Shijiazhuang Tianguishan, early morning dense forest adventure, sunrise, moon, and airplane contrails all in one view
Waiting for me to finish checking in the tourist center, I started to head back to find a place to stay.
On the way here, I saw signs for accommodations in the car, now I'm walking over there to take a look👀
At the crossroads, I saw a rock from Tianguishan, so I checked in here, bidding a temporary farewell to the late Tianguishan as I still needed to head down to find lodging.
But things are never as optimistic as one hopes, all the accommodations and restaurants were closed. Online there were two places to stay, but in reality, there was none, all closed.
At this point, I was anxious, but I kept walking down to see, if all else fails, I would have to sleep on the streets🙇
Along the way, two dogs followed me, in this cold weather I was wary of being bitten. After walking for a while, I encountered a place with dogs (the dog was tied outside), and because this black dog was fiercer than the other two, it scared them away. But for me, this dog was even more frightening, luckily it was tied up, so I hurriedly continued on🚶
Just then, the owner of the dog came out, I thought there was no one around and finally, there was a place to stay, but what the owner said next almost choked me. He said I couldn't stay, it's not possible in winter, there's no water🙇
But there was no one else nearby, this was my only hope, I didn't want to give up just like that. As he was about to go back inside, he casually mentioned going back to drink some alcohol and sleep🙇 I heard this and thought there might be a chance🧐 I said I would join him for a drink, we can talk about the accommodation later😁 (Actually, I don't drink, but for the sake of lodging, I had to go in😂)
Once inside, he started cooking, poured two bottles of baijiu, one cup for each of us. I said I probably couldn't drink this cup, it would be a waste, better you drink more, I'll have less. Then he poured away most of it. At this moment, I could tell he didn't want to waste the alcohol, as a lover of liquor, maybe they are all like this.
Now there was only one-tenth left in my cup, I accompanied him with this little bit. I took a small sip, that feeling, that spiciness, I really couldn't stand it. It's not that I've never had a drop of alcohol since I was young, but I tried it as a child, didn't like it, couldn't stand it, so I haven't drunk it over the years. This time, for the sake of accommodation, I had to try, I had to drink a little. It's my fault for not catching the early bus to Tianguishan at six in the morning. Arriving in the evening, I could only stay overnight😓
While drinking, eating, and chatting, he also cut some pork liver and such. At first, the conversation was quite spirited, he said I could pay whatever I wanted for the stay, whatever I felt like, and then he said he would take me to sneak in tomorrow😂
When it was time to sleep, the alcohol had mostly worn off. In the end, he asked me to transfer a hundred yuan to him, and the sneaking in plan fell through. It meant he didn't have time himself, and then he would leave tomorrow, go back to Shijiazhuang. He worked there, indeed, words spoken while drunk are all nonsense😂😂
The next morning, before six o'clock, it was still dark, I went out. I relied on my vague memory to try to find the sneaking in route he mentioned. He told me it was a small path, so it definitely wasn't the stairway to the ticket checkpoint. Since it was dark, I stepped into many pits and couldn't find it, so I decided to go to the ticket checkpoint and found a narrow road turning left, so I went that way.
This narrow road led to a village, it was too dark, I couldn't see clearly, I only knew that the sun was starting to rise.
Walking through the village, I saw a junction that seemed to lead up, so I went straight through the middle of the village and climbed up. The path was terrible, all woods and branches, it was almost no path at all, it was completely through the forest. Along the way, not only did I have to rely on sticks to climb up to prevent slipping, but my backpack was also scratched by a bunch of branches, leaving several scratches on the outside.
Later, I found a stable place to stand on a rock, rest a bit, and check in. A complete jungle adventure must be recorded🤷♂️
On this dense forest path, it wasn't just about scratching clothes and backpacks, because this was my first time climbing a mountain directly from the woods without any path.
This way, not only did I have to turn around in many places, but I also took many wrong turns, and I also had to use my hands to peel away branches to move forward. The path under my feet was not smooth, not only were there many stones, but the ground was also quite loose, basically climbing two steps and sliding down one, so I changed several sticks to prop myself up.
After the jungle path, I encountered this section of broken stone steps. Although surrounded by weeds, I was very happy because this was the first time I really felt like I was traversing the mountains. All the famous mountains I've climbed before, whether it was stairways, mountain roads, dirt roads, plank roads, iron net roads, glass roads, no matter what kind of road, there was a path to follow, but here it was a complete jungle adventure, squeezing through the trees, and it was still dark.
After climbing for a while, the day gradually brightened. This pure forest exploration was dangerous at every step, but this is what made it feel very worthwhile.
During a rest, I checked in to the sunrise, as well as the moon and airplane contrails, this triple view became the biggest gain of my trip to Tianguishan, it was worth the early morning scrapes with the branches, no regrets🤷♂️
Afterward, I explored further up, but found there was no way to reach the summit, so I had to go down and find another way.
Going down was equally thrilling because I didn't want to go through the slippery forest path I took coming up, and I wasn't sure if I could find my way back because the woods in the mountains all looked the same. After walking around for half a day, I actually got lost because I clearly felt that the direction was not the same as when I came up from the middle of that village. But I had to keep going, and there were many areas with snow and ice, very slippery.
Following this path, I walked for half a day and came across a red sand road, it seemed like I could go down, so I started to descend. I didn't expect that when I went down, I would come to a three-way intersection on the main road. If I had known there was a path on the other side, I wouldn't have had to cross that jungle. Now thinking about it, I'm scared. What if I had slipped down?😓
In summary, my dense forest adventure started from the jungle in the middle of Tianguishan village, exploring upwards, breaking through, and then finding that I still couldn't reach the summit. When I came down, I accidentally walked to another three-way intersection leading to the village exit, the red sand road.
At the exit, I also saw a Bai Mao Nü Art Gallery, but I couldn't go in, I could only check in from the outside🙇