Hengshan Mountain peak

Rem Sapozhnikov / August 2016

«Oh! I have to climb up by that winding path to a pavilion and I'm on top.». That's what I thought, and I was wrong twice. First, this path was closed. I had to go along the slope to another path. Second, this pavilion is not on the top, but this is what I found out later.

Map of Hengshan Mountain.
↑ Click for detailed view ↑

A great view opens from the path along the slope.
Here, by the way, the entrance tickets to the mountain were checked.

This beautiful landscape is enough, to not regret to come here.

103 steps to the Hengzong Temple (恒宗殿 - Héngzōng diàn).

Hengzong Temple – the most important on the Northern Mountain (another name of Hengshan Mountain).
Built in the period from 424 to 451.

Other names of this temple: Zhenyuan (真元殿 - Zhēnyuán diàn), Yuanling (元灵殿 - Yuánlíng diàn) and Chao (朝殿 - Cháo diàn).

A stone stele within the pavilion Yubei (御碑亭 - Yùbēi tíng). Emperor Kangxi wrote on it 化垂悠久. I am not sure with correct translation.

From the pavilion, which can be seen from the upper station of the cableway (1st photo), to the top of Hengshan Mountain you have to go by the ridge. A very strong side wind was on the day of my ascent.

In this picture at the right middle you can see the roof of the pavilion, which I, looking up from the upper cableway station, mistook for the peak. It turned out that from it to the peak still to go on and on.

This homeless dog was wandering on the top of the mountain.
Offered her cookies, but she did not eat.

Only at sunset I began to descend the mountain by taxi. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to go to Yingxian to see the oldest and tallest wooden pagoda in China. The road from the lower cable car station to the foot of the mountain was packed with a solid stream of trucks. Half a kilometer tunnel on the way was a branch of hell, filled with trucks' roaring and exhausts. The Hanging Monastery parking was empty and deserted. Hengshan, cute and colorful tourist destination during the day, at night transforms into a dark industrial zone. The trucks were stuck in the place where the road begins to climb up the mountain. I counted more than 100 of them before I got bored.