Weekend trips around Beijing

  Beijing, China
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Armed with my "Hiking around Beijing" bible, I met with my friend Jonathan to explore the Silver Mountain area, about 2 hours north-east of Beijing. The day was cold but beautiful; azure blue skies, warm sunshine and fresh clean air (so I think). It was perfect. I came to think about my stay in Beijing; all concrete and steel, traffic and people jams, and polluted air and no greenery. However, the Beijing countryside has quite a view green spots to offer which I am planning to explore on many weekends to come.

We took the bus to Changping town where we first had a hearty lunch of yummy noodels and then catched a little minibus to the next intersection. Yep, traveling by bus into the country side is the way to mingle with the country folk. Not many foreigners are taking public transport; they either go by tour bus or have their own or embassy cars to take them from A to B. We waited a while for bus 31 and after negotiating a price with a private driver (18Yuan for 18 km), we headed into the Silver Mountain, to Humen Village.

There are about 5 pagodas in more or less respectable condition which are all dedicated to influential monks or teacher during various dynasties. The pagodas themselves are in the lee of a couple of small mountains, beautiful with spring blossom, pine trees, and those unusual rock formations of which traditional Chinese paintings are full. They are interesting in themselves - not least because, though built several hundred years apart, they look identical. On the climb to the top, one comes across a handful of of those useful Chinglish signs that always make me smile.

Signs from Silver Mountain

On the way to the top, we passed a view lookouts and a hug bell which I shall call the "lucky bell". You can ring the bell 10 times, each count has a different meaning, such as happiness, health, money, etc. If you ring the bell 10 times, you will have a happy year. Once on the top of the mountain, the wind was strong and cold enough to leave us breathless and only lingering for about 5 minutes. On the way, I got adventerous and decided to bushwack through the mountains and into the village. Poor Jonathan, he had never done bushwalking before but as he is a non-complainer, he went for it and now wants more. So, after we get the right hiking equipment we will be out there venturing off-the-beaten track. We got to the village and discovered that there many families who offer homestays and home cooking. Since I had plans for saturday night, we couldn't stay in the village but vouched to come back to it another time. The surrounding mountains offer hiking possibilites galore.

During my research on Silver Mountains, I came across a useful web site of
Foreign Correspondents blogs.