okay, 65) other pictures of this place, but I can only upload so many shots to a single post. Such a fun day trip!
posted by Kelly @ 9:39 下午
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