This is part 3 of my series Christmas in China
I grew up in the countryside and I’m definitely a country boy at heart. I love to get away from the roads, noise and crowds of city life and lose myself in the wilderness. In the novel and film Lost Horizon, Shangri-La is a place to escape from modern society. I guess that’s why I was so attracted to Shangri-La when I heard that it’s the name of a real place and why I dedicated two weeks to traveling across China in the heart of winter to get there.
This is what I was thinking about as I sat alone on the pine-needle covered floor of the mountainside eating duck jerky and watching the view; nothing around me but trees and snow.
Looking out from my seat 500m up Cangshan mountain I had a fantastic view of Erhai lake: the source of the Mekong river. I could also see the famous ancient three pagodas – which I had visited the previous day – and the ancient walled city of Dali where I was staying in a hostel.
The only reason I had chosen to stop in Dali because it is a city that is easy to reach by train from Kunming and directly south of Shangri-La. I had seen online how Dali has an ancient citadel outside the modern city – like a Chinese Carcassonne – the stone streets lined with alluring street food. However, as soon as I had arrived in Dali and seen how Cangshan loomed over all the streets I knew that I would have to climb the mountain.
Dali itself is at an altitude of nearly 2000m (higher than any peak in the UK) but Cangshan touches heaven at over 4000m! The previous night the owner of the hostel had pulled out all his torn old maps and laid them out on the floor of the deserted common room. I was the only guest for the whole week. The maps hadn’t been any help; they’re not maps for hikers and only approximately where various tourist sites were.
I left the hostel early in the morning so that I had maximum daylight hours to reach the summit. After visiting a corner-shop for supplies: lunch and water, and a zaodian for a filling breakfast of baozi, I headed to where I thought the path up the mountain should start according to a blog I found on Bing. There’s no Google in China and the available English-language internet is very limited. I went up a few dead-ends thanks to that blog but eventually with the help of openstreetmap I found a footpath that would take me onto the mountain. Then it should have been a simple case of going upwards, right?
This path was guarded by a couple of old men. I think they were fire wardens. They told me that I couldn’t pass. I talked to them for a while and I don’t know what I said to convince them but after signing my name and declaring that I didn’t have a lighter on me they eventually let me passed onto the mountain. The blog I had read said that you need to pay to enter the mountain area but nobody had asked me for money.
I walked through what seemed to be a wooded graveyard then the graves ended and the path got steeper. The going was very pleasant with dappled sunlight coming through the trees and no other people around. This is what I left the city to do; get some peace and some nature. I felt very mindful, maybe even spiritual! Perhaps I was just lightheaded from the altitude…
After climbing only a few hundred meters I reached a wide, flat stone path contouring the mountain. The path I had come on continued up the mountain but was blocked with barbed wire and some angry looking signs. I came here for an adventure, not to walk on something flat and paved. In places there was even generic folk music playing from low fidelity speakers.
I consulted the map for another path that went up and walked around the stone path until I found it. However this was also blocked, and so was the third path. I ended up walking the entire length of this stone path and there was no further path up the mountain. On my way I passed a few walkers as well as some people collecting an entry fee at the top of some steps. They ignored me because I was already on the mountain and I think they assumed I’d already paid. I seem to have inadvertently found a backdoor onto the mountain.
The route around the stone path was nice in it’s own way even if it wasn’t to my taste. It goes in and out of folds in the side of the mountain created by streams. Each stream had a little pagoda. On the south side of each fold the day was getting quite hot and I removed my warm gloves and woolly hat but on the north side of each fold it was very cold and there was even snow! Back on went the gloves and woolly hat.
It is possible to get the the summit of the mountain by cablecar but I think they have closed all the paths despite the fact that they look very old and well trodden. I was very disappointed that I was stopped from attempting to reach the top and out of spite refused to take the cablecar. I’ve seen on the map that the other side of the mountain has what looks like a road which might be for cablecar maintenance. I was told that it might be possible to walk up that way during the summer.
After deciding to give up and go back I headed back down the path I came up. I eventually passed the old men fire wardens again who recognised me and gave me a wave; I suppose they don’t have many people coming this way.
By the time I got back to the old town the sun was setting. Time to pass through the ornate gate in the city wall and dine on the delicious street food and soak up the atmosphere.
It wasn’t a bad day by any means but what I’d really wanted to do was to lose myself in the wilderness for a while. I’m starting to learn that this is more difficult here in Asia than in Scotland. At least the food is better here.
Eastward Ho! 