Hiking through Mt. Qing Cheng | 青城山

During my trip to Chengdu, we went out to Qing Cheng Shan for a day trip to hike up the mountain as well as experience some of the food in Qing Cheng Shan Town. Qing Cheng Shan Town is just over an hour drive from the Chengdu. Qing Cheng Shan Town was a quiet town where we stopped for lunch and had a dry wonton & noodles with some pickles. Wontons in China are truly something else they really are quite juicy and flavoursome. Food was not the primary purpose of the trip.

Following this we hopped back in the car off to one of the entrance points at 青幽街青城山 邮政编码. Before heading up to the mountain I strongly recommend bringing some water / snacks and wearing comfortable shoes for hiking. The path is concreted / stone path all the way, however, if it has been wet recently it may be slippery and easy to miss your step. From the gate as with several tourist attractions in China, we hopped on the electric bus to take us to the entrance. During regular hours the road up to the main entry Qingcheng Qianshan 倾城 千山 is restricted to the electric bus outside of the opening hours it is open to the general public.

Once we purchased our admission tickets, we approximately 1.5KM to the Ropeway on the other side of Yuecheng Lake. To save some walking you can opt to take the ferry across the lake.

Something I never realised until I came to Qing Cheng Shan was there will never be shortage of food available for you to buy if you get hungry along the way. On the trip there appeared to be a lot of different cured meats available to eat.

After walking around the Yuecheng Lake we lined up to go on the Ropeway. This took us a fair way up the mountain to Buyun Gallery Station a short walk from the Ciyunge Pavilion and Shangqing Temple. The Shangqing Temple is at 1,180m elevation. We headed to the top Peak of Qing Cheng Shan - Laojun Pavilion situated at 1,260m elevation. The walk through the mountain helps gain some understanding of the roots of Taoism as well as learning about artists that lived in Qing Cheng Shan such as Xu Beihong. Artists like Xu Beihong have mentioned they received inspiration from the surrounds of Qing Cheng Shan which really shows what a special place it is. When you walk up the mountain and the legs start to ache and force you to slow down, you really start to appreciate the beauty and serenity that is Qing Cheng Shan - a mountain surrounded by lush green forests with temples in the least expected places. For some better ideas for when you make your trek, I have included the map below of some of the parts we visited.