Day 3 in Yuntai Shan (云台山)

It took us almost 2 and a half hours from Kaifeng to Jiaozou (焦作）where Yuntai Shan (云台山) is located. Before signing up for this tour, my wife and I actually checked around with some other tour agencies but the main difference was NZ Nangfang included Yuntai Shan in their itinerary, while other agencies were not covering this AAAAA mountainous scenic area which was among the first included as World Geological Park.

Entrance of Yuntai Shan

5A national tourist attraction

Ladies cleaning up maize

Prior to signing up to this tour many told us that the tour to Xian was mainly visiting temples apart from the famous Terracotta Warriors. Quite true, if you are going to visit the ancient cities such as Xi-an, Louyang, Kaifeng, which inherent rich history of more than 5,000 years, places of worshiping such as temples surely will be the major attractions as these are the places that were well preserved over time. So including a scenic mountain in the itinerary will be a good idea, breaking the monotonous of seeing temples.

Beautiful waterfalls aplenty

Yuntai Shan didn’t disappoint me but some of the elderly tour mates of us were not able to withstand the approximately 2 hours of walking cum climbing the stairs just to cover the most popular scenic area namely Red Stone Gorge (红石峡). This alone required us to walk up and down for almost 2 hours on a narrow path and steep stairs over-crowded by tourists. Taking photos will be a great challenge as the scenic areas were so crowded that strangers could be blocking you before you could snap a nice view. My friend said that it didn’t worth the effort to walk for so long but for those who do not mind walking; it will be a good experience. Three of our tour mates including one 80-year old auntie and her daughter and one lady who injured her leg didn’t join us and they were sent back to the entrance where there were some souvenir shops.

I would say that the scenery there was splendid, mountain and water combined so naturally and it was so different with the waterfalls that can be seen in our country where we do not have such crystal clear water falling from high cliffs.

There are many other scenic areas in Yuntai Shan such as Tanpu Gorge (潭瀑峡), Quanpu Gorge (泉瀑峡), Cornel Peak (圣顶), Wanshan Temple (万善寺), Baijia Cliff (百家岩), Zifang Lake (子房湖), Macaque Valley (猕猴自然保护区), Qinglong Gorge (青龙峡) and Diecai Cave (叠彩洞), each has its own unique features and beauty but alas because of time factor we only allowed to cover the most popular one and that alone required us to walk for 2 hours. By the way, the ticket allows you to cover all the scenic areas once for the 2 days period and there are busses that ferrying the tourists from one to another scenic areas. If you were to cover all areas, you need a minimum of two days, putting up a night at the resort on the mountain.

Climbing the steep steps

Red cliff