Scenic Golden Week

Where have we seen that name before?

The view from the top of Qinglong Gorge
looks a little like the view from
Grand Canyon's North Rim.

With school out for the holiday week, we have had plenty of time to see the sights of Yuntaishan and JC.  In fact, we have seen more of Yuntaishan than some of our guides!  And because Golden Week is so busy at Yuntaishan, our guides took us to some lesser-visited areas of the park.  Our first day back at Yuntaishan we visited Qinglong Gorge, aka 'Black Dragon Valley'. Apparently, Qinglong Gorge also goes by another name: Grand Canyon!  That name sure sounds familiar...

AJ and Belinda enjoy the
cable car ride down.

The best way to enjoy Qinglong Gorge is from the bottom.  Like arriving at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of Grand Canyon, there are only two ways to the bottom of this gorge.  Unlike Phantom, only one of the options here is hard. You can walk.  Or you can ride a cable car. Hmm.  What to do?  As much as we wanted to walk, we quickly came up with excuses to ride the cable cars.  "My knee hurts."  "I don't have enough snacks."  "We walked a lot yesterday." More importantly, our guides seemed pleased with our decision!

L to R: Belinda, Emily, AJ, Sherry, and
Megan at one of many waterfalls.

Quivering with anticipation like 5 year olds, we went down.  WHEEE!  It was a long, peaceful ride.  Our knees didn't hurt and we didn't run out of snacks!  At the bottom of the gorge, we walked on a stone path meandering along a creek.  The paths here are highly-developed sidewalks, not at all like the trails we usually hike!  The creek had several waterfalls and the views had some serious limestone cliffs, not unlike the limestone layers at Grand Canyon. After our stroll along the creek, we rode the cable car back up.  From that vantage we saw the walking path we could have taken.  And were we ever glad we didn't take it!  Taking the easy way out isn't always a bad thing...

The hike up!  So glad we made
excuses to ride the cable car!

The following day we visited another Yuntaishan scenic area: Fenglin Gorge.  

The lake at the bottom of Fenglin Gorge.

A floating temple or a boat?

Newly opened to visitors within the last year, Fenglin Gorge can only be reached by foot.  We walked down another paved trail with many steps.  No cable cars this time!  Our excuses of aching knees and growling stomachs wouldn't work two days in a row so we hoofed it down the path.  It really wasn't bad at all and the morning was beautiful!  Arriving at the bottom, we climbed aboard a boat that took us on a tour of a dammed lake.  What we learned from the tour guide's translation is that many of the rock formations in the gorge look like sleeping maidens, old men, ink quills, and Jabba the Hutt. 

AJ geared up and ready to go!

The boat tour lasted only so long before the inevitable came: the climb out.  We walked on a two-mile staircase from the bottom of Fenglin Gorge to the top.  These Grand Canyon rangers are much happier going up trail than down.  Our poor guides, though!  They asked if Fenglin Gorge, like Qinglong Gorge, will ever have a cable car.  In fact, one should be finished by this time next year. What a difference in visitor experiences between Yuntaishan and Grand Canyon!

There is a sleeping maiden somewhere amongst those rocks.

The scenic areas here are amazing and in many ways similar to Grand Canyon.  Yet, the two parks have some remarkable differences, mostly characterized by different visitor experiences.  With our familiarity with US national parks, it is fascinating to see how parks are operated here.  With our sister park relationship, we hope we can benefit from Yuntaishan's ideas and they can benefit from Grand Canyon's!